Presenting With Impact - It's A Skill That Can Be Learnt

Do you have a presentation due sometime soon? Presenting is a skill that you can learn and improve with practice. Confidence and a feeling of being in an acceptable comfort zone come from careful preparation, rehearsal and a strong will to succeed. Follow these tips.

If it's not on the immediate horizon you can almost be assured that at some time in your working career you will be required to make a presentation to a group of people. It may be to a panel, a team, customers, prospects or a large audience – whatever the situation it should prove to be both a challenge and an opportunity.

And whatever you want the outcome to be - it may be vital to the success of your business, service, or product or your own career path - you will need to present with the strongest possible impact.

Presenting is a skill that you can learn and improve with practice. Confidence and a feeling of being in an acceptable comfort zone come from careful preparation, rehearsal and a strong will to succeed. Follow our tips below for:

How to prepare yourself mentally
How to plan and prepare your presentation – a checklist
How to research and gather information on the topic
How to determine the content of your presentation
How to decide on presentation structure
When to use visual aids and handouts
How to develop your own personal presentation skills
How to develop the mechanics of your presentation: the rehearsal, audio aids and timing
Visual aids – how, when and which ones to use
Handling questions and discussion

How to prepare yourself mentally

Most presenters experience nervous tension, anxiety or excitement prior to facing an audience. Nervous energy, heightened feeling and sharpness of focus are essential to peak performance. You just need to learn to make this stress work for you, rather than against you.

Hints

Remember moods are contagious. Prepare yourself mentally. You need to be able to overcome nerves, reach out to your audience and establish rapport and project confidence. This should all come together if you:

Prepare thoroughly so that you know you have the ammunition with which to make the presentation.
Have your notes organised and handy so that you can refer to them should your memory fail.
Arrive early to set up and avoid the last minute rush or panic.
Check equipment and facilities beforehand to ensure you have what you need and that it works.
Slow down and relax beforehand. Breathe deeply and slowly. Consciously relax muscles to release tension.

How to plan and prepare your presentation - a checklist

First you need to be quite clear about your objective, the audience and the medium for your presentation. Address the following questions:

Why are you making the presentation? Is it to entertain, influence, persuade or give information?
Who is your audience? What is their existing level of knowledge and understanding? What is their attitude? What is their comprehension level?
Where will the presentation be held? Consider the availability of equipment, facilities, acoustics, lighting, seating, air-conditioning, parking, security etc. Will it be interruption-free? Will you have access beforehand?
When is the presentation to be given? Consider the effect of the time of day on the audience. How much time have you got to prepare? What time is your presentation to take place?
What are you going to say? What are the topics? What questions need to be answered? What will help your audience to understand, remember and act?
How will you present your material? What is your medium(s)? Will you be using visual aids, appealing to multiple senses, issuing handouts or reference materials, involving the audience?

How to research and gather information on the topic

Need more information on the subject? Speak to specialists and experts on the subject. Source books, magazines, reports, videos, the Internet, audiotapes, newspapers, journals, government publications. Undertake interviews, questionnaires, and surveys. Use personal observations, brainstorming etc.

How to determine the content of your presentation

Consider your time limit and what you have time to cover. To do this efficiently you need to classify your information into:

Must know – essential information.
Should know – important to know but of a less critical nature.
Could know – other information but not essential.

Your presentation must include the must know information and as much of the should know as time permits.

It is best to cover between two to five main ideas. Any more ideas may result in information overload for your audience.

The could know is only covered when you have time. You could refer your audience to extra information via reading material, links to websites or other reference sources.

How to decide on presentation structure

There are a number of approaches you can take to organise your presentation.

Approach 1 - The presentation has a clear Introduction, Body and Conclusion.

If you use this approach your introduction should tell your audience exactly what it is you are going to tell them.

Hints

Seize the immediate attention of your audience – use a startling fact or statistic, a humorous personal experience, a human interest story, an apt quotation from a credible source, an interesting anecdote, or a well-executed joke related to the topic.
Include a warm welcome, your credentials, your objective and what process(es) you intend to use.
Motivate your audience by selling them the benefits of what each of them will get personally from being there.

The body should tell your audience precisely what it is you want to tell them.

Hints

Prepare your notes by deciding on main segments to be covered and put them in a logical sequence, list the points to be covered and include brief notes of presentation aids or methods you propose to use.
Write down the words that you will use to effectively link each segment.
Start writing at the known level of your audience.
Avoid jargon, use familiar words.
Leave detail to handouts.
Convert statistics into charts or graphs.
Use visuals where possible but don’t overdo them.
Ask yourself as you are preparing your notes “What impact will this have on my audience? Include only what has high impact.

The conclusionshould tell your audience exactly what it was that you have just told them.

Hints

Summarise by restating your objective.
Show them how you achieved your objective.
Finish with an appropriate joke, quote, story etc to think about.
Determine whether you will allow questions – take into account the time frame.

Approach 2 - The 4 P's

If you need to persuade and influence others consider a 4 P’s structure: Position, Problem, Possibilities and Proposal.

Position
Give a brief account on the present situation and practices. For example the customer’s present use or application of a product.

Problem
Explain why the present situation is unsatisfactory or needs changing. What problem is evident?

Possibilities
Outline and explain the options or alternatives which could correct or overcome the problem.

Proposal
Look at the problem from your audience’s point of view, addressing their interests. Suggest to your audience which alternative you think best suits them.

Make it clear that you are not telling them what to do. Your suggestion may be more than they want or indeed less than they want.

Approach 3 - The Apple Tree Approach

Give your topic a snappy title.
Reduce information to a maximum of five “must know” statements.
Reduce “must know” statements to keywords. For example:
- Must know statement ... You get what you pay for.
- Reduced to keywords ... Don’t buy rubbish.
- Build a mini speech on each keyword by explaining it, reinforcing it and selling it.
- Picture it up.
  Show a cartoon or picture of customer A with his cheap substitute enviously watching customer B enjoying the use of his quality purchase. This will help your audience visualise and is enormously persuasive.

Approach 4 - Powertalk – The 5-point outline

The bait: The initial hook for audience attention
Your introduction needs to grab audience attention in the most dramatic way possible. The bait must address the audience’s questions such as “Why bother?” “Why is this important?” and “What’s in it for me?”

The pitfall: Identifies the problem or opportunity and establishes the specific need
The audience learns for the first time that they have a problem to be solved.
The more concerned they become the better.

The rescue: There’s hope! “The good news is...”
The audience learns of who or what can solve the problem and are eager to know more.

The “how to and so what” scenario
The audience learns all about who or what will solve the problem and all of their questions about how, when, and where etc are answered.

Actual demonstration or personalisation, and use of facts, figures etc are used to inform and convince the audience.

Gives the audience glimpses into the future to see themselves enjoying the benefits of what has been proposed.

The call to action: closing the sale
The audience is urged to consider what has been proposed and to act.

Once you have decided on your structure you need to decide what you are going to say and how you are going to say it. You must think at this stage about the relationship that you want to have with your audience and the part you want them to play.

Having now determined the organisational pattern of your presentation you need to decide if and where you are going to use aids to benefit your presentation.

When to use visual aids and handouts

Learning is a multi sensory process - so appeal to as many senses as possible. However a visual aid is only a time waster if it doesn’t add value to your presentation.

And not all aids are visual ones. Keep your presentation interesting. How?

Have something for the eyes:

Overhead transparencies.
Website.
Posters.
Pictures.
Movement.
Colour.
Handouts.
Samples.
Demonstration.

Have something for the ears:

Tone of voice.
Inflection.
Music.
Sound effects.

Have something for the imagination:

Stories.
New ideas.
Word pictures.
Puzzles.
Visualisation.

Have something for the 'backside':

Humour to relax and loosen up physically and psychologically.
Audience participation.
Games.
Convenience breaks.

Consider using a handout:

To reinforce important information.
Cover the “could know” aspects of the topic.
Supply supporting data.

How to develop your own personal presentation skills

Adopt a style of dress appropriate to the task and audience. The audience needs immediate confirmation that you are a credible person.

Body language counts for more than half the message you communicate. Greater credibility is given to what your body is communicating than to the words you use.

Your voice is the next most important part of your communication – not what you are actually saying but how you use your voice – the tone, the strength or weakness of it, the inflection. It's more often not what you said but how you said it that will be remembered long after your presentation.

So...

Take a few deep breaths before starting to speak, and allow the body to relax. Relax facial muscles and keep them under control.
Immediately establish and maintain eye contact with the audience.
Use facial expressions which support the verbal message.
Keep your head high and steady.
Use hand gestures in a natural unaffected manner to add variety and activity to speaking. Lack of movement signals fear - not poise or confidence.
Move with natural, comfortable and relaxed actions - keep your arms away from the centre of your body and let your armpits breathe.
Speak clearly, distinctly, in a well-modulated tone that is well-projected and at a pace that suits the audience.
Use inflections, enthusiasm and vitality in order to energise, influence and excite the audience.

Don’t...

Fidget or engage in random activity – these actions are distracting and signal nervousness.
Have a tremor in your voice.
Move about a great deal or sway around.
Keep eyes pinned to notes or the floor.
Mumble, show hesitancy, gabble or drop your voice at the end of a sentence.

How to develop the mechanics of your presentation

Rehearse your presentation

The best spontaneity is that which has been rehearsed.
Don’t leave rehearsal till the last minute.
Practice in front of a mirror.
Record your presentation on video or audiotape and play back the tape, noting what you can do to improve where necessary.
If possible rehearse in the room where you will be presenting and use all the relevant visual aids. Visualise your audience.
Have an associate, friend or peer review your presentation and give you feedback.

Audio aids

Use a microphone, preferably one that is pinned to you and which doesn’t restrict your movement when:
- Your voice is not strong enough to be heard by your audience or
- The room is large and/or the accoustics are poor.
- Practice using your microphone to develop confidence.
- Always test that the microphone is working before your presentation.

Timing

Note carefully during rehearsal how much time is allocated to each part of your presentation and ensure you are able to finish within the allocated time.
Keep a timepiece handy on the day and refer to it so that you don’t run over time.
Don’t rush your audience, particularly when presenting complicated points.
When you say “finally” or “in conclusion” mean it.

Visual aids – how, when and which ones to use

Factors to consider

Presenting environment.
Style of audience.
Desired mood and tone.
Complexity of information to be communicated.
Focus on presenter versus visual aids.
Level of desired interaction.

Using visual aids

Integrate and use visual aids for impact. Don’t overdo them. Only use them to help in achieving objectives.
Always arrive early and check everything that you will need is working and available.
Ensure you are familiar with the equipment.
Make sure the aids can be seen clearly by everyone in the room – put yourself central to the audience.
Talk to your audience, not the aid.
Have one visual focus at a time.
Don’t play with the pointers.

Commonly used aids – which ones to choose

A whiteboard

Advantages:

Low cost.
Simple to use.
Flexible.

Disadvantages:

Visibility.
Legibility.
Appearance.
Loss of eye contact when writing on it.

Hints

Use special whiteboard markers – check that they work and have a variety of colours.
Check that you have an eraser which works.
Practise layout beforehand.
Write clearly and quickly.
Stand aside when you have finished writing so everyone can see what you have written.
Never talk to the board.

The overhead projector

Advantages:

Transparencies can be prepared in advance.
Easy to operate – on/off switch and focus are the only controls.
Gives high visual impact with both small and large groups.
Allows you to keep eye contact with the audience.
Focuses audience attention.
Provides a methodical approach.
Can be used in normal lighting providing the sunlight doesn’t shine directly on the screen.

Disadvantages:

Can be overdone.
Can be unprofessional if the transparencies have been sloppily prepared.
Can be distorted - the arrangement of many rooms prevents the screen from being correctly angled resulting in distortion of the picture.

Hints

Set up the projector in a position where the audience vision is not obstructed.
Check that the projector is focused and that the transparencies can be read easily by the most distant section of your audience.
Gently wipe the glass surface of the projector to remove dirt or particles which could be projected onto the screen.
Stand or sit in a position when using the projector where you are not obstructing anyone’s vision.
When pointing to a transparency during the display, use a long fine pointer – don’t use your finger or point at the screen.
Turn the projector off when you are not discussing the points on a specific transparency – this will avoid audience distraction and keep their focus on you and what is being said.
Listen for key words and capture basic ideas – not every word - or the essence of what has been raised.
Write legibly, quickly and use abbreviations.
Vary colours and use colour to highlight, segment ideas, underline.
Vary size of print and writing.
Use stars, arrows, dots, asterisks, numbers etc.
Number all sheets.

Preparing transparencies

Centre your work and limit each visual to one idea.
Use no more than six lines per transparency and no more than six words per line.
Use at least 16 point font-size in bold, simple font-type that is easily readable.
Vary the font-size in order to illustrate the relative importance of information.
Use the same font-type style for each series of transparencies.
Be imaginative. Use colour, illustrations, cartoons, graphs, maps and charts, instead of relying upon words or numbers.

The flipchart

Advantages:

Is inexpensive and easy to use.
Helps group to focus.
Is a repository for all ideas.
Frees participants from taking notes.
Depersonalises ideas.
Prevents repetition and keeps subject in focus.
Encourages participation because it respect’s individual’s ideas.
Allows each member to have input and “see” their ideas included.
Makes problem solving easier because sheets can be prepared ahead of time or created “live’ during the presentation.
Is economical - all you require is butcher’s paper, some widepoint felt tip markers of different colours and an easel.
Allows you to:
- record and present information and ideas during presentation;
- outline and reinforce key points:
- present illustrations, sketches, graphs, diagrams and other visuals.
Makes accountability easier: decisions are written down in clear view of the audience.

Hints on preparation

Plan by doing a draft copy and revise till you get the best balance of lettering and visuals in the simplest and most eye-catching way.
Lightly pencil in guidelines to ensure uniform letter size. Then pencil in work first and go over with ink, crayon, felt-tipped pen or paint.
Limit to:
- keywords;
- five words per line; and
- six lines per sheet.
Use large type so the words can easily be seen at the back of the room.
Use maximum contrast between lettering and background. Some effective colour combinations are black on white, black on yellow, orange on blue, green on white.
Avoid using low contrast colours, such as pale yellow on white, or light blue on dark blue.

Hints on use

Stand to the side so the pages are visible to all your audience.
Don’t talk to the flip chart.
Place a blank sheet between each page. This removes the stimulus when you’ve finished with a page and prevents pen marks coming through onto the next prepared sheet.
When creating "live" sheets write clearly and quickly and in straight lines.
Turn the sheets smoothly with minimum distraction.
Place tabs on the side of the charts which you want to refer to again in your presentation.
Don’t reveal a chart until you are ready for it.
Don’t forget to show a visual that you have prepared to substantiate a fact, argument etc. at the time the point is made.

Video

Advantages:

Adds variety with animation.
Can capture real-life demonstrations which other methods cannot portray.
Useful to introduce, clarify or reinforce a point and capture interest.
Enables you to stop and discuss and replay sections.

Hints

Preview the video prior to using it to ensure that you are:
- familiar with it’s content;
- satisfied that the content is relevant and reinforces your message;
- satisfied that the quality of the film and message is high.
Avoid using an old video where the fashions, methods or equipment are outdated. This will weaken your presentation.
Use a large screen so the video can be clearly seen by everyone.
Darken the room so that there is no stray light causing reflections on the screen.

Handouts

A presentation will often be enhanced by the issue of a well-prepared handout.
They are useful in providing:

Background reading
Supporting data that would otherwise have been difficult to present and digest in any other form.
A summary of the main points of the presentation to jog memories.
Additional reading to cover the ”could know” aspects of the topic, which couldn’t be covered within the time constraints of the presentation.

Handling questions and discussion

Are questions necessary? Whether you encourage or allow questions depends on:

What relationship you want to have with your audience. You have established this when you determined whether your objective was to inform, to persuade, to encourage or inspire or just to entertain.
If you need to audience participation or involvement.

So ask yourself:

What form of audience participation will best help you to achieve your objective? Should these be questions? Comments? Detailed discussion? Exercises?
What will be feasible, given the expected numbers? Questions are difficult to manage if there are more than a hundred people. Discussions or exercises may mean dividing the audience into syndicates – will the accommodation allow this?
Should you “program” the participation by planting questions or having prepared discussion topics? Or should you allow questions to arise spontaneously.

These issues must be addressed at the planning stage when you are deciding which presentation structure best suits your purpose.

Controlling the timing of the questions:

Decide in advance whether you want the audience to:

Interrupt your presentation whenever they have questions; or
Save their questions until the end of your presentations.

Once you have decided advise the audience at the outset and control the time limit for questions.

Prepare for questions:

Anticipate likely questions – plan your answers.
Have extra back-up information available.
Consider questions as requests for information or clarification – not personal challenges or attacks.
Repeat the question – this allows you to check your own understanding, gives you time to formulate a good answer and clarifies the question for the audience.
Answer openly and honestly; if you don’t know an answer promise to find out the answer - and do so.
Don’t get hooked into one discussion or an argument.
Don’t let the questioner get control – cut them off politely if they go on too long or are clearly trying to make a statement.
Thank your audience at the end for their questions.

If there are no questions?

Have some questions of your own ready.
Attribute a question to someone else – “When I was covering this topic with another group I was asked ...”
Ask a question of the audience – “Would anyone like to know more about..."
Arrange to have a plant in the audience with a prepared question(s).

Reprinted with permission of NSW Business Chamber. For more information about this article or NSW Business Chamber, its products, services and membership, please call 13 26 96 or visit the web site: www.nswbusinesschamber.com.au
First published: 4 June 2003.
Last updated: 29 November 2005.