Four Questions to Ask When Creating Your Next Presentation If You Want More Influence
For almost every single client I work with, answering these 4 presentation questions is half the work we do together. The other half is the actual story/stories they are going to share. But I tell you -- figuring out the story is going to be hard work and take a lot longer to figure out unless you tackle these 4 questions first.
Here are the 4 questions:
What problem am I solving through my presentation?
Who is my audience? And who am I solving the problem for?
If I only had 2 minutes, what would I teach the listeners?
How do I want the audience to engage me after my presentation?
Let's go through each one to explain why this is an important question.
Your presentation has a purpose. Its goal is to show how a problem is/was solved. It's hard to have a compelling story and keep people's interest without a problem. Clarity about what the real problem makes your story crystal clear.
You are solving the problem for someone. Is it customers or someone internal? Many people forget this point so their presentations get muddy. On top of that, they don't connect the problem to the people sitting in the room. What does your audience really care about? What are their goals and desires? Connect your story to the people in the room for maximum influence.
As Mark Twain said, it will take him only 20 minutes to craft a 2-hour presentation. It takes a lot longer to narrow your message down to 2 minutes. Yet the clarity and memorability of a 2-minute message boost your impact immeasurably. Do it. People will repeat your message outside of your presence. That's priceless word-of-mouth marketing.
Ahhhh -- the question most ignored, mainly because people don't know they should even ask this question. But influence opportunities happen BEFORE the presentation in your information gathering and assumption checking meetings with people in your audience. And influence opportunities happen AFTER the presentation when people engage with you. Your presentation BEGINS the conversation. You want people to talk with you about the presentation after you are done. So design for that. Share with them that you'll be touching base with each of them to answer further questions and talk about how they can use the material you shared. Don't waste this opportunity.
