What’s the purpose of your presentation?
Presentations
fail when the presenter doesn’t understand the real purpose.
Presenters
have told me that their plan was to speak for 30 minutes, cover all the
material or represent their company. Some confessed that their goal was to
deliver their message, prove their point or receive a standing ovation.
Executives and managers said that they needed to report the latest numbers,
update the board or bring everyone up to date.
Each
of those is a poor description of the presentation purpose. Why? Because those
are speaker focused. And if you define success based on the speaker and not the
audience the presentation will almost always fail.
You
must define your presentation success in terms of the audience. The only valid
reason to speak – especially in business – is to move your audience. Every
presentation is a step in advancing the group.
Here
is the critical question you must ask yourself before every presentation:
What
do you want people to think, feel or do after your presentation?
Design,
deliver and evaluate your presentation on the answer to that question.
The
real purpose of speaking is to move people. If you moved them in the direction
you intended your presentation was successful. The level of success is
determined by how many moved and how far they moved.
If
all you did was cover the material, the presentation was for you and not the
audience. That makes it a failure.
Perhaps
you want:
Front
line staff to adopt a different approach with customers
Association
members to volunteer for committeesInvestors to contribute more funds
Shoppers to buy
Voters to support you
Be
clear about your purpose and be able to state it clearly so everything you do
contributes to your success.
The
purpose of speaking is not to speak; it’s to move people.
Design,
deliver and measure the success of your presentation based on what you want
people to think, feel or do.
Presentation Tips on Twitter Presentation Skills Club on Facebook Executive Speech Coach, Business presentation tips from George Torok, the Speech Coach for Executives
