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Your Most Essential Presentation Collaboration Partner
By Jim Endicott, Owner/Manager of Distinction
You're creating a presentation for a big upcoming opportunity and, quite frankly, your feeling pretty good about it! Your manager is getting what she wanted in the form of few tried and true phrases about your company. Your marketing people are happy because they finally got you to use the new logo. And a couple co-workers asked you to include a few items you weren't going to include but did anyway. Everyone got what he or she wanted. or did they? There's someone you forgot to talk to. Someone who actually wanted to have more say about the presentation then all your business co-workers combined - your audience. Audiences vary greatly but have unique perspectives and expectations.
Let's say you create a 45-minute presentation about your particular division of the company and the products/services you provide. Your senior executive team might be looking for the 10-minute overview version with high-level detail. And, you better tell them what you want them to do with the information. If you don't, they may want to make decisions or push for change when the intent was simply informational.
The same presentation delivered to a large prospective customer may lack impact because of the use of acronyms your senior staff understood, but your customers didn't. Maybe you assumed way too much pre-existing knowledge about your company or make the classic sales mistake of telling them more about your company then the problems you actually solve for them. No matter who your audience might be, their expectations can be framed around these very basic statements.
Audiences want you to really know your stuff The old 70's expression, "fake it `til you make it", reflected the relational veneer of a few individuals who lacked real substance. There's only one real problem with that personal philosophy. People and audiences are much smarter than that. They expect that you will bring unique and measurable value to the event that has taken them away from their offices or homes. They trust that your credibility and depth on a topic is stronger then their own (in most areas) and that you can communicate that value in clear and concise ways. Do your homework so you're well prepared to create a worthwhile experience.
Audiences hope you have a good sense for who you're stuffing As I mentioned earlier, every audience has a unique "knothole in the fence" that they view the world and that includes your presentation message. It flavors how they interpret the content and makes it essential that we clearly understand their perspective. These types of audience profiles can be gained by talking to other presenters who've addressed the group, a little Internet research on their company, trade association or industry or calling a few of the attendees for a little pre-interview information gathering.
You better understand when they're adequately stuffed with information Having a good sense for how much your audience can absorb is important. Someone once said, "A good presentation exhausts the topic before the audience." With personal time at a premium these days, it's not just a good idea but essential that you don't try to jam too much content into too little time. If you've done a good job understanding your audience then your presentation content should fill 90% of the time available. If you've covered all the essentials, your audience will appreciate your brevity and the fact that they were actually able to track with your delivery.
Audiences are tired of seeing the same old stuff The same templates. The same clipart. The same text-excessive focus to content and the same low quality approach to presentation graphics. Audiences see professional caliber presentations infrequently and will appreciate it when they can tell you've made the effort to raise the bar. That also means we apply a little creativity in the way we craft the message and the types of images we use to tell our presentation stories. We can get ideas from television graphics, USA Today charts or a company's annual reports. Sources for ideas are unlimited but you need to be looking for them. A cool use of text exploding off a small letter in a 60-Minutes television segment would work great in a presentation. Good use of graphics transcends their medium.
Follow these content tips and you'll discover you really can exceed your audience's most hopeful expectations.
1. Spend time to profile your audience - interests, topic expertise, expectations, diversity issues
2. Make sure your message is a good fit for a majority of attendees. Round pegs won't ever fit square holes.
3. Plan your time well. A good story that takes too long to tell will diminish impact. Create content that fills 90% of the time.
4. Resist the urge to say it all - use handouts appropriately and leave your audience wanting more.
5. Clearly understand the 3 or 4 key points you want to communicate and reinforce them frequently.
6. Know how your content flow will eventually be supported by appropriate images.
Learn more about Jim Endicott and Distinction in our Contributors area.
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