It has been said that in the United States alone, there are over 33 million presentations delivered every business day. That is the equivalent of nearly every resident of California delivering a presentation. Unfortunately, not all of those 33 million presentations are effective. Imagine the implications.

To gain insight into the implications of this presentation landscape, let's think about something that we have all experienced: It is 8:00 a.m. You are attending a breakfast meeting and the first of three presenters stands at the podium. The normal “technology jockeying” takes place to pull up the right PowerPoint slides. The presenter begins by saying, “Hi, my name is Joe Smith. My topic today is how to survive in a down market. As my first slide shows, we are definitely experiencing a down market.” You are now looking at a PowerPoint slide that resembles a page from a textbook; numbers and facts coat the slide, the fonts are similar to the bottom of an eye chart, and the accompanying graph blurs an already unclear message.

What just happened? Joe is becoming “noise”. He and his message just got lost among the 33 million other presentations. For Joe this poses a tremendous challenge. How does he rise above the noise? How does he differentiate, deliver his message, and ultimately achieve the results that he wants?

The answer is that Joe needs to connect with his audience. Presenters who can connect have a much better chance of differentiating themselves and gaining results from their presentations.

How do presenters like Joe connect? We’ve asked. After collecting and reviewing thousands of responses from audience members ranging from CEO’s and investors to scientists and engineers, we have distilled our data into 3 key secrets that help presenters connect with audiences. For this column, we will help Joe with the first secret.

Secret #1 - Audiences want a story

Joe needs a story. Before cell phones, e-mail, computers - even before the written word - stories were relied upon to communicate and pass down significant information. Stories helped pass down the story of the bible, family lineage's and famous war battles. Much of our past is still with us because of oral history, the ancient practice of remembering and repeating stories. Audiences today still want a story they can remember and relate to. This is an essential factor in connecting with audiences.

Why is a story necessary for connection?

Audiences don’t want to have to work. Think back to the 33 million presentations. Audiences are bombarded with data and statistics like Joe's. The result is that audiences are time and again being taxed to sift through information and figure out what the bottom line message is and why they should care. The reality is that most audience members won’t invest this effort. The biggest gift a presenter can bring to an audience is to distill reams of data into an easy to understand format and help audiences understand why it is important to them. And that is what effective stories can offer; simplicity and relevance.

The message, however, is not that presenters like Joe should stand up and tell a litany of stories and anecdotes. Audiences are too busy and discerning for pure fluff. The message is to construct an entire presentation so it is communicating one compelling story.

How do you tell a good story?

The key to a story is structure. Once you have a purpose statement, build a story around it with an:

• opening
• body
• close

While many of us learned this simple format years ago, most presentations focus on the body with little regard to an opening and a close. In a compelling story, the opening grabs our attention, communicates a purpose and makes us want to know where the story is going. The body has an easy to follow structure. A close ties it all together and makes us want to do something. Without an open and a close, the body of a presentation turns into noise.

Let’s go back to Joe. Clearly, there is room for improvement. Below is another possible opening for Joe so that he starts to tell a compelling story and connect with his audience.

“Unemployment this month is 6.4%. That is up from 5.8% a year ago and 4.8% in 2001. It is no mystery that we are in a down market. What I am here to share with you is survival is possible - even probable - if companies focus in the one area that is most critical: execution. My name is Joe Smith, and I pleased to be here with you to talk about what I believe are the 3 “C’s” to a company successfully executing in a down market.”

I’m compelled to listen. How about you? That’s the power of storytelling.

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.

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