Secrets of great presenting – it’s all in the planning – part 2

Mike Levy

Here are some useful tips about starting a presentation

• Always prepare a rough draft of what you are going to say and write a list of the key points you want to make plus your objective/s
• Make a note of every point you think is relevant and then go through the draft again weeding out unnecessary material
• Tell a good story. Your presentation should have all the elements of a cracking good yarn. All good stories should tell the listener something about you - use lots of “I” sentences.
• Have a beginning, middle and end.
• Begin, with a headline or some other attention-grabbing sentence. Always introduce yourself in the introduction
• Develop your story with supporting facts, figures, problems encountered and overcome, old ways - new ways, old models - new models, and so on
• Spread your key priority points over the whole presentation - not too many at once
• End by summarising the key points made and by stressing the key objective “So my key message to you today is.........”
• Decide in advance what visual aids you will be using and incorporate these into your draft

The Audience

Understanding your audience -who will be there and what do they want and need?


The chances are that you can find out quite a bit about your audience before the presentation. Always try to do as much research on them as possible.

• Who will be there?
• Do they want to see you or were they forced to attend?
• What responsibilities do they have?
• What level in the organisation are they?
• Are they decision makers or will they have to persuade someone else?
• What will they expect from you?
• What do they already know?
• Will they all understand me - how technical can I, should I, be?
• Are they likely to ask questions?

The more you know about your audience in advance, the more persuasive your presentation can be. 

Here are some definite things to avoid:

• Talking down to an audience - people hate to be patronised
• Showing that you know little or nothing about them (at least know something about who they work for, what it does, where it is)
• Being totally unprepared for questions
• Knowing nothing about their current mood or concerns (I once gave a cheery presentation to a bunch of marketing guys who had just been told that their business was about to fold)

The most common problem with audiences is misjudging them. It is all too easy to talk down to an audience that may know more than you do. They may also have totally different expectations to you.

How often have you been to a presentation where the speaker clearly knew nothing about your needs, wishes or expectations?

The secret here is to try and see things from the audience’s viewpoint. What do they need to know? What language or level of complexity should you offer? Will they all have technical and other essential knowledge?

The audience should also know something about you.


More on your audience in part 3, coming soon. Watch this space.


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