Essential Presentation Skills - Part 2

We has said over the next few Blogs we are going to cover steps towards preparing for a presentation, so today we will cover the first 3:

1. What is your goal?
2. Who is your audience?
3. What is your content and why?
4. How are you going to close?
5. How are you going to open?
6. What will be your memorable visuals?
7. How will you excite your audience?
8. What is your rehearsal plan?

1. What is your Goal? 

When you are planning your presentation you need to think about what is your goal.

Telling is not selling – people are very bad at absorbing large amounts of information in a very short time, you often hear the statement too much information or information overload. So plan the key information you want to get across to your audience and make sure you are not too broad.

I once went into a presentation with my goal set as I want to tell the management team about my project. Way too broad they were confused, bored, frustrated as to the purpose and actually my manager was annoyed at the whole incident.
My goals needed to be more focused and I learnt very quickly to plan better on my next project report to the executives. 

2. Who is your Audience? 

You need to identify who your audience is going to be and what they are hoping to get out of the presentation. Put yourself in their shoes for example an executive board are interesting looking forward and managing the cash if I am going looking for more money on a project I need to address the questions they will be asking like what will it be spent on and what benefits will the organisation get from this additional spend.
There is no point in having your visual aids referring back to things from the 1970’s that you understand when your target audience is the youth of 2010 – ensure any visuals you use will make sense to your audience.

Think about what your audience: 

• Want to hear about – why are they there 
• Don’t want to hear about – what would send them thought wandering 
• Want to learn – what will help them make a decision 
• Would get irritated by – avoid getting up peoples heckles 
• Technology levels – don’t use terms that only make sense to you 

3. What is your content and why? 

Audiences don’t remember if there is too much information and there are terms they cannot associate with. The brain also remembers things that are repeated so if it is important to you that your company name is remembered then repeat, repeat, repeat but in a way that flows with the presentation. Find a phrase or a strap line or a motto that the audience can link with you and repeat, repeat, repeat - they will remember.

Brains remember stories and real life examples – if they can link what you are telling to a real event or a real purpose or a real problem they may be experiencing they are more likely to remember.

Link your content back to your goal and your audience and remember that the human brain loves the unexpected and tends to remember them. Placing something totally unexpected or unusual in the middle of your presentation will grab the attention of your audience again.