When you have a closely scripted presentation, think about the way an actor prepares for a stage performance. Make your scripted presentation as conversational and natural as possible. Jill Konrath, chief sales officer of Selling to Big Companies, provides this analogy: "If you go to see a play, you know that all actors have scripts to follow, but if they do their jobs well, it doesn’t sound like a script," she says. "That’s the way you should approach your scripted presentation."

Konrath shares a light story from her days at Xerox: "Xerox was one of those companies that required us to use scripted presentations, and we actually had to memorize content from beginning to end," she recalls. "It typically would begin, ‘Mr. Prospect…’ We would have to practice until we memorized the presentations, and I remember getting the certification and being so proud to have memorized them. After I gave my very first presentation, and the closing was, ‘Mr. Prospect, do you have any other questions that I can address today?’ The guy looked at me with a smile and said, ‘No questions, Jill, but my name is not Mr. Prospect.’

So from that story, I say, you need to personalize the presentation and practice it. You need to make it more conversational in tone by using inflection in your voice and not saying ‘Mr. Prospect’."

To make your scripted presentation more personal and conversational, try implementing the following guidelines from Konrath:

Practice it out loud. "You need to read it a lot – the written word is not the same as the spoken word," says Konrath. "Sometimes the sentence structure is too long, and you may need to break it into two sentences."

Use contractions. If anything isn’t a contraction in the scripted piece, turn it into one, suggests Konrath. "The formality of not having contractions makes it sound like it’s a script," she explains. "It’s a small tip, but it really makes a difference."

Pace as a normal speaker. Don’t talk too fast, says Konrath, who suggests inserting pauses to make yourself slow down. "The reality is that people have conversations; they don’t talk for a minute and a half straight," she says. "Don’t read, or your presentation will begin to sound monotone or even sing-song."

Rework it into bullet points. "After you get the basics, the legal stuff, that you have to say, put it into bullet points, not full sentences," says Konrath. "If you have a full sentence in front of you, it’s impossible not to read it verbatim. Using bullet points will force you to insert your own words, and it will sound more natural and less scripted."

Have a conversation. Engage your audience when using a script so it’s two-way, says Konrath. Create a rapport and talk to them as you are talking to a colleague.

Add your own stories and anecdotes. It doesn’t have to be your story, it can be any story; but show how it’s relevant and talk about it.

Practice it until it sounds natural. “Internalize it,” says Konrath. “A script is a guideline; it’s never effective if it’s just read. You need to be able to throw it away and talk it.”