Course Project Guidelines

Overview

The final project for this course is the creation of a sales presentation.

In a professional career, one may be called upon to conduct research and deliver findings in professional settings. No matter how extensive the research or accurate the conclusions, a weak presentation can undermine an argument. A presentation is a tool to assist in making an argument. When creating presentations, students develop skills in researching an issue, synthesizing the information, organizing data logically, and presenting findings in an effective manner. You will submit your presentation in Module Eight.

In this activity, you will deliver a presentation that markets something far more important than a mere product to your audience: you will market yourself. You will conduct research on the internet to identify a position (you may choose whatever position you wish), conduct research on the employer, and market yourself to this potential employer for this specific position. While this presentation is intended for the purposes of the assignment, consider it also a means of ‘rehearsing' yourself for that position.

In your presentation, you should:

- Utilize persuasive messaging to market yourself.

- Explain why the employer should hire you.

o What goals could you help this employer achieve?
o How could you help the employer solve their challenges?
o What value would you bring to the table?
o How would you fit in with the company culture?

- Remember your audience.

o Match your accomplishments, skills, and strengths to specific phrases in the job posting, corporate profile, mission/value statement, etc.

- Include images that support your statements (pictures, charts, graphs, etc.).

Principles of an Effective Presentation:

- You may utilize a product such as Microsoft's PowerPoint or Google Presentation to create your presentation.

- There are various template designs that you can find on the web for your presentation. However, first consider your presentation from the perspective of your audience prior to selecting a specific style. Distracting backgrounds, large blocks of text, all uppercase fonts, elaborate font styles, and grammatical errors and misspellings are distracting. Be consistent with the style of text, bullets, and sub-points in order to support a powerful presentation that allows your content to be the focus.

- Each slide should include your key point(s). Do not place large blocks of text on the visual. Your presentation is not a means of presenting a short paper.

In an actual presentation you would not ‘read' from your slides, but rather use them as prompts.

- Any notes or narration you would use in delivering this presentation to a group should be listed in the Notes section of the presentation.

- References should be listed at the bottom of the slide in slightly smaller text.

- Use clip art, AutoShapes, pictures, charts, tables, and diagrams to enhance but not overwhelm your content.

- Be mindful of the intended audience and seek to assess the presentation's effectiveness by gauging audience comprehension (when possible).