3 Tips On How To Give a Good Presentation

How to give a good presentation

When people seek presentation skills tips on Google, they typically type in the following question:

How to give a good presentation?

You probably found this article because you typed that search!

Sorry to tell you that that's the wrong question to ask.

The better question is: How to give an effective presentation?

Why? Read below…

How to give a good presentation VS. an effective presentation.

Changing the words from “good” to “effective” in the questions turns it from a subjective question to an objective one. Think about it: What's “good” for you might not be “good” for me and vice-versa. However, what's effective can be measured and documented.

Definition

ef·fec·tive

əˈfektiv/

1.successful in producing a desired or intended result.

When you present in a business setting, you do not just flap your lips for no reason. You always have an objective, and this objective should always be measurable. Otherwise, you will never know whether the presentation was successful or not.

Also… A good presentation is not necessarily effective, but an effective presentation is always good.

Here are 3 of ways to make sure you give an effective and good presentation.

#1 Be clear on who you are presenting to

A presentation to everyone is a presentation for no one. If you try to build a presentation for “all” your audience members, then your message will be diluted, and your arguments will be stretched in multiple directions.

That's ineffective.

Imagine that you are trying to write an important email, and every 10 seconds someone from your company stops by to ask you a question. Do you think you will be able to write a good email?

No.

Same thing happens if you try to create a presentation without clarity on who is it for.

You will be thinking about an argument to convince Sam, and then Sally pops in your mind with a different need than Sam, and then you switch your thinking to Sally, and 10 seconds later Paul shows up and so on.

By the time you are done with the presentation and have your slides all ready, you will have some thoughts in your presentations to satisfy Sam, some slides to satisfy Sally, some conclusions to satisfy Paul, etc.

There will be no unifying message or theme. This is why some presenters ramble on with no point to make. Rambling is a symptom of a presentation with no anchor point.

If you want your presentation to be effective, you have to pick one person or maximum two in your attention to be as an anchor point(s). This will help you stay focused on a linear and cohesive message.

Ok, you are convinced. Now, how do you pick this anchor-person?

There are many of choices for each presentation, but you have to be strategic with your choice. I usually pick by asking myself these questions:

Who is the decision-maker?

Who is the most important person in the room?

Who would benefit the most out of my presentation?

Then I make my decision. If you can't think of a real person, then create a Persona. A persona a symbolic person you chose. Usually, I pick a name and a title for this Personal. Some examples: Mark an engineer, Molly a doctor, and Mary the CEO.

I like to come up with a real person vs. persona. However, a persona is better than nothing.

Remember the first step to creating an effective presentation is to create the presentation as if it will be delivered to only one person. That person is the anchor point for all your thoughts, arguments, data, and slides.

#2 Be clear on the outcome

Why do we set outcomes in business? Because outcomes are how we measure success.

Without setting goals and outcomes, we would build hobbies, not businesses. A presentation in a business setting is a tool to educate, influence and move a business agenda and therefore it too must have outcomes and goals attached to it.

Have you ever asked your manager or trusted colleagues after a presentation on how you did? That's good, and there is nothing wrong with asking.

However, if you set clear outcomes for your presentations, you will not feel the need to ask. Because now you will know how successful a presentation was by measuring the outcomes.

Here is how you set an outcome for your presentation:

1. Think of the anchor person from step #1


2. As you have them in your attention fill in the following three blanks:
   
   
   
   1. At the end of my presentation I want the anchor person to Do_______, think_________, feel_____________
   
   
   
   

Notice how the anchorperson comes in the picture. Without them, there will be no set outcome for the presentation. If you have two people as your anchor people, then you need to do this process twice (That's why I chose only one anchor person).

Do: At the end of the presentation what do you want your anchor person to do:

In business there always a ball to be pushed forward. So, when you present what do you want the anchor person to do to push the ball forward? Do you want them to sign off on a project, approve a plan, give you support, buy something, give you resources? Or maybe continue giving you support and resources? What is it that you want them to do.

You have to be clear on what you want the anchor person to do. Otherwise, there is no tangible business outcome to the presentation, and I believe that's a waste of your time.

Think: At the end of the presentation what do you want your anchor person to Think______________

(Just as a suggestion, book mark this page so that you can come back to it every time you have a presentation, that way you make sure your presentations will always be effective)

Once you know what you want your anchor person to do, then you can move on to the thinking part. Use simple langue and write down a couple of thoughts you want your anchor person to leave the presentation with.

It's important to keep this very simple. If you are writing paragraphs, then you are not doing this the right way. Keep it simple.

Use Nicki as an example: What do you think Nike want's you to think when you see one of their products for sale? “Just do it!” That's why they hammer this in every single time they present to you using commercials.

When you see a pair of kicks you like and wonder whether to buy them or not, what do you think is playing in your mind? “Just do it.”

Following the footsteps of Nike, it's your turn what do you want your anchor person to think at the end of the presentation?

Write it as they would say it. For example instead of writing “I want them to think that we proposed a great approach.” Write it this way: “Wow, what a great approach!”

Notice that you write it as if your anchor person is thinking it.

Feel: At the end of the presentation what do you want your anchor person to feel______________

There is a big difference between feel and think. Feel is an emotion like love, hate, sadness, fear, happiness, inspiration, and comfort, etc

Sometimes you want people to feel one or two emotions in your presentations. Choose the feelings that will help your anchor person do what you want them to do. If feeling inspired will do the trick, then write it down, if feeling scared or elated will work, then go for it.

Once you have this, you will have a solid outcome to measure your success against.

When I do sales presentations I usually have this for my do, think, feel parts. I want the anchor person to purchase at least three full day public speaking boot camps; I want them to think “wow magnetic speaking is different than anything I tried before,” and I want them to feel hopeful and optimistic about improving their public speaking skills and confidence.

See it's simple

#3 Be clear about your message

Einstein once said, “If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.” Before you create your whole presentation, sit down and think about your message.

Come up with a simple and concise way of saying it out loud. If you can't do it, then I assure you that your whole presentation will not be understandable to your audience. You have to be able to tell your story in a nutshell here. Here are examples of a clear message or a story in a nutshell:

1. Improving your communication skills will help you succeed in your career


2. Hiring more writers to our editorial team will help us enhance our quality and attract more readers to our corporate blog


3.  Focusing on millennial will help us expand our market reach


4. We need to kill project x because it's a waste of resources better used for project

Notice that each of the nutshell messages above can be expanded into a big presentation that has background, evidence, position and call to action. But you can't go that far if you can't even state your position in a simple and clear statement.

Conclusion

If you want to learn how to give good presentations, then you need to learn how to give effective presentations. Effective presentations are the key to your success in a business setting because they are outcome oriented and measurable. If you focus on creating good presentations only then you will not necessarily create effective ones, however, if you focus on creating effective presentations then you will always get good and even excellent ones.

Discussion:

1. What do you think?


2. Do you agree that it's better to focus on effective presentations vs. good presentations?


3. Do you think business presentations should always have an outcome?


4. Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below

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