Presentation Phrases – Greetings and Signposting

According to a study, people listed public speaking as their number one fear. Number two on the list was death! Shocking if true. But don’t worry. With good preparation and the right choice of phrases, you will sound more confident, when you have to give your next presentation.

Let’s start by looking at phrases to introduce yourself:

Hello everyone, my name is Lucy Davis.

I would like to welcome you all here today.

Let me briefly introduce myself. My name is Ben Stokes and I am delighted to be here today to tell you about our brand new product.

First, let me introduce myself. My name is Maria Halewood and I am the new head of sales at your company.

I’m Leon from Farm Products UK and I’d like to talk to you about our new packaging.

You may want to ask a few questions, in order to get some feedback and reaction from your audience:

Have you ever thought of how much food is thrown away each year?

Does anybody know, who the biggest tool supplier in your city is?

Would I be correct in saying, that everyone in this room has been in this situation before?

We all have one of these at home, don’t we?

And next some phrases to outline your presentation and refer to questions:

Firstly…secondly…thirdly…lastly…

First of all…then…next…after that…finally…

To start with…later…and to finish up…

My presentation is in three parts.

My talk today, is divided into four parts.

Please feel free to interrupt me, if you have any questions.

There will be enough time for questions at the end of the presentation.

I’d be grateful, if you could ask your questions after the presentation.

The following phrases are for giving examples:

For example.

A good example of this is shown here.

To give you an example.

To illustrate this point.

This case is a prime example of the problem.

For instance.

Here are a few short phrases to give an indication, that you are moving on to the next part:

Now, let’s look at.

Turning to.

That’s all I have to say about that point.

I’d now like to move on to.

Now, I’d like us to look at.

This leads me to my next point.

Moving on.

I’d now like to discuss.

I hope these phrases will come in handy at your next presentation. This video is one of two presentation videos I’ve made. Please click on the thumbnail at the end, if you haven’t watched the other one already.

One more tip: you might want to have an interesting story or funny anecdote to tell, just to break the ice.