The tricky thing about presenting financial data is that it can get boring pretty quickly. With numerous data and figures filling each slide of the presentation, even the best and most dedicated employees will be in a rush, waiting for it to end. Fortunately, that’s only the case when you don’t know how to present data in a more interesting way.
When you put data without any art, narrative, or context in front of people, it’s not something that most people will be receptive to. With a seemingly unlimited amount of data in front of them, it’s easy for the audience’s attention span to slip away as they get confused by the numbers, clueless of what they mean.
To provide better financial presentations, here are some tips on how to present financial data with data storytelling.
Tell Stories With Data
If you don’t know about it yet, data storytelling is one of the most effective ways to make financial data more interesting.
Rather than presenting data in tables, it would be a much more intuitive experience for your audience if you tell the stories behind them. For example, when you’re talking about a 5-year plan, don’t just state it as is. You have to tell the story behind it with details like how you established the plan, which data influenced it, and what can cause it to change in the future.
In this way, your audience can understand why the company’s financial data became the way it is.
Be Concise And Go Straight To The Point
There’s nothing more boring than sitting in the conference room, waiting for the meeting to end as the speaker tries to explain a PowerPoint presentation that’s riddled with so much data that it can be called an entire datasheet.
When making a presentation, you have to make it concise, and one way to do it is with the 10-20-30 rule. According to this rule, a presentation should have only ten slides, be explained in 30 minutes, and use a 30-point font.
This rule keeps you from going far from your point, and it makes sure that you’re always concise and straight to the point.
Use Graphics
A good way of making a presentation with well-analyzed data is by riddling it with blocks of text and numbers, as that can make the presentation tiresome, and it’s not a great way of following our previous tip.
Anyway, one of the key aspects of data storytelling is the use of graphics to present data. It may be in graphs, charts, or other forms; data is much easier to take in when it has graphic representation.
In this way, you can keep things concise and make the presentation easier on the eyes.
Engage The Audience
You can talk the entire meeting, but don’t expect your audience to stay interested by the end of the presentation.
To make the presentation a better experience, you have to engage the audience by starting discussions, asking questions, and supporting input.
Engaging the audience doesn’t only make the presentation a more interactive experience; it also opens the room for insights and questions from different people, leading to a better understanding of the data presented.
Learn From The Experts
If you want to make your presentations more interesting, data visualisation storytelling essentials could be of great use. Headed by experts in data storytelling, a financial modelling company with years of experience in data analysis, forecasting and presentation can help you use your data to the highest level. Consult with an expert today.