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| Less Is More – A Presenter's Tool
Sue has been asked to give a 20-minute presentation at a highly respected and well attended national scientific conference. As an expert in her field, this is an excellent opportunity for her enhance her recognition and reputation among her peers. Wanting to put her best foot forward, Sue decides to contact a presentation coach for feedback. At the beginning of the coaching session, as Sue pulls up her slides into "slide sorter" view, her coach quickly realizes that there is a lot of work to do. Sue has compiled 68 slides for her 20-minute presentation. It is apparent that Sue needs to learn why less is more. In our last column, we introduced our first secret that helps presenters connect with their audience - Audiences want a story. This secret, along with our two other secrets to achieving a successful presentation, is based on data we have collected from thousands of audience members on what helps presenters connect with their audience and achieve results. In this column, we will help Sue by covering Secret #2. Secret #2 - Less is more Less is more is easy to verbalize yet can be very difficult to implement in a presentation. Why? Two reasons:
Given your knowledge as an expert and passion on the subject area, the tendency is to want to share everything you know and infect the audience with your enthusiasm. But if we step back into the audiences shoes and remember that 33 million presentations are being delivered everyday, we quickly realize that audiences don't want or need to know all of your data. Audiences want a simple message that is relevant to them. So, how can Sue share less but deliver more? Two tips will help Sue trim her slides and ultimately deliver more. 1. Know your audience As you recall, presentations are about the audience. As Sue starts formulating her presentations, her very first step should be to get into the shoes of her audience by asking questions such as:
Knowing her audience will help Sue begin to shed unnecessary information and ultimately deliver a clearer, more valuable and memorable message.
As covered in our column two months ago, a purpose
statement will help Sue, and her audience, know exactly what she is trying
to accomplish with her presentation. To create her purpose statement,
Sue will need to answer these three questions succinctly:
Answering these questions will also help Sue focus her message and streamline her slides. As the coaching session progressed, Sue began to see the presentation from the audience's view point. She began to picture her audience sitting through 8-10 presentations a day, inundated with various scientific research, findings and breakthroughs. Sue realized that during her 20-minute presentation her audience could not absorb everything about her latest research in addition to everything else they heard throughout the day. In fact, they did not need to know everything about her research. What the audience needed to know were the key findings from her research and what her findings meant to them. She also realized that her key findings were not jumping out of her 68 slides. After more thought, she became excited about highlighting her key findings and then committing to include only the information that was critical to supporting those findings. This process allowed her to simplify her slides so that at the end of her presentation, her core message was clear and the audience was enticed to know more. While the process wasn't easy, Sue eventually condensed
her presentation to only nine slides. Her results? Attentive and engaged
audience members who asked insightful questions and requested to stay
updated on Sue's future research. Diane West is president of 2Connect, a San-Diego based company specializing in presentation training and coaching. She can be reached at dwest@twoconnect.net or 858-638-7544. Copyright San Diego Daily Transcript -- |
