How to Start a Presentation: 7 Ways to Open at Work

Start a presentation by telling the audience why the next few minutes matter to them, then give them your one main message, then tell them what you will ask for at the end. Do all three in the first minute, before the background, the agenda or your job title. The fastest way in is an opening built from something they already care about: the decision they need to make, a number they track, a problem they have described in their own words.

This guide covers what the first minute has to do, seven ways to open with example lines for common work situations, the openings that lose a room, and how to rehearse your first minute so it holds up when you are nervous. These are the openings we teach in our presentation and public speaking courses, written for the speaking people do at work: project updates, pitches, proposals, town halls and video calls.

The short version

1. Plan the opening last, once you know your one message and your ask.
2. In the first minute, answer three questions for the audience: why should I listen, what is the point, and what will you want from me?
3. Open with something the audience already cares about, such as their decision, their number or their problem.
4. Pick one of the seven openings below to fit the situation.
5. Leave your introduction, the agenda and any apologies until after the opening, or drop them.
6. Learn your first few lines well enough to say them on autopilot.
7. Test two or three versions out loud, or with an AI tool, before you choose.

What the first minute of a presentation has to do

In a meeting room, most people arrive thinking about something else, and they decide early whether your talk deserves their attention. The opening has three jobs, and a good one does all three in under a minute.

Show why it matters to them. Name the stake for this audience: the risk, the cost, the deadline or the opportunity they already feel. A finance committee, a sales team and a project steering group will care about different things in the same proposal, so the opening changes with the room.

Give them your one message. If you cannot say your main point in one sentence, the audience will not be able to repeat it afterwards. Say it early. A presentation at work is rarely a mystery novel, and senior audiences in particular want the conclusion first.

Tell them what you will ask for. If you need a decision, a budget or a volunteer, say so at the start. People listen differently when they know what they are being asked to judge.

Compare two openings for the same update:

• “Good morning. Today I’ll walk you through the new expense claims system and how it works.”
• “Last month, finance sent back one in five expense claims for missing receipts. The new system checks for receipts before you submit. In the next ten minutes I’ll show you how it works, and I’ll ask each team to switch over by 1 December.”

The second version is the same length once spoken. It names a problem the room recognises, states what changes, and tells them what they will be asked to do. (The figures are illustrative. Use your own.)

Write your opening last

Most people write the opening first, because it comes first. It works better the other way round. You cannot open with your one message until you know what it is, and you cannot point to your ask until you have decided on it.

Before you choose an opening, write down three things about the audience: what they already know, what they need to know, and what they care about. Then write your main message in one sentence and your ask in one sentence. The opening is where those meet. If you want a method for building the rest of the talk, our guide on using ChatGPT to make a presentation walks through audience, message and storyline before any slides.

7 ways to start a presentation at work

Each opening below has a job it does well and a situation it suits. The example lines are written for typical work talks; swap in your own facts.

1. Start with the decision you need

Say what you are asking for in your first or second sentence, then give the reasons. This suits proposals to a committee, budget requests and any talk to senior people who are short on time.

“I’m asking for approval to hire two more support engineers this quarter. I’ll show you what the backlog is costing us now and what changes if we add them.”

It feels blunt to say your ask so early. Decision-makers usually find it a relief, because they know what to listen for.

2. Start with a number that matters to them

Open with one figure the audience tracks or would worry about, then say what it means. This is the strongest opening for project updates and results reviews. Pick a number that creates tension: a delay, a cost, a gap against target, a risk.

“We are three weeks behind on the warehouse migration. Two of those weeks come from one supplier. I’ll show you the plan to recover them and the one decision I need from you today.”

One number lands. Five numbers in the first minute become noise, so save the rest for the slides that explain them.

3. Start with a question they would answer differently

Ask a question that makes the audience come up with an answer before you give yours. When people are working out an answer, they listen harder to find out whether they were right. This suits town halls, training sessions and internal talks where you want people to think.

“What do you think is the most common reason a client onboarding gets delayed?”

Pick a question people might disagree on. A question with an obvious answer (“Who here wants to save time?”) makes the room feel talked down to. If you ask for a show of hands, wait for it.

4. Start with the problem in their words

Describe the problem the way the audience describes it, before you mention your product, your team or your solution. This is the opening for sales pitches and for internal proposals that need another team’s support.

“You told us last month that your regional managers spend most of Monday building the same report. That’s what we set out to fix.”

Using their words shows you listened. It also stops you opening with features, which is the most common weak start to a pitch: the audience cannot care about a feature until they see the problem it solves.

5. Start with a short story

Open with one real moment, told in a few sentences: a customer call, a mistake that cost something, a conversation that changed a decision. Stories hold attention because people want to know what happened next. This suits keynotes, all-hands meetings and any talk where you need people to care before they will act.

“On Tuesday at 4pm, a client called our hotline about a failed transfer. She was on hold for 40 minutes. By the time we picked up, she had moved her account.”

Keep it short, keep it true, and connect it to your message straight away. If the story takes more than a minute or needs its own explanation, it is the wrong story for the opening.

6. Start with what changes for them

Name the change and its effect on the audience in the same sentence. Technical and project teams often open with what a system does. The audience needs to hear what it removes, adds or prevents for them. This suits announcements, change programmes and new tools.

“From next month, the new platform checks client documents automatically. For relationship managers, that means two fewer manual checks on every new account.”

A useful pattern: the feature, then a verb such as removes, saves, prevents or speeds up, then the effect on this audience.

7. Start with where you will end up

Tell the audience the conclusion and the path to it in one or two sentences. This is a plain opening, and it is the right one for long or technical sessions, workshops and video calls where people need to know how the time will be used.

“By the end of this call we’ll agree on one of two vendors. I’ll take 15 minutes on the comparison, then we’ll use the rest to decide.”

This is different from reading out an agenda. It gives the destination first, then only as much of the route as people need.

Which opening fits which situation

Openings that lose the room

A long introduction of yourself. If the audience does not know you, one sentence on who you are and why you are the person talking is enough. Your career history can wait, or go on a slide in the appendix.

Apologising. “Sorry, I’m a bit nervous” or “Sorry, I only had a day to put this together” tells the audience to expect less. Most of them would not have noticed.

Reading the agenda. An agenda slide read aloud spends your strongest minute on the least interesting content. Give the destination instead (opening 7), and show the agenda only if people need it to find their way through a long session.

A joke that does not connect to your point. Humour can work when it comes from the topic and suits the room. A borrowed joke that falls flat is hard to recover from in the first minute, and in a mixed or multicultural audience it may not land at all.

A dictionary definition, or a quote that leads nowhere. A definition tells the room something it already knows. A quote can work as an opening when it leads straight into your message and you say why it matters to this audience; our list of 50 quotes to start a presentation is a place to look. A famous line followed by an unrelated agenda wastes it.

Technical housekeeping. “Can everyone see my screen?” is a check, so do it before the meeting starts. On a video call, open with your first line as soon as people have joined, and let the chat handle anyone who cannot hear.

How to rehearse your first minute

Nerves are usually at their worst in the first minute, and that minute also sets the audience’s first impression. We cover this in tip 6 of our 12 public speaking tips for presenting at work: know your first minute cold. It is the one part of a talk where knowing the exact words helps. For the rest, learn the order of your points and let the words change.

1. Write it out in full. Three to six sentences: the opening line, your one message, and what you will ask for.
2. Say it out loud, standing up. Words that read well on paper can be hard to say. Change anything you trip over.
3. Time it. Aim for under a minute. If it runs long, cut the background, not the stake or the ask.
4. Say it until you can do it without notes. You want to reach the end of the opening on autopilot, so your attention is free for the room.
5. Test it on one person. Say it to a colleague and ask them two questions: what is the main point, and what am I going to ask for? If they cannot answer both, change the opening.

If you want structured practice with a trainer, our presentation skills courses include rehearsal of openings on the presentations people give at work, with feedback in the room.

Using AI to draft your opening

An AI tool such as ChatGPT, Claude or Copilot is useful for producing several versions of an opening quickly, so you can compare them. It does not know your audience, so the quality depends on what you tell it. Give it the details only you know: who is in the room, what they care about, and what you need from them. If your talk involves confidential information, check which AI tools your company allows, and describe the situation in general terms rather than pasting the material.

Draft three openings:

I am giving a [length]-minute presentation to [names and roles] about [topic].
They care most about: [...]
My main message in one sentence: [...]
What I will ask them to do or decide: [...]
Write three different openings of no more than 60 words each:
1. One that starts with the decision I need.
2. One that starts with a number that matters to this audience. Use only numbers I have given you, and mark any gap as [number].
3. One that starts with a question this audience might answer in different ways.
Each opening must say why this matters to them, state my main message and mention my ask.

Get feedback on an opening you have written:

I need to open a presentation to [audience] about [topic]. Here is my current opening:
[paste your opening]
Tell me whether it shows why this matters to this audience, whether my main message is clear, and whether they will know what I am asking for. Then suggest two stronger alternatives and explain what each one changes.

Hear it from the audience’s side:

Read this opening as [specific role, e.g. a CFO who has rejected two similar requests this year].
[paste your opening]
What is your first reaction? What question would you want answered next? What would make you stop listening?

Treat the output as options to choose from and edit. Read each version aloud before you pick one, and check that any number in it is yours and is correct.

Frequently asked questions

How do you start a presentation?

Start by saying why the topic matters to the audience, then give your main message in one sentence, then say what you will ask them to do or decide. Good ways in include the decision you need, a number that matters to them, a question, the problem in their words, a short story, what changes for them, or where the talk will end up.

What is a good first sentence for a presentation?

A good first sentence is about the audience and something they already care about. “We are three weeks behind on the migration” or “I’m asking for approval to hire two engineers” works better than “Today I’ll be talking about the migration”, because it tells people straight away why to listen.

Should I introduce myself at the start of a presentation?

If the audience knows you, skip it. If they do not, keep it to one sentence that says who you are and why you are the right person to talk about this topic, and put it after your opening line rather than before it.

How long should the opening of a presentation be?

For most work presentations, aim for under a minute. That is long enough to show why the topic matters, state your message and mention your ask. For a long keynote, a story-based opening can run a little longer, as long as it connects to your message.

Is it a good idea to start a presentation with a joke?

Only if the humour comes from your topic and you are confident it suits the room. A joke that does not connect to your point, or does not land, makes the first minute harder. A question or a short story gets attention with less risk.

How do you start a presentation in a virtual meeting?

Do the sound and screen checks before the meeting starts. Once people have joined, open with where the call will end up or the decision you need, so people know how the time will be used. Look at the camera when you say your main message.

The opening is the part of a presentation you can prepare most precisely, and it carries the most weight. Know your one message and your ask first, choose an opening that starts with what the audience cares about, and rehearse the first minute until it holds up under nerves. To practise openings with your team on the presentations they give at work, see our presentation skills training, or read our 12 public speaking tips for presenting at work for the rest of the talk.