When it comes to meeting people and giving presentations in person, you’re in a good position to “read the room,” to get a feel for what your information is like. or is not being accepted. You can see firsthand the nuances of body language, facial gestures, and disengagement signals of people looking at their mobile phones.
With most of your meetings now being held virtually, it becomes more challenging to take the pulse of your client or prospect’s response via the small screen. It can get even more complicated when your audience of one or many has their camera turned off, forcing you to rely on verbal cues alone.
The good news is that you can still deliver an impactful presentation that converts. Before you sit down to craft your next presentation, consider these three things; the purpose of the presentation, the decision the client or prospect must make, and how long you will have to deliver the presentation.
Once you know those first few things, you can sit down and reverse engineer your presentation design and content.
The purpose of the presentation
When you just read the above paragraph, you may have thought to yourself that the goal and the decision to be made are one in the same and they are not.
Before we can start writing the content of the message, you need to know what the purpose of the presentation is. Determine if the message is intended to educate about a product or service; to inform the audience, as a company announcement or to get their acceptance. Lastly, is it to inspire or motivate the audience like many corporate leaders might be doing for their employees and stakeholders?
The business decision to make
In preparing for any presentation you may give, you must understand one key thing: that the presentation is being given so that the person or team members listening can make a decision. Your role as the presenter is to provide them with the information they need to make a decision to say yes, say no, move on to the next meeting, raise their hand at an idea, or at least ask questions.
Delivery time
You are starting on the wrong foot with your presentation if you have not determined how long you have to deliver your presentation. It’s a big mistake to make a presentation last longer than the audience expects, and as a result, you could effectively crush an opportunity.
First, find out how much time you have to talk. Then immediately rest for 10 to 15 minutes. This will ensure that you finish early and have time for Q&A at the end.
So if they give you an hour, plan on around 45-50 minutes and then reverse engineer the presentation. This means that you should design your presentation with this moment in mind. Perhaps allow 5 minutes for the introduction and perhaps another 10 minutes for the conclusion and closing. That means I need to split the remaining 35 minutes for the body of the presentation.
The brain likes the number 3. That means your listeners will remember more of your presentation if you present your content in three topics. Those three topics, along with their talking points, would be spread out over the 35 minutes for about 10-12 minutes for each topic being shared.
You can use this format for any amount of time given for your presentation.
So now that you know your goal, what desired decision the audience should make, and how much time for delivery, we can now move on to creating a persuasive presentation.
Create a persuasive presentation
When it comes to giving your presentation, it’s important that you have a structure for your talk, it allows you to establish a foundation for your talk.
There are two formats to consider:
A. Past, Present, Future
Start with a discussion about where your audience (customer, stakeholder, peers) was in the past.
Establish what is happening in the present (what they are achieving or not).
Explain how you can improve their future, where you can take them.
B. Why you? Why your company? Why now?
Every time you give a presentation, there are three questions you need to answer for the prospect or client, even if they don’t ask them directly.
You need to answer the question why they should work with you as an individual.
You need to answer the question of why they should consider your company, product or service, especially if they currently have a current provider or company that they are happy with.
You need to answer the question why they should work with your company right now. This is where the opportunity cost is shown.
presentation format
The classic presentation structure has four main parts: an introduction, the body (the 3 main talking points), a conclusion, and a closing.
Building a persuasive presentation is never complete until you add a conclusion and finish with a clear and confident closing.
The conclusion provides a quick reference to the opening that caught your attention, ties up the loose ends, and wraps up your argument. The presentation is only complete when you close it, that is, you include a specific call to action.
There you have it. A process that will allow you to write a presentation by first asking key questions, using your time strategically, and then building the argument for your presentation.
