35 Best Business English Presentation Phrases
You know that feeling as your throat get tight and dry. You swallow... gulp.
You begin to have those feelings that you know so well, as you feel...
Nervous
Tense
Worried
Uneasy
Extreme pressure
Can you relate to that terrible feeling of having to give a presentation in English?
You are a business executive, and you know you are not supposed to feel this way as a leader of your company. But, just the thought of an upcoming presentation significantly raises your stress level.
Giving a great presentation in any language is difficult.
Giving a great presentation in English as a non-native English business executive is a more difficult task. The good news is that there are many SKILLS you can learn to become a very effective presenter.
Although there are a few key components of every good presentation, this article will focus on the importance of using the The 35 Most Effective Business Presentation Phrases.
Let’s first take a moment and look at what makes an effective presentation.
An Effective Presentation
There are a few essential components for an effective presentation. The first step is great preparation for your upcoming presentation.
Preparation
Preparation is the most important part of every presentation. Before you give any presentation, you must have a plan for success.
The first step is to Know Your Audience. Who are you presenting to?
What is the Message Your Audience Needs or wants to hear from you?
What Call to Action do you want to leave your audience with?
Only after you have planned your presentation, it is time to move on to the actual presentation, which will include the following three sections:
Introduction
Immediately get your audience engaged
Content
Create a feeling within your audience
Show your audience how they can relate to your message
Use great terms and phrases for transitions and let your presentation flow
Conclusion
Leave your audience with a strong feeling
Ask your audience to do or think something
As stated earlier, this article will focus on the 35 Most Effective Business Presentation Phrases. This list will create great transitions and allow your presentation to flow naturally so that your audience is engaged in each step of the process.
Beginning with your Introduction
Your goal for the beginning of your presentation is to connect and engage with your audience.
You have prepared by getting to know your audience and now you want to introduce your message to your audience in a way that your audience can RELATE to your message.
Please do not start your presentation with
“Hi, my name is ______”
As you are aware, I’m a believer in beginning your presentation in a way that will connect and engage with your audience. Let's look at three great ways to start your presentation.
An effective presentation will begin in one of these ways:
Ask a question
Tell a story
Give a shocking statistic
There are times when a more traditional greeting will be appropriate and in these situations, you can greet your audience and specifically address your audience.
1. It is a pleasure to be here with the _______ (group/team/association) this morning/afternoon/ evening...
Example Sentence: it is a please to be here with the Digital Marketing Association this morning.
2. A special welcome to the _________ (group/team/association)...
Example Sentence. A special welcome to the XYZ Manufacturing Association.
Or…
After you have properly started your effective presentation with a question/story/statistic, you may say something like...
3. I'm ___________ and I'm so excited to be here with the ________________ (group/team/association).
Example Sentence: I'm John and I'm so excited to be here with the sales team today.
Remember, do not use the "I'm ____ and I'm going to talk about____" as your first words - you only can do this after you have made an engaging introduction!
After you have successfully introduced your presentation and engaged your audience, it is time to begin discussing the content of your presentation.
Transition from the Introduction to the Message
After you have given an engaging introduction and connected with your audience, you are ready to begin speaking about your topic.
Don't just read your slides to your audience. They will not be engaged. Instead, use your slides as a guide and the key is to move from one slide to the next in an interesting way. This is called a "transition" and most of the phrases in this section will help you transition like a pro.
After all, who wants to listen to a speaker continue to say: Next... Next.... Next... Next???
Here are some effective ways to transition from the introduction to the content of your presentation.
Remember, an effective presentation includes you serving your audience with a message they need.
Tell your audience up front what the message of the presentation is.
4. As a member of ___________ (refer to the group/team/association) you can relate to today's message of _____________
Example sentence: As a member of the ABC Digital Marketing team, I'm confident you can relate to today's message of knowing your audience.
5. As you are aware...
Example Sentence: As you are aware, it is important to keep up with the latest trends in your industry.
6. Let me start by providing some background information...
Example sentence: Let me start by providing some background information on the newest technology tools available.
Each of these above phrases are useful ways to engage your audience by giving them information at the beginning that they can relate to.
Now, let's explore how you can use different phrases that help with your transitions, provide more details, link to additional topics, emphasize your points, refer to your important information/data/numbers, explain charts/tables/graphs and restate your points.
Transitioning to the Next Topic
Before you move on to your next point, be sure to make it clear to your audience that you’re now starting a new topic. Let them know exactly what that new topic will be. The two phrases below are very similar in meaning, and they can both be used for transitions.
These are SO much better than saying "next..."
7. Turning our attention now to...
Example sentence: Turning our attention now to the second main issue today...
8. Let's move on to...
Example sentence: Let’s move on to our second sales initiative.
Providing More Details
One of the essential parts of your message is to give more detail to some sections of your content because it will be helpful to your audience.
Remember, the key is that you only go into more detail because you know your audience will be interested in this detail, and they can use this information.
9. To elaborate on...
Example sentence: Let me elaborate on this idea...
10. I'd like to expand on...
Example sentence: I’d like to expand on this point about expanding our sales team.
Linking to Another Topic
As mentioned above, use linking words to create flow with your presentations. Effective presentations have flow.
When you think of flow, think of looking at the water in a river at a specific spot. The water is moving. The water was somewhere before it came to this spot and it will flow to a different place after it passes this spot.
This is the same in a presentation. You keep your audience engaged using flow, by telling them about topics you discussed earlier, and also that you will discuss later in the presentation.
As you can see, I used a linking phrase "as mentioned above" in the first words of the first paragraph of this section above. This is the example of using linking words in written form.
Below (another written linking word), you will see how you can use a different linking phrase when you are speaking.
11. As stated earlier...
Example sentence: As stated a few minutes earlier, our industry is changing rapidly.
12. As mentioned earlier...
Example sentence: As I mentioned earlier in my presentation, the key to effective communication is knowing your audience.
13. As referenced earlier...
Example sentence: As referenced at the beginning of my talk today, preparation is critically important.
Each of these three phrases are self-explanatory and the linking phrases remind your audience that you discussed something earlier.
Again, you can create nice flow for your audience when you discuss a point and then later in your presentation, while referencing that same point, you remind your audience that you did discuss this point earlier. It can also be used to emphasize a point or theme.
14. As I mentioned at the beginning...
Example sentence: As I mentioned at the beginning of the presentation, we’ll see a decrease in expenses if we implement this strategy.
15. As you may recall, this relates to my earlier point that...
This phrase will help you connect points in your presentation. It shows the connection between two different ideas.
Example sentence: As you may recall, this point relates closely to the earlier point about the importance of accountability.
16. This ties in with...
Example sentence: This ties in with the point I made earlier regarding the expansion of our manufacturing facility.
Explaining to your audience that you will be discussing something later in your presentation is a key aspect of using flow.
17. This point will be mentioned in a few minutes...
Example sentence: In a few minutes, it will go into more detail about emphasizing a point.
18. This important point will be discussed later in detail...
Example sentence: This important point about having a great conclusion will be discussed later in my talk today.
The two above mentioned phrases are very effective in guiding your audience to where you are going in your presentation.
19. In a few minutes, you will hear this from ________ (one of your team members)...
Example sentence: In a few minutes, you will hear from Susan Jones, our CFO, about the importance of financial forecasting.
This is a really nice way of creating flow when you are able to reference another presenter that will speak after you.
Emphasizing a Point
An essential part of all presentations is creating emphasis. Everything in your presentation is important, but you need to emphasize the most important parts for your audience. These phrases below are excellent.
20. This is significant because...
Significant is one of my favorite words. It is another word for important. One of the keys of being an excellent communicator in English is using different words that have similar meanings.
Example sentence: This is significant because we are planning to grow our workforce 20% this year.
21. This is meaningful for the following reason(s)..
Example sentence: This is meaningful because the implementation of this recommendation will have an impact on multiple departments in our organization.
22. To reinforce this point...
Example sentence: Showing the significance of a better hiring process reinforces this point I am making with this data.
23. Please draw your attention to…..
Example sentence: Please draw your attention to the revenue growth projections on this page.
Referring to Information, Data and Numbers
Let's turn our attention now to referring to information and data. In a presentation, you will often use data, facts, and studies that help support your message. These meaningful terms and phrases will help you refer to this significant information.
24. According to the ___ study, ...
Example sentence: According to the XYZ study, 84% of workforce efficiency is tied to a meaningful benefit package.
25. Based on our recent findings, ...
Example sentence: Based on our recent findings, only 22% of our clients continue to use our services after six months.
26. This data shows …
Example sentence: This data shows that more than 92% of our clients continue to be highly satisfied with our customer service one year after they received our product.
Before moving on the next section, you might find this article on How to Naturally Say Numbers and Dates in Business English helpful for your next presentation.
Explaining Charts, Tables and Graphs
Most presentations use charts, tables or graphs to help support your message. Knowing how to use phrases describing these will create an effective presentation.
27. To illustrate this point...
The word “illustrate” is very effective and it is a great word to use when you are describing a chart, table or graph.
Example sentence: This chart illustrates my earlier point about how more meaningful benefits impact worker satisfaction.
28. This table provides a breakdown of …
A “breakdown” refers to the details within specific figures or numbers. A breakdown is helpful to provide a more detailed picture of the situation. .
Example sentence: This table provides a breakdown of the 10 most important client feedback messages.
Explaining charts, tables and graphs often involves complex information. Below is a short video from the English Leadership Academy's Executive Video Blog, titled What if You Were Able to Explain Complex Ideas in a Simple Way? that gives tips and strategies to make complex information more easily understandable by your audience.
Restating Your Point
Sometimes in order to emphasize your point, you have to state it in a way that’s easier for your audience to understand and remember.
This process is commonly referred to as paraphrasing. Paraphrasing is an essential skill for non-native English speakers that allows them to say the same thing with different words to enhance communication effectiveness.
This often involves rephrasing, clarifying or simplifying the point you are trying to make.
29. In fact, …
Use this phrase to restate your point in another way.
Example sentence: In fact, it is necessary that we make a change to our current policy to attain this goal.
30. In other words...
Example sentence. In other words, we don't stack up well against our competitors in this area.
31. To put it simply, …
Explaining complex messages in a presentation can lead to confusion. Your audience will benefit when you simplify complex messages.
Example sentence: To put it simply, if we follow these recommendations, we'll achieve our goals six months sooner.
To summarize, by this point in the presentation, you have given your audience the message they needed or wanted.
You have emphasized the points that are especially important to them.
You are now ready to finish your presentation in the best way!
Now we reach a crucial aspect of the presentation and let's finish strong.
Concluding Your Presentation
Most people spend a lot of time working on the introduction and content of their presentation, but they do not spend any time preparing for their conclusion.
As stated earlier, you are presenting for your audience because they have a need or a want.
To emphasize this point, it is a great idea to challenge your audience to THINK in a different way. It is even better to challenge your audience to DO something different in the future.
In other words, create a call to action!
Let's now look at how you can summarize your presentation in a professional way.
32. In the final analysis...
Example sentence: In the final analysis, it is critical that the company needs to immediately enhance our sales strategy to achieve our quarterly targets.
33. In conclusion, let me reiterate my message...
As part of your conclusion, you might want to emphasize your main points to leave the audience with a clear message of what you discussed. This is very effective to restate your main message!
Example sentence: In conclusion, let me reiterate my earlier message that time is of the essence for our team to solve this issue in the next 10 days.
34. I want to challenge you to do/think ….
Example sentence: You've heard the compelling arguments for a new mindset shift, and now I challenge YOU to begin making the necessary changes in the next five days!
Finally, as you reach the end of your presentation, you'll need a transition from the completion of your presentation to the Question and Answer (Q&A) portion of your presentation.
35. Thank you for your attention today, and we’ve got time for a few questions. Who would like to ask the first question?
This is a nice phrase that let's your audience know you have concluded your formal remarks and you are open to answering a few questions.
I appreciate your attention to this topic today and now I'd like to leave you with a challenge below.
My Challenge to You
I challenge you to begin preparing your future presentations in a different and more effective way.
Can you use at least three of these above-mentioned phrases in your next presentation?
You can do this!