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1-Page Summary of Presenting to Win
The Audience
Most presentations fail because they are guilty of the “Five Cardinal Sins” of presenting: they are pointless, irrelevant to the audience, confusing, complicated and long. Since the goal of a presentation is to persuade – to move the audience from A to B – you must be persuasive, and make your point clear and relevant. You don’t want only the audience’s understanding – you want them to take some action. That’s the point. State what action you want them to take at least three times throughout your presentation so that it becomes stickier in their minds. Most presenters fail to do this clearly enough for people who aren’t paying 100% attention.”
You can persuade people to act by telling them what the action will do for them, not you. Sell benefits and never mention a feature without underscoring its benefit. Make everything you say relevant to your audience. Understand what they need and ask yourself, “What’s in it for me?” (WIIFY)
Don’t assume that your audience will know why a thick product catalog is important. Remember that it may be important for different reasons to different people, so you should explain the WIIFY (What’s In It For You) of each feature or benefit.
How to Avoid MEGO (“Mine Eyes Glaze Over”)
You don’t have to tell people about the water treatment plant if they just want directions to the drinking fountain. Don’t overload them with information that isn’t relevant or important. If you dump data on them, you’ll earn a negative reaction from your audience—the dreaded “mine eyes glaze over.” You have to sort through the data; they don’t. Your job is to extract and deliver the point, which means simplifying it for easy understanding by your audience.
Think of the data as raw material for your presentation. Brainstorm to figure out what it means and focus your presentation accordingly.
Assess What the Audience Already Knows
You should be careful not to assume that the audience knows as much about your topic as you do. Draw a graph of how many people in the room are at each level of technical expertise, and then cater your presentation to them. Don’t talk down to beginners or over their heads; however, don’t assume they know everything you do either.
4 Questions to Ask
Who will be presenting? What material will they cover and how will you divide it up between presenters.
When will you present? What time of day are you presenting and how much time do you have to prepare your presentation? Where will the presentation be held (e.g., auditorium, conference room)?
What do you need to play?
Don’t make your audience work hard to follow what you’re saying. Organize your presentation so that it flows well and is easy to understand. You can use almost any flow structure, but it’s important to have a flow structure in place. One of the most popular ways to organize a presentation’s flow is with modules, chronology (in the beginning… in the end), space or location (our global operations begin in Beijing), problem/solution (always emphasize solution), opportunity/action (emphasize action) and form/function/benefit.
- In the case of X, they… Our competitors are like this, but we’re different. There’s a diagram in which our quadrant is like that and their quadrant is like this. We can also look at it as follows: For example, here are the top ten reasons why…
Rivet the Audience from the Get-Go
The first move is the most important in chess. The same goes for presentations. A presentation can be won or lost with your opening line. You have a lot of great options to choose from, such as comparisons, proverbs, quotes about your company/product/service, short stories (but keep them short), looking back or looking ahead, shocking facts and leading questions. However if you ask for a show of hands make sure that you know your audience first!
