Your values, your story, your brand image, your products... All these elements make your company unique! And they must also inspire your professional presentation.
To multiply your sales and appear as a recognized brand in your target market, it's absolutely essential to create a convincing and informative presentation of your company. Here's a guide to help you do just that.
Table of contents
- What is a company presentation?
- What are the components of a company presentation?
- How do you start working on a corporate marketing presentation?
- How do you give an oral presentation of your company?
- How do you present your company in writing?
- Pitch deck: Presenting your company in 3 to 6 minutes
- The importance of a great company presentation
What is a company presentation?
A company presentation is a formal communication tool designed to provide an overview of a business. It will generally include key information such as the company's mission, history, products or services, market position, and achievements, with some elements being similar to what you might find on the "About us" page of a website.
When you become a business owner and build your brand, you'll find that this presentation can be used to engage potential investors, clients, or new employees, showcasing your company’s strengths, goals, and strategies. It serves both as an informational resource and a promotional tool to foster connections and support business growth.
What are the components of a company presentation?
A company presentation typically includes several key components to effectively communicate the business's profile and objectives:
- Introduction: This section introduces the company, often including the founding date, the founders' names, and the company’s location.
- Mission and vision statements: These articulate the company's purpose and its aspirations for the future, giving viewers a clear idea of the business's goals.
- Company history: A brief overview of significant milestones and achievements that highlight the company’s evolution and growth.
- Products or services: Detailed information about the products or services offered, focusing on features, benefits, and potential customer value.
- Market analysis: Insight into the industry, competitors, and target audience. This can include market trends, demographic data, and the company’s market share.
- Business model: Explanation of how the company generates revenue, including pricing strategies, sales channels, and customer engagement approaches.
- Financial performance: Overview of financial data such as revenue, profit margins, and significant financial milestones. This might be more detailed in presentations to investors.
- Strategic goals and future plans: Description of short-term and long-term objectives, upcoming projects, or expansion plans.
- Team overview: Profiles of key team members, especially leadership, to establish credibility and showcase the expertise behind the company.
- Case studies or testimonials: Real-world examples of how the company has successfully served its customers or clients, or testimonials to build trust and validate the quality of the company’s offerings.
- Contact Information: Clear and accessible contact details to facilitate follow-up or further engagement from the audience.
Each component is designed to build a comprehensive picture of the company, tailored to the interests of the presentation’s specific audience, whether they're potential clients, investors, or partners.
How do you start working on a corporate marketing presentation?
Creating a powerful, dynamic sales pitch is not something you can improvise! Preparation is essential. And every slide counts!
Define your company's mission, values, and vision
Every company is different, and every company has a mission. Your company's vision and values are fundamental pillars. Clearly defining them enables you to more accurately assess the context in which you operate.
Identify the company's strengths and weaknesses
Likewise, every structure has its strengths and weaknesses. Even if you're doing your best, it's a good bet that this applies to you too! During your presentation, in the course of your slides, you'll need to highlight your main strengths but also be aware of your minor shortcomings, so as to be able to justify yourself to your interlocutors should the subject be brought up. It's by being aware of your shortcomings that you'll be able to work around them and improve!
Define a single key message at the heart of the subject
If you want to convince your audience and keep their attention, you mustn't spread yourself too thin. That's why I strongly advise you to define a single key message and stick to it. Your entire corporate presentation should therefore be guided by a common thread. Keep it carefully in mind so as not to spread yourself too thin. In other words: stay on course!
Tailor your message to your target audience
Like any marketing message, a corporate presentation must be adapted to the audience the business is hoping to reach. You logically won't address potential investors, customers, or students interested in joining your company in the same way. To this end, start by defining your personas before creating your presentation: Who is your audience? How old are they? What interests them? What do they need? etc.
Use convincing arguments and evidence
Based on your audience's profile, all you have to do is select the most convincing arguments according to their expectations and insert them into your slides and outline. Be sure to include as much evidence as possible in your slides to help give your speech added credibility. These arguments will vary from one audience to another.
For example, for potential investors, you'll need as many statistics and data as you can gather. On the other hand, this won't necessarily interest future recruits. For the latter, the prospects for development and the team's dynamism will be far more important elements to share.
How do you give an oral presentation of your company?
In order to convince potential customers, partners, or investors, you may need to give an oral presentation about your business.
Lay the foundations for your presentation
The first step? Define your company's business in clear, concise terms. We call this the "pitch": the idea that you can sum up your story in a sentence that strikes the mind and captures attention. Add a dose of color—not literally, but rather by describing in vivid detail the landscape in which your company operates.
Highlight the services your company offers. What's your organization's superpower that helps solve your customers' problems? Be specific and engaging. Maybe you help companies refine their communication, or perhaps your work involves offering technological solutions to make their work more efficient.
The business part of the presentation should then follow. Unveil your company's strengths, the market opportunities you're targeting, and your plan for seizing those opportunities. Your audience wants to know how you do business, so give them a glimpse behind the scenes. Let your successes shine! When you share presentations of your achievements and satisfied customers, this can help give weight to your words.
Use plain language
There's no need to get bogged down in fancy vocabulary when giving an oral presentation of your business. Plan to be as clear and concise as possible! That's why it's best to use simple, understandable language and short sentences. Likewise, the language you use should be consistent with your corporate image.
Slides, PowerPoint, printed brochure: Use the right visual aid
Some people retain information better when they hear it. Others, on the other hand, are more sensitive to visual aids. It's therefore advantageous to combine the two for your corporate presentation. You'll need to support your speech with a slide show, PowerPoint, or brochure.
If you're not sure where to start when it comes to creating the design of your visual aid, consider checking out the company presentation templates available with design tools like Canva. On Canva, you can choose from a plethora of great template options, allowing you to choose the one that best suits your brand.
After selecting your favorite template, simply edit it to add the necessary content (e.g., text, data, visuals, etc.) that you want to include, and download the final result—a professional company presentation that your audience will love!
Company presentation templates available on Canva
Make eye contact with the audience
When talking to people, eye contact is very important. It serves to establish contact and greatly contributes to making the argument more convincing. It also establishes a close bond with the audience. If you were planning to hide behind your paper and just read it, quickly forget this idea!
Manage your speaking time and the pace of your presentation
Because you've built your company with your own hands, and it's rarely been a smooth ride, you probably have a lot to say about your company. However, during a corporate presentation, you need to know how to get to the point and manage your speaking time.
In this context, don't try to rush through your sentences to say as much as possible. Your speech must remain audible and pleasant to listen to. Too fast a pace can hinder comprehension and lose your audience along the way.
Get inspired by video examples from other companies
Finally, as is customary in competitive intelligence for a whole host of other subjects, like when you want to start a business but have no ideas or you're building an ecommerce brand, you can draw inspiration from the professional presentations that other companies (whether in the same sector or not) create. Of course, the idea is not to copy them, but rather to use them as other great sources of inspiration for your content and boost your creativity.
How do you present your company in writing?
While spoken words may fly away, written words remain. To create a successful presentation, you need to know how to present your company in writing.
Minimize the number of pages to get straight to the point
As with speaking, you'll also need to be able to summarize in writing. Your readers probably won't want to read an encyclopedia to understand your company's day-to-day mission. Get straight to the point! Put forward your best arguments and use punchy phrases wherever possible.
Use headings and subheadings to structure your presentation
What could be more unpleasant than being faced with an imposing block of text? To make your business presentation easier to read, consider structuring it, by including headings and subheadings, as well as a few key concepts in bold. For those in a hurry, your corporate presentation should be able to be read “diagonally” and still allow your reader to understand the essential ideas.
Use visuals to reinforce your presentation's impact
Some people are also more sensitive to images than text. What's more, incorporating illustrations allows you to vary your media and increase the impact and memorability of the arguments used. So take the time to select the right visuals to support your arguments. However, remember that your corporate presentation should respect your graphic charter.
Adapt the tone and style to your target audience
As with the spoken word, you won't address all individuals in the same way in writing. Depending on your objectives, you may need several corporate presentation brochures.
And don't forget to define your potential customers. Of course, if your products are aimed at teenagers or young adults, you won't have the same discourse, the same arguments, and the same tone as if you were addressing senior executives aged 50 and over!
Carefully reread and correct your presentation sheet
Finally, never forget to reread your company presentation several times before sending it to the recipient. You can also have it proofread and corrected by close friends and family. Spelling mistakes and poor turns of phrase can be particularly damaging to your brand image. An impeccable presentation is also proof of your seriousness!
Pitch deck: Presenting your company in 3 to 6 minutes
A pitch deck is a presentation, usually created using slides, that provides an overview of a business, startup, or project to potential investors, clients, or partners. The main goal of a pitch deck is to communicate the business idea, its market potential, business model, product, team, and financial needs in a clear and persuasive manner.
Just as salespeople have only a few minutes to convince people of the efficacy of their products, entrepreneurs sometimes have only a few minutes to win them over. In this context, you need to be able to stand out and convince in record time.
Capture your audience's attention in a short amount of time
A pitch is a clear, succinct presentation designed to convince an audience. Generally speaking, this type of exercise lasts no longer than 6 minutes. So you need to grab the listener's attention very quickly!
So the first step is to practice, watch in hand! This will help you feel more at ease and boost your oratory skills tenfold. That's how you'll also manage to stay natural. In any case, when it comes to defending your project, just be yourself!
Prioritize conciseness in your oral presentation
During your pitch, you need to get to the heart of the matter. It's a very short exercise, during which your interviewers will need to understand your story, your values and the purpose of the meeting. Don't go into unnecessary detail! Be concise and offer your audience a crystal-clear presentation.
Send a PDF file by email after the meeting
According to Edgar Dale's cone of experience theory, we retain only 20% of what we hear. A pitch is already very short. If your audience only retains 20%, there's not much left! To complete your oral presentation, consider sending a PDF document by email after your meeting. This will enable your entire target audience to keep track of your presentation and better retain the main ideas.
The importance of a great company presentation
A well thought-out sales presentation can become a significant driving force for your business. It's your showcase, reflecting your values, your services, and the authenticity of your brand.
With an elaborate design, every page of your presentation should be an invitation to discover more. Colors play an important role here, as they establish visual communication with your interlocutor, your audience. The content of the presentation must be written with the utmost care to touch your audience and establish an emotional bond.
The design of your presentations must therefore be taken seriously. It's more than just a document: it's a strategic tool for promoting your business. Investing time and energy in fine-tuning every aspect of your presentation is certainly a winning bet for your company.
As you prepare to start to take your corporate communications to the next level, remember that the presentations you create must always serve a specific purpose. Whether it's attracting new customers, convincing investors, or engaging your audience, every detail counts.
Let the presentations you design reflect the passion, dedication, and innovation that fuel your business by following the most informed advice tailored for your business model.
