The Two Critical Strategies You Need for Any Successful Presentation
Wondering how to deliver a more effective presentation that gets results?
If you’re like most people, you’ve probably found that the outcomes of your presentations aren’t always exactly as you’d hoped.
What many people don’t realize is that they hold the power to deliver an effective presentation versus a not-so-effective one. And there are two distinct communication strategies that allow them to get consistent results.
Strategy #1: Evaluate the purpose of your presentation
We had a discussion with a client several years back about different types of presentations. This client made the distinction between persuasive and informational presentations, and a member of our team interjected with the opinion that the purpose of all presentations is to persuade. Our client brought up the important point that something like a “how-to presentation” isn’t intended to persuade, but to inform.
The types of presentations we give at Connect To The Core (and coach others on) are mostly in the persuasive category, although when we do coach people on informational presentations, we show them how to make it more exciting. All of this is to say that many presenters believe the intent of their presentation is to inform when what they’re really attempting to do is influence. So, they end up using the information as a persuasion technique (a big no-no).
How do you avoid this mistake? Begin by understanding the type of communication you’re preparing. Is it to provide clear step-by-step directions on how to assemble shelves according to the manufacturing specifications so they don’t fall down? Or is it to convince someone that it’s in their best interest to follow a course of action based upon the information available?
If the presentation is to persuade, then your focus is on what benefits your audience and why your subject matters to them. In contrast, an informational presentation is simply about stating the data and a sequence to follow.
Beware of dumping too much information on your audience when you use persuasion. It burdens them with the job of sorting through the information instead of making a strong case and determining what’s relevant to them. Besides, we have more information than we know what to do with… Google much?
When using persuasion, information is not the recommended tool used to engage and influence. Using case studies, metaphors, humor, stories, and your personal experiences are the sticky options we suggest hanging your information on. This will not only support you in making your case it will also make your information easier to remember for the audience.
For your next presentation, first, evaluate its true purpose: is it to inform or is it to influence and persuade? Recognize that most business presentations are for the purpose of selling your ideas or point of view to gain alignment, support, or a specific action. So, make sure you use all engagement options (not only information) and watch how your results increase.
Strategy #2: Take the attention off of yourself
Being nervous before public speaking or doing a big sales pitch is inevitable, and the technique that we’ve found to work best to eliminate this fear at its core is to shift the way you think about your audience.
It’s important to understand and acknowledge that the audience starts out on your side. They want you to be good, and they want to like you. Now, of course, there could be circumstances where you walk into a situation, and you know (and everyone else knows) you have an opposing opinion to the audience, for example. What we’re talking about is the other 99% of the presentations we make.
The reason the audience starts out on your side is very simple – they want their time to be well spent. The audience wants to get something out of what you have to say so they don’t feel like they’ve wasted their time. They’ll also relate to you from their own experiences of presenting and feeling nervous. If you fail or don’t do a good job, it’s a reminder of the times when they’ve felt awkward or uncomfortable. You begin to mirror each other.
Now that you know the audience wants you to win, you’re in the right mindset. The bad news is that the audience is now yours to lose. I see many speakers begin presentations still worried about the audience not liking them, the material, how they look, and a whole variety of other concerns.
All of these worries and the internal conversations that go along with them (you know the ones we think only we can hear) are actually very obvious to the audience. When you go into those situations it’s helpful to repeat the mantra, they’re on my side, they’re rooting for me.
The best way to get out of the fear zone and into the “we’re in this together” zone is by taking the attention off of yourself. This is the biggest challenge we face as speakers (and quite frankly as human beings).
The best way to focus on your audience is to remember that it’s not about you and it’s all about them. If we want to accomplish anything, we have to do it through other people. If the focus is on us, there is less likelihood that others are going to do what we want.
The first clue to recognize you’re focusing on yourself and not your audience is to observe the internal conversations going on in your head that were mentioned earlier. If you’re engaging in one of these conversations while presenting such as, “Oh no, I forgot my next line”, “Why did I wear this tie?”, “I should have switched the order of the slides”, “Why did I say that?”) then your focus is directly on you.
Once you shift the focus back to the audience, that internal conversation will dissipate, and your audience will feel a greater connection with you, which, you guessed it – will increase your results.
These are two key strategies that we cover in our Encore Communication training. Encore is a three-week (12 hour) live coaching program that turns people into exceptional communicators. From sales pitches, to meetings, to presentations, to proposals – Encore is the roadmap that gives you clarity on how to communicate your message effectively.
If you want to take your next important presentation to another level, you can learn more about Encore and how to enroll here. You’ll receive live coaching, feedback, support, and you’ll be equipped with all of the tools needed to use in any of your communication going forward.
If the strategies from this post resonate with you, be sure to share it with your colleagues, your friends, your mom… it all counts!
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