Five Steps to Great Presentations

Your presentation is not about you, the experiences you have had, celebrities you've worked with, or even how much you know.

It is not about you at all.
It is about your audience.

Before you even start thinking about what you are going to say, you need to think about who you are talking to.....
* Who are they? Think about their age, gender, job, company, culture...
* What does your audience already know about your topic?
* Why is this important to your audience?

This last point is essential, because if your audience doesn't care about what you are saying, they simply won't hear it.

Whatever your topic, your audience needs a reason to listen to you.
WHY should they pay attention?
WHY are they spending their valuable time listening to you?

To best way to describe the Why is to stand in their shoes and ask yourself What's In It For Me? (WIIFM). For instance:
* I could learn a new language, but how will that make my life easier?
* I could learn the finer points of our company's strategic plan, but why should I?
* I could learn how to use the new complicated holiday request system, but WIIFM?

You might want to think about the WIIFM for your audience from two viewpoints:
Gains - How will they get more of what they want (e.g. money, time, promotion, peace)?
Pains - How will they get less of what they don't want (e.g. frustration, confusion, debt)?

If you can clearly articulate why your audience should listen to what you have to say, then the battle for their attention is almost won.

Now you've got to grips with who is listening, and got clear on the WIIFM, let's work out how this presentation is going to transform your audience.

It's not enough that your audience listens to you, enthralled by every word that drips from your honeyed lips. Oh no.

Presentations are about sharing something that will have an immediate benefit, such that your audience leaves with some useful they didn't have beforehand.

To think about what you are going to share, get into the mindset of your audience and complete the following sentence:
By the end of this presentation, my audience will be able to....

For instance, your presentation may be designed to ensure that your audience can...
* create a Squidoo lens about their pet
* identify target markets for their new product
* write a short press release for publication in the local press

The more precise your objectives in terms of what your audience will be able to do, the better - it will really help you focus your content to meet the needs of your audience. Decide up front on the behaviour you want to create and everything else will fall into place.

Now you've decided on the behaviour, let's look at what you are going to say to make that happen.

One of the most common mistakes presenters make is cramming in too much information. They try to condense 20 years' experience into an hour (or less), with the inevitable result that the audience leaves confused and overwhelmed. The skill comes in deciding not only what to put in, but crucially what to leave out.

It's not about telling them everything you know, or even most of what you know.

It is about giving your audience the next step, or steps to take them on the next stage of their journey. So cut to the chase, edit out the superfluous and your audience will thank you for it. A great expert makes their knowledge seem simple and obvious.

You can still brainstorm all the fantastically interesting experiences you've had in your career.
You can even list all the top tips you want to give them.

But then from all these options, you must select the one, or two most important thing(s) that your audience absolutely, positively must learn. This is called the Need to Know information.

Then focus your presentation on ensuring that you give your audience that Need to Know gem in clear, simple steps that they can apply straight away.

Sure your hilarious story about bumping into Simon Cowell always goes down a storm, but if it is not on the guest list, it's not getting in. It's time to be ruthless and discard anything that is not absolutely essential. Save that stuff for another day.

Edit, edit, edit, then edit some more. Keep it simple, easy to remember and easy to implement and your audience will leave feeling informed, inspired and empowered.

Now you've focussed on the most essential information, time to deliver it.

Presenters spend hours scripting and tweaking what they are going to say in a presentation, yet surprisingly few spend time on how they are going to say it. A large proportion of the impact you have as a presenter comes from how you deliver - your voice, your body language, your charisma. Even the most exciting content will be uninspiring if it's delivered in a monotone voice, eyes to the floor with a dejected stance.

So once you've decided on your content, it's time to practise delivering it.

There are two things that will have an immediate impact on the impression you make:
* Your Posture - ideally you should come across as confident, relaxed and poised.
* Your Passion - your presentation should inspire your audience through the enthusiasm evident in your voice.

Once you relax, you will come across as more genuine, more honest and more natural. Your gestures will enhance your message and your audience will connect with your authenticity. Get it right, and these two aspects will combine to create Your Prescence.

The only way to perfect your delivery is to practise.
Practise all aspects of the delivery: the words and phrases you will say, the tone and pace you will use, when you will add pauses for dramatic effect, where you will stand, even which gestures you will use to emphasise key points.

Make sure that you time your delivery, and practise until you finish on time, every time. Remove phrases that make you stumble. Rehearse until you feel confident that you know what to say, how to say it, when to say what and how to integrate it with your slides/ flipcharts.

Then when you are almost ready, practise in front of a mirror, or video camera and watch yourself. You will learn so much about how your audience will perceive you.

Four steps down and you're now ready to deliver your presentation.
Good luck!

Tempting as it is to simply breathe a big sigh of relief now that your presentation is over, spending a few moments reflecting on the experience will help you improve and develop your skills.

One way of finding out if your presentation worked, is to ask the audience what they have learnt, or what they can do differently. The simplest way? Ask them!

A few open questions will help you find out if your presentation hit the spot. If you cannot ask your audience as a whole, then approach a few individuals during breaks or later in the day.

When you present, you will start to get a good feel for how things went. Here are a few questions to ask yourself as you reflect:
* What went really well?
* Where could things be improved?
* What questions came up?
* Where did you feel the audience were really attentive?
* When did their attention wane?

These two sources of feedback, from your audience and from your own reflections, will help you go from strength to strength, ensuring that you become known as an expert and much sought after speaker in your field.

Follow these five steps
* Audience - who are you talking to, what do they already know, what's in it for them?
* Behaviour - what will your audience be able to do once they have listened to you?
* Content - what is the key Need to Know information?
* Delivery - have you practised to ensure that you have the right presence?
* Evaluation - how did it go, what could be improved?

and you will learn that great presentations really are as simple as ABC.