To have a presentation that’s easy to follow and easy to understand-which should be any speaker’s objective-there needs to be a clear sense of organization. The beauty of a well-organized talk is it not only helps the audience follow along and stay with you, but it also helps you stay on track and not lose your train of thought.

The simplest, yet most powerful, tool for organizing and delivering your thoughts logically and coherently is the “talk template.”

Here’s an outline and explanation of the elements of the template. Note it’s divided into three parts. But it’s not three equal parts. Like the famous sandwich of the comic strip character Dagwood, all the meat is in the middle. The intro and conclusion serve to hold it all together, to add a little flavor and interest, but the body is the meat of your talk-it’s what you’ve got to say.

I. INTRODUCTION: The introduction sets the stage, establishes your credibility, gets your momentum going, and makes the audience want to listen to you. Two components:

A.    Hook: get the audience’s attention. Reel ‘em in. A great hook will make the audience take notice and want to listen to you. Possible hooks include: an anecdote, story, prop or visual, question, quotation, startling statement.

B.     Reason to Listen: Tell the audience how they’ll benefit from your talk. How will it will make them happier, safer, more successful, make their jobs easier, make their wallets thicker?

II.             BODY: This is the meat of your talk. Here is where you present your main ideas in a logical order and explain and elaborate on each point as much as your time limit allows. It’s composed of:

A.    Road Map: Just as a map on a road trip helps you know where you’re going, a road map for your talk lets the audience know where you’re going to take them. It makes it easier for them to follow along. This is the same thing as the classic speech adage, “Tell ‘em what you’re going to tell ‘em.”

B.     Main Points: Identify your main ideas-usually about three to five-and chose the most logical way to order them.

• Topical-your main points are arranged by particular topics.
• Chronological-your main points follow a natural sequential flow, such explaining a recipe.
• Spatial-your points are arranged according to geography, such as reports about the North, South, East and West divisions; or a description of a room, a building, a city.
• Problem-Solution-you explain the problem you encountered, then describe how you solved (or propose to solve) it.

III.    CONCLUSION: The ending of your talk is important because it’s your last chance to make a good impression. To be effective, it should have two elements, plus note how the Q&A is inserted:

1. Summary: bring it all home, wrap it all up, deliver one final gem that embodies the essence of what you’ve said.
2. Q&A. In order preserve the impact of your close, consider opening the floor for questions before you deliver your closing. After your Q&A session, you deliver your closing statement.
3. Closing: bring the talk to a definitive and memorable end. You can use the same tools in closing as in your hook: an anecdote, story, prop or visual, quotation.

A final thought about your template. Don’t write it out word for word. Instead, outline it with key words and bullet points-enough to keep you on track, but not so much that you feel the need to read them. This will enable you to be conversational and natural, a great attribute of a compelling speaker.

Learning how to overcome fears of public speaking has never been so tough when you do it alone. The good news is that there is presentation training out there to help with all of your public speaking needs. This is something that a lot of people might think about joining, but then back down because it is a class and there is a fee. But both of these things are well worth it when comparing it to not being prepared in front of a very large crowd.

Learn some of the techniques used to overcome public speaking fears when it comes to the classroom, and learn how to be a wonderful speech presenter.

1. Speaking in front of your class. This is something that is going to make you nervous, but it has to be done, and it can help you overcome your fears of public speaking at the same time.

2. Concentration and relaxation. There are techniques used to calm the nerves when you have to do something scary. Learning these techniques can help you prepare for a large presentation you have coming up. This is something that will relax the mind and body and get you on the right track.

3. Writing a wonderful speech. Without a great speech, you will not feel at your best when it comes to presenting it to a large crowd of people. You want to make sure you know how to write the best speech out there so when the time comes, you’re confident enough to present it to your audience.

Presenting speeches is something a lot of people do not want to do publicly, so they tend to stay away from it. Although, there are people out there who will have to do it no matter what they have going on at the time. This is something that presentation training can help you with. Overcome your fears, and learn how to make the best speech without having to worry about messing up or being a failure.

You can be confident when the time arrives, relax yourself, and even get the reaction from your audience that you want. Some of us are born to speak in front of large crowds, while others would rather not. Getting the best help out there if you’re one of the latter group is essential well in advance to the presentation that you have to do in public.

One of the ways to cultivate these skills is to enroll in a sales presentation training program. These presentation skills courses provide guidelines that will help you in making successful sales presentations. They have experienced faculty to help train their students.

They also provide an opportunity to each student to practice during the sessions. This way, the students get a practical experience as well. They give students content and homework assignments that give them a chance to employ their acquired skills immediately. These courses also have a role playing session wherein the students get a feel of how they would have to perform and what difficulties they may face.

Those of you who opt for such a training course will learn the importance of making effective presentations. You will also learn how to use various techniques to get the desired results. You will be taught the working of different visual aids and the manner in which you can create effective slide presentations. These courses enable you to overcome your nervousness and deliver your presentation with confidence to inspire trust.

However, many institutes that offer sales presentation training courses take a specific time period before the program ends. To save this time, you can remember some of these tips that will definitely help you in improving your sales presentation skills.

Control your body language

During your sales pitch, make sure that you hold your body correctly. Your body language communicates a tremendous amount of information to the audience about your personality. If you show confidence in your body language, facial expressions and stance, you will be able to impress your prospects even more. The confidence of your body will motivate them to build a trust in whatever you say, resulting in good sales.

Become an enthusiastic leader

As a sales person, it is your job to lead your prospects into buying what you are selling. They are listening to you to get something from you. Therefore, if you want the audience to get excited about your service or product, create this emotion within yourself first. Do anything that excites you. Clap your hands, jump up and down. This would become a warm up for your presentation.

Prepare the prospects

You have to prepare your audience for the presentation.You can play some kind of music, depending on the audience you are going to address, before you step on the stage. This will act as an emotional warm up that will set the mood of the audience.

Following these tips can help you make a commendable sales presentation. If the mood is set and the preparations are made, there will never be a doubt of you giving a memorable presentation.