English Presentation Skills: 5 Strong Ways to Open

A strong opening helps you sound confident, gives your audience a reason to listen, and, with any luck, makes the rest of your presentation easier to follow. And therefore, that people want to follow!

Can you start with the following opening?

Good morning. My name is… Today I’m going to talk about…

There is nothing wrong with that. It is clear and professional. But if you want to improve your English presentation skills, it is useful to have a few more engaging presentation openers available.

Here are five natural ways to start a presentation in English.

1. Start with a question

A question immediately gives your audience something to think about. For example:

How many of you have ever abandoned an online purchase because the checkout process was too complicated?

Or:

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing our industry over the next five years?

This kind of opening works particularly well when the question is closely connected to the subject of your presentation.

You do not necessarily need an answer. A rhetorical question can simply encourage the audience to start thinking about the topic.

Useful presentation language

• Let me start by asking you a question.
• I’d like to begin with a question.
• How many of you have ever…?
• What would you do if…?

Example

Let me start by asking you a question. How many hours do you think the average employee spends in meetings every week?

You can then reveal the answer and move naturally into your main topic.

2. Start with a surprising fact or figure

Another effective presentation opener is to give the audience a piece of information they were not expecting. For example:

Last year, we lost almost 20% of our customers within the first three months.

Or:

One in three people who visit our website leave within ten seconds.

A surprising statistic gives the audience an immediate reason to ask “Why?” And that gives you a natural route into the rest of your presentation.

Useful presentation language

• I’d like to start with a figure that might surprise you.
• Let me begin with one statistic.
• Here’s something you may not know.
• You might be surprised to hear that…

Example

I’d like to start with a figure that might surprise you. More than half of our enquiries now come through mobile devices. Three years ago, it was less than a quarter.

From there, you might continue:

So today I’d like to look at what that means for our digital strategy.

Notice how the statistic and the purpose of the presentation connect naturally.

3. Start with a short story

People tend to respond well to stories because they are easier to follow than abstract information.

The story does not need to be dramatic. In a business presentation, it might simply be a short example involving a customer, colleague or experience. For example:

A few months ago, I spoke to one of our longest-standing customers. I asked her why she continued to use us after nearly ten years. Her answer surprised me.

The audience now wants to know what she said. That creates curiosity.

Useful presentation language

• Let me tell you about something that happened recently.
• I’d like to start with a quick story.
• A few weeks ago, I was talking to…
• Let me give you a real example.

Example

I’d like to start with a quick story. Last month, one of our salespeople received a call from a customer who had been trying to solve the same problem for three days. Within five minutes, she had sorted it out.

You could then say:

That conversation highlights exactly what I’d like to talk about today: the value of good customer support.

The important thing is to keep the story short. It should introduce the presentation, not become the presentation.

4. Start with a problem

A particularly strong technique in professional presentations is to begin with a problem that your audience recognises. For example:

We have a problem. Our sales are increasing, but our profit margin is falling.

Or, a little less dramatically:

There’s one issue that keeps coming up in conversations with customers: response time.

You can then position your presentation as a way of understanding or solving that problem.

Useful presentation language

• There’s a problem we need to address.
• One of the biggest challenges we’re facing at the moment is…
• There’s one issue I’d like us to focus on today.
• The question we need to answer is…

Example

There’s one issue I’d like us to focus on today. We’re attracting plenty of new customers, but we’re struggling to keep them.

Then:

So what I’d like to look at is why that’s happening and what we can do about it.

This is a simple but effective structure: problem → question → presentation.

5. Start by asking the audience to imagine something

This type of presentation opener can be particularly effective when you are talking about change, strategy or the future. For example:

Imagine it’s 2030 and almost every routine customer enquiry is handled automatically. What would that mean for our team?

Or:

Imagine arriving at work tomorrow and discovering that half your normal administrative tasks had disappeared.

The audience is being asked to picture a situation rather than simply listen to information.

Useful presentation language

• Imagine for a moment that…
• Picture this…
• Suppose that…
• Think about what would happen if…

Example

Imagine for a moment that we could reduce the time it takes to process an order from three days to three hours. What difference would that make to our customers?

You can then introduce the topic:

That’s what I’d like to explore with you today.

What should come after your presentation opener?

A strong opening is only the first step. Once you have caught the audience’s attention, you normally need to make the direction of the presentation clear.

A simple structure is:

1. Opening. “I’d like to start with a question.”
2. Topic. “Today I’d like to look at how we can improve customer retention.”
3. Structure. “I’ll focus on three areas: why customers leave, what our competitors are doing, and what changes we could make.”

This gives the audience both interest and clarity.

Avoid over-complicated presentation openers

When people work on their English presentation skills, they sometimes feel that a strong opening needs to be dramatic. It doesn’t.

You do not need to begin with “Ladies and gentlemen, it is a great honour and privilege to stand before you today…” And you probably do not need an inspirational quotation from Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein or Winston Churchill either. In many professional situations, that can sound rehearsed or unnecessarily grand.

A strong opening can be very simple:

• I’d like to start with a question.
• There’s one problem I’d like us to think about today.
• Let me give you a quick example.

What matters is that the opening leads naturally into your subject.

Five presentation openers: quick reference

1. Ask a question

Let me start by asking you a question.

Best when you want the audience to think immediately about the topic.

2. Give a surprising fact

I’d like to start with a figure that might surprise you.

Best when you have a strong statistic or piece of evidence.

3. Tell a short story

I’d like to start with a quick story.

Best when a real example illustrates the main point of your presentation.

4. Introduce a problem

There’s one issue I’d like us to focus on today.

Best for business presentations in which you are proposing a solution or change.

5. Ask the audience to imagine something

Imagine for a moment that…

Best for presentations about possibilities, strategy or the future.

Improving your English presentation skills

Good presentation openers do not need complicated vocabulary. In fact, some of the most useful phrases are extremely simple:

• Let me start by…
• I’d like to begin with…
• Here’s something you may not know.
• Let me give you an example.
• The question we need to answer is…
• Imagine for a moment that…

The key is to practise them until they become automatic.

If you know exactly how you are going to begin, you are less likely to spend the first thirty seconds worrying about your English. Instead, you can concentrate on making eye contact, speaking clearly and connecting with your audience.

And that is one of the most important English presentation skills of all.