Making things relevant

When you're presenting a subject to an audience, you're looking for 'relevance', to make the thing you're talking about fit a need that they have. Of course you are or what's the point in speaking?

So you could say that the real skill of a presenter, whatever the subject, is the ability to make it fit with the audience whoever they are. But as you know, there are many occasions that we are called upon to speak, when we don't know the audience at all well. It may be an introductory meeting, or a response to a request for information where we know one or two people in a crowd but not the rest. It's a real dilemma, but one that can be overcome with a little bit of thought.

I had a client a few years ago, who was a director of purchasing for a global motor manufacturer. He asked me to sit with him through a day of presentations from potential suppliers and give him my views on the quality of presentations that came before us. I had high hopes for the sessions as these were golden opportunities for the companies to make their pitches to someone who could place an order for tens of millions of pounds of products on the spot.

You'd think that they'd be as good as you'd find in the professional world of sales, wouldn't you? I thought so and I was wrong. It was an excruciating, though memorable experience. Most of the presentations were embarrassingly poor for similar reasons. Let's take one example-

But they weren't good

What if you don't have the time to consult the audience?

On the occasions that you really don't have time to prepare properly, you might like to start by asking the people in the room some questions about what your they'd like to hear from you and a maybe even give them a "menu" of options with timings for them to choose from.

What if the audience consists of 30 people all with different needs?

a. You can help yourself to avoid difficult events like this, when you're almost guaranteed to fail to satisfy everyone, by giving separate presentations with slightly different focus for each of the interest groups present. Or if that’s unrealistic…

b. Go with what the most senior/influential people in the room want to hear because there's a reality that demands you satisfy key people and then most of the rest of the room will follow their lead.

What if you've got a really bad news presentation, how do you make that fit?

Give it to people straight, don't euphemise- a lost job is only "an opportunity to refocus your life" to an HR manager who's going to stay in his. Answer all of their crucial questions in your presentations (When do I leave? How much do I get? What help is available to me to get another job? What about my pension?)

What if they want a flip-chart presentation and I only do PowerPoint or vice versa?

Get practising with the marker pens or make sure that you explain why you'd choose to use a medium that very rarely adds anything to the quality of the message you convey.

Practical things to help you to make your presentation fit:

Before the Presentation: Talk to the opinion formers

Before you start to prepare anyhting, do a bit of research among your audience. Ask a few of the more inluential people for the 3 most important things they'd like to get out of the presentation you're going to give them. How? Go and see them, ring them, e-mail them, talk to their PA's, but make the effort. Even if they can't really tell you what they want, they'll probably be able to give you a whole list of things that they don't want, and that gives you a real advantage when you get in fron to of them. What it if they don't respond at all? They'll know you tried and appreciate you for that.

If you really can't get to see the audience: Use your imagination

Ask yourself or a close colleague to think of the most difficult or embarrassing question that anyone of the likely audience could ask you, and prepare an outline of the presentation from that stand-point until you feel you have covered every possibility.

Draw up a list or a mind-map of all the things that you could include in your presentation and send it to your key audience members for them to highlight the key things they'd like you to concentrate on in your presentation.

Put yourself in the minds of the audience and ask yourself" If I was the Managing Director of this business, sitting in the audience, looking at me make this presentation. What are the key things I’d like to hear?" and prepare to answer those questions.