Structuring a presentation

Your Audience Needs a GPS

This week I was lucky enough to sit through one of the most poorly structured and boring presentations I have ever seen.

Lucky because it gave me material for my blog of what not to do

Unlucky because I couldn’t wait for it to end.

But I didn’t know when it was going to end because I hadn’t had my expectations set.

I thought it was going to be a 10 minute presentation. It went for over 45 minutes.

Which meant by about 15 minutes I was getting annoyed every time another slide started.

One thing you must do if you are doing a presentation is to set the sat nav for your audience

Give them a GPS.

A navigating system so they know where they are in relation to the start and the finish.

And you do this in the setup of your presentation by following the sales mantra of…..

Tell ’em what you’re gonna say

Say It

Tell ’em what you said

And only give them three things maximum. Our brains can’t really absorb much more.

Remember your audience more often than not does not know what you are going to say.

So you have to calibrate them

Tell them what to expect up front. “Today I am going to talk about…”

And as you go through it highlight where you are up to.

Point number 1 is this. Then talk about it.

Point number 2 is this. Then talk about it

Point number 3 is this. Then talk about it.

If you tell them at the start you were talking about three things then they are safely navigated through it.

If you just start talking and keep turning the page (like the presentation I saw) your audience doesn’t know where you are up to and doesn’t know how much longer is left.

And after 2-3 points you end up waffling on about things that just aren’t that important and completely dilute your key messages

So not only have your annoyed your audience, you have sent them to sleep as well.

Remember this recipe for any great presentation…..

Today I am going to talk to you about three things….1 is this, 2 is this, 3 is this.

Talk about 1

Talk about 2

Talk about 3

Then finish by saying “Today I talked about 3 things, 1 was this, 2 was this and 3 was this”.

Bookend it with a catchy headline and a call to action and your audience will arrive safely at the end engaged, they will remember what you said, and they will likely action it