Typically, when asked to make a presentation, the first question you ask yourself is, “What am I going to say?” That’s the first mistake a presenter makes. If you want an effective presentation, one that keeps your audience talking long after you’ve gone, you have to apply “The Platinum Rule®” (more on that in a later post!) to your speaking and presentation opportunities.

The first key question you should ask is, “What does my audience want to hear?” Focusing on why folks would sit in their seats for the time you have with them is the start to the most powerful, effective and valuable presentations. As a speaker, you need to learn about your audience… what motivates them, why they are in the room, and why they would give their time to you. You need to make the effort to get to know them, their backgrounds, interests and needs; what matters to them, and why and how you can deliver it. Make a contract to use their time wisely and productively.

If you don’t have the time to do the right research in advance to get to know your audience and design your presentation about them and their needs (I’d suggest you not give presentations unless you can invest the time to do the right research about your audience’s needs, hopes, expectations, etc.), in an impromptu setting, you can always start with a few opening questions you can ask the entire audience that give you a sense of who they are, what’s on their minds, what matters to them and why they’re sitting in front of you. Simple questions like, “How many of you have been with the company (or whatever the appropriate venue is) less/more than a year (etc.)?” How many of you have heard something about this topic before?” “With what one key challenge do you struggle that you came here today to get help?” You get the picture. (This should be based on your particular audience, topic, etc.)

The most important thing to remember: It’s all about them! Any effective presentation thinks about, and anticipates first, what matters to the audience, not the presenter. Remember, most folks only remember about 10% of what they’ve heard after only a couple days. Identify and connect with what they care about, and you can drive up that percentage for a memorable, useful and engaging audience-based presentation.

Next: The three key outcomes to identify for any effective meeting!

Tags: change, Coaching, communications training, creativity, education, groups, inspiration, Leadership Development, learning, meeting management, self development, time management, workplace

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 11th, 2010 at 8:24 am and is filed under Coaching, Effective Meetings, General Interest, Leadership Development, Presenter Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.