Unfortunately, people read from their PowerPoint slides much more than they think they do, Gallo notes. "When you read from your notes or from slides," he says, "that completely breaks the connection you have with audience."

Practice your speech and know it cold, so that you can sustain eye contact with your audience while you are presenting. "Great presenters will do this: They glance at a slide just for a second to prompt them for the next piece of information," Gallo says. "And then they turn and deliver to audience. They know what's on the slide because they have practiced."

"We know through research that 93 percent of the impression you leave on somebody has little to do with content and everything to do with body language and verbal ability-how you talk, sound, look and what you're wearing," Gallo says. "Only about 7 percent of the actual words or content is important."

However, he says most presenters will spend 99 percent of their time preparing the content and slides, and very little-if any-on understanding and controlling their body language and .

Grab your digital video recorder, deliver your presentation and watch yourself, he says. Watch for these key factors: eye contact (you should be making eye contact 90 percent of the time); posture (don't slouch, stand up straight and natural, and avoid putting your hands in your pocket); voice (don't speak in a monotone voice).