How to Optimize Your Financial Presentations

Financial figures play a key role in any business. They are the starting point for wide-ranging business decisions and contribute significantly to a company’s performance. Financial presentations serve to make this information and key figures available and accessible.

Unfortunately, this type of presentation is often dry, overly complex and difficult to understand. Too much data leads to an information overload that the audience can’t handle.

Here are three tips on how you can make your financial presentations concise and effective.

Keep it Simple

Most people find it difficult to absorb and remember new data. Present too many figures at once and your audience won’t be able to keep up and will tune out. It’s extremely important to limit your presentation to the essentials and save graphics and numbers for the really important points. Those who are interested can later read all figures, calculations and sources in the handout.

Keep it Focused

A presentation should provide an overview and shouldn’t go into too much detail. Your presentation should help your audience to clearly identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to the company. This is how financial presentations create added value, not through hours of reciting processes and information that is irrelevant to the majority of the audience.

A good approach to creating a focused presentation is to develop a storyboard. First, think of an outline for your presentation that contains all the important points and key elements. Once this is as simple and focused as possible, start filling it with information and data.

Keep it Informative

Numbers need context in order to be interpreted correctly. This is why it’s important that your financial presentation not only contains figures, but also shows their relationships. What is the relationship between certain key figures and the company’s objectives? What do these figures mean in comparison with competing companies?

The context of your presentation depends on your audience. Different departments are interested in different information. It’s up to you to tailor your presentation to the interests and needs of your audience and refine it with our tips!