Practical Steps In Preparing A Powerful Presentation

Step 1: Know Your Objective

If you are not clear about what you want to accomplish with your presentation, you are guaranteed to produce a vague and embarrassingly inept performance. Define what you want your audience to do as a result of your presentation. There are five main purposes for the presentation:

Persuading: influencing opinions/urge people to adopt a certain line of action

Challenging: reveal what people must face up to/dare to do

Informing: update people with news/facts

Teaching: Training or coaching, giving instruction

Giving bad news: reveal bad news

...yet, your objective will still be that they do something as a result of attending the presentation. Specifically, what do you want to achieve?

Try to narrow down your objective to one single strong sentence – that spell out exactly what it is that you want to achieve.

Consider the following: What you want to achieve is not to make a good presentation at the auction, but to sign up 10 new farmers to do business with your company.

Step 2: Know Your Audience's Objectives

For this try and get inside the mind of your audience.

It appears that a large crowd of people packed together in one place achieves two important results that still cannot be so well achieved by any other means: the affirmation of unity and solidarity and the acclamation of leadership.

This is not true of small gatherings, but as they grow larger it becomes more and more true. A really large audience is not, for most practical purposes, a place for detailed and reasoned argument. The more people there are, the smaller the proportion whose knowledge, experience, intelligence and interest are at the right level and the harder it is for the argument to be comprehensible and relevant to any but a few.

So, you have to appeal not to the diverse minds but to the common emotions – hopes and fears, elation and aggression, admiration and contempt, shared experiences and shared aspirations. When you get so many people together, you are not dealing with the intellectual differences of the individual but with the biological identity of the species. In an audience, we discover our group identity and we accord special prominence and respect to those who lead us to the discovery.

In order to pitch your presentation at the right level and to establish the appropriate language level, you need to identify the type of audience that you will be addressing. Can you speak in a language that is understood by the audience? This is a question you should ask yourself before every lecture. Audience language means- ‘words that the audience use and understand’.

If your audience prefers pictures and simple language, give them exactly that. Other audiences are familiar with technical words, so pitch your lecture at their level of understanding otherwise they may think you are insulting their intelligence.

The characteristics of the audience are extremely important:

• Size of the audience
• Gender
• Age
• Culture
• Ethnic background
• Political and religious beliefs
• Corporate culture
• Status and titles

Why is the audience there? Why must they attend the lecture?

Obligation - Sometimes we are required to attend lectures or meetings at which we are forced to take a passive role.

To be entertained – Some organisations use speakers more for their entertainment than content value.

To learn – Half the battle is won if you know that the audience is hungry for information.

To pass time – Attending a lecture is often a way of passing time.

To network – Anyone who has attended an industry conference knows that, for most delegates, the lectures tend to be secondary to the networking opportunities.

To impress – Some members use the occasion not to listen and learn but as an arena in which to be noticed.

To manipulate politically – Some will attend and shamelessly try to sabotage your platform for the sake of scoring political points.

Finally, you should be able to formulate another key sentence – the one which expresses the final impression you want to leave in the mind of your audience when the presentation ends.

The following questions might be helpful:

• What are they thinking about the subject?
• To be quite basic, how much do they already know about the subject – what is their level of technical interest and understanding? You will have to go into more details and explanations if they are relatively unfamiliar with what you are going to talk about.
• Why would they attend?
• What’s in it for them?
• If you try and look through their eyes, would they be attending with an expectation of you which you are not yet prepared for or able to meet?
• How interested would they be in your objective?
• What values do members of your audience hold?
• What is important to them? Be careful if you are trying to transfer a tried and tested presentation into a new type of audience.
• What needs do you believe the audience has?
• What internal political or financial constraints will limit their capacity to get involved with your proposals?
• Do they have a budget to finance the recommendations you are going to make?
• What do they think of you, as a result of previous interaction with you? Is there anything you must make sure to do differently?
• How many will be attending, that is, what size of group will you be addressing and what will the venue be like?

Step 3: Plan Your Approach

Know your topic: When faced with the task of giving a presentation, the first step you need to take in your preparation is to do research. Whether you are an expert in the subject or know only a little about it, you need to do some research to come up with the right material for your lecture.

Plan your approach/style: Presentations tend to fall into 5 broad categories. Preparation of script will differ –depending on the type of presentation that you intend to do.

Persuasion: This type of presentation is designed to influence opinions or urge people to adopt a certain line of action. It could contain the following elements:

• Dramatic facts or statistics to grab attention
• Negative scenario if nothing changes
• Positive scenario if change happens
• Your main ideas (the change which is required) and their supporting arguments
• Anticipated objections and your responses to them
• Description of desired future
• Action plan

Challenge: This type of presentation reveals what people must face up to or dare to do or significantly improve. It could contain the following elements:

• Description of the current situation, in detail as graphic and vivid as possible
• Vision of the desired future, equally as bright and clear
• Steps to be taken
• Action plan

Information:  People need to be updated with news, facts, figures, decisions and many other types of information. Such a presentation could contain the following elements:

• Overview of the topic (tell them what you’re going to tell them)
• Main ideas and the supporting arguments (tell them)
• Relevance to the audience (Radio WIIfm)
• Summary and conclusion (tell them what you’ve just told them)

Instruction: This type of presentation is similar to a training or coaching session. Such a presentation could contain the following elements:

• Outcomes
• Learning content delivered in small chunks for easier assimilation and in a logical sequence
• If skills are involved, demonstrate them
• Allow adequate time for practice
• Give feedback during the practising
• Check understanding by asking participants to re-phrase, demonstrate, give their own examples or to prove understanding by any means other than your asking: Do you understand?
• Test against the outcomes
• Indicate in what way their learning is to be used after the presentation.

Bad news: If people have to hear bad news, bear in mind:

• Head straight in, don’t beat about the bush
• Be accurate and truthful
• Recognise that what you are saying may cause sorrow, anguish, fear and/or anger and let them know that you acknowledge this
• Outline the way forward and any genuine good news on the horizon
• Be encouraging and supportive

Step 4: Write your Script - Main Ideas

A presentation plan is an essential piece of equipment for the presenter. It serves to guide you in the correct sequence and ensures that all relevant material is covered during the presentation. It provides a check to see if objectives are being met, if relevant.

Main ideas: It is fine to start with the body of the presentation first and do the introduction and conclusion later because, once your ideas are developed, you will know what it is you are introducing and concluding! Keeping in mind what it is you want people to do after your presentation, make a list of important ideas in achieving your objective. Categorise your list into main ideas, others which support them and ideas which can be discarded. Two to five main ideas will be enough.

Support each main idea with a few supportive comments. These may be explanations, research data, anecdotes or other relevant ideas which add substance and merit to the main ideas.

You are telling your audience a story and it is important to repeat the main points, for them to remember, throughout the lecture. Use the following guidelines:

• Every point must have a clear beginning, middle and end to it.
• Smooth transition from one point to the next.
• Audience will absorb a limited amount of information, don’t data overload.
• Jokes must be highly relevant.
• Avoid the use of unnecessary words.
• Phrase your ideas in the form of questions.
• Use appropriate analogies and things of an interesting nature.
• Maintain the level of energy and enthusiasm.
• Summarise regularly.
• Fit contents within the allocated time.

Step 5: Write your Script:

Introduction and Conclusion

Now that you know what your presentation is about, you are in a position to introduce and to conclude it!

In your introduction, you have to grab the interest and attention of your audience, (However you should also try to space out additional attention-getters approximately every 10 minutes in the body of your presentation in order to keep both interest and your listeners alive.)

The fact is that every speaker needs some sort of acceptance from the audience: if they are to accept what you say, they need some grounds for believing that:

• You are in most ways the same sort of person as them, and
• You will present new and interesting perspectives/information on the topic.

Introduction

The introduction must consist of the following key points:

Greeting

Capture the audience’ attention: Start with something interesting or unexpected, like:

• Humour
• Anecdote
• Short story
• Statistics
• Shocking facts/allegation
• Quotation
• Relevant example or illustration

Motivate the Audience to Listen to You: Opportunity statement: Give the reasons why they have to listen to you and how they may benefit from the lecture.  What is in it for them?

Introduce your Topic: This is a short summary of the content of the lecture.

• Must be logical.
• What can they expect?

Logical transition to the message

The Conclusion

Your conclusion must not introduce new material or ideas. It is a wrap-up of what has gone before – the same ideas but perhaps expressed in different words.

Hillaire Belloc’s famous words: Tell them what you’re going to tell them, then tell them, and then tell them that you’ve told them.

It must clearly summarise the main argument, reinforce the benefits and remind your audience of the first step of the action plan. Try to find a punchy ending for your closing words.

Your closing will include the conclusion, that is, the summary of your argument. However, try to find an inspiring, challenging or moving phrase or sentence as a last thought which also encapsulates whatever it is you originally wanted people to do as a result of attending your presentation.

Hold the silence after your last word, without stepping down or away. Wait for and enjoy the applause and acknowledge it with a simple: Thank you.

Don’t bow even though you may experience a peculiar desire to do so!