In our fast paced working lives we are all busy and time poor. Whether it’s giving a update on an internal project, communicating a new product or service to clients, or delivering a keynote speech, we all want to present our key ideas, data and messages with impact. This helps us influence the audience to take the action/s we want them to take.

How do we do this when we have very little time?

Here are 2 simple things that will help you;

• Think About Your Audience – Who are they? What is the purpose of your presentation? How can you make your presentation relevant and tailored to them? Which information do I need to include? Which information can I leave out?

Map out your TFD.

D stands for Do. What action/s do you want the audience to take having heard your presentation. E.g. To be motivated to talk about the new product/service.

T stands for Think, what do you want the audience to think about you and your content. E.g This is a new angle, I’d not thought about it like that before.

F stands for Feel what do you want your audience to Feel? E.g Excited that this new product/service is going to be helping clients.

Going through this process is a good guide for helping you frame your content.

• Create Compelling Content – The Minto Pyramid, created by Barbara Minto, is one way to help you structure your content in a simple and impactful way. It’s really useful if you are presenting to a time poor Executive audience. I’ve used a recent retail client that I worked with to bring the model to life.

Start with the conclusion. E.g. “Learning how to use this platform will help you maximise your cash sales”. In this example the person grabbed the audience’s attention by articulating the core benefit of using the platform up front.

Middle Section: Key arguments – These are the key headlines that the person shared to back up the core benefits of using the platform. E.g Giving real life examples of the 4 different levers that the audience could pull to boost visibility and increase cash sales. One example was sharing a story of how to encourage customers to trade up from an own brand yoghurt to a premium one.

End Section. Link directly back to the opening. E.g the person left the audience with a call to action that would benefit them and their departments “If you apply the 4 levers when using the platform it will help you maximise cash sales”

Once you’ve created your structure, you can then create a few simple slides that bring to life your presentation. In my opinion the best slides are visual supported by minimal text. I would encourage you to put any detailed slides, information and data in the appendices of your slides. You don’t have to present this information but you can have it there in case you get asked a question, or someone would like more information.

Hope you found these tips useful. Good luck in putting them into practice when you’re presenting.

What are your some of your other presentation challenges? I would love to know and then I can provide some specific help through more articles, posts and videos. Let me know in the comments below!

Happy Presenting.

Trevor Penton(He/Him)
The Flourish Academy
Author and CEO
Helping Your Communication Skills Flourish
www.theflourishacademy.com
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