Every great presentation relies on the speaker connecting with and serving the audience. This means focusing on them at every step – from developing your content to delivering your message – is one of the best ways to ensure a successful event.
Step 1: Brainstorm and Prep
We need to get inside their heads. To help, start by answering the questions below. These are meant to help identify what content is important to cover. The list can also help identify any objections or questions that might come up. Having this knowledge is important because we can decide to proactively address topics or be prepared in case it comes up in the discussion.
- Will your audience know anything about you coming in? If so, what will they know?
- Is your audience open to your idea/goal, or do you need to convince them?
- What objections or concerns are they likely to come in with?
- Do they have questions?
- Which inputs do they need to make a decision?
- Are there hopes and goals they have that relate to the topic?
- What is in it for your audience? How do they benefit?
Not all these questions will apply to your specific presentation but use this as a starting point. This list might spark other ideas as well. Consider everything at this point as you brainstorm details that will help determine how to develop your content.
One important point before moving on to content: Your audience might have lots of people with the same needs, goals, questions and objections. Or, your audience might have people with lots of different characteristics and informational needs. If the latter, make sure you capture those as well to speak to everyone in the group.
Step 2: Plan the Content
The more you understand your audience’s perspectives, the better off you’ll be once you start to prepare what you will say.
When developing content, begin with your goal for the presentation. Do you want the audience to take a specific action? Learn new information? Approve a project? Buy your product or service?
Now we have a clear picture of where our audience is when they walk into our presentation and our goal for where we want them to be at the end. So, we just need to map out the easiest way to get them from Point A to Point B. List out the information that they need to know and make sure to include any points that are important to proactively address any questions they might have or potential roadblocks.
Turn the list into an outline for your talk and put these pieces of information into an order that makes sense for your audience.
Step 3: Add the Details
Build out your outline by adding in the important details. Work in examples and stories that will resonate with your audience and illustrate the points you want to make. Include stats or research findings that help reinforce your main messages. Sprinkle in customer testimonials.
This is also the point to think about anything else that will help convey your messages. This might be a movie, slides or something else. Let your message guide the decision on what to include or not include. Just make sure that anything extra enhances instead of distracts. The message should always be the primary focus to reach our goals.
Step 4: Practice and Refine
As soon as the first draft of content is ready, start to practice. Becoming familiar with the content goes a long way in helping us feel ready to present.
A few tips at this point in the process:
- Practice talking out loud. It is a different experience than rehearsing in your head and allows you to notice any spots that you need to smooth out.
- Time yourself to make sure you have the right amount of content while leaving time for questions.
- Ask someone to be your audience so you can practice. Use the feedback to help refine the content and how it is presented.
Tweak your content as you go until you are comfortable and feel ready for the big day.
Take Action
Try out these four steps for your next presentation. Keep track on what helps you so you can turn it into a habit over time.
