With a clear purpose,

Your Objective is Threefold:

1. ð To get into your presentation

2. ð To get your presentation into yourself

3. ð To get your presentation into your audience

It becomes … READY …AIM ... FIRE

ò ò ò

READY ò ò

Organize ò ò

ò ò

AIM ò

Internalize ò

ò

FIRE

Deliver

“A speech without a purpose is like a journey without a destination “

Ralph C. Smedley

Who is the Audience?

In preparing your presentation think about the Demographics and Psychographics;

the makeup of your audience.

Demographics: Who is my audience?

What is their age?

Education

Income

Gender

Ethnic origin

Background

Psychographics: What preconceived ideas do they have regarding my subject, my profession, department/agency /ministry and me? What do they expect to get from my presentation? How can I satisfy their expectations?

Finally: What do I want to accomplish with this audience? Is my goal to Inform, Motivate or Persuade?

A good presentation starts where your audience is … and ends where You want them to be.Begin with Your Audience in Mind:

v  The first question you should ask yourself is not, “What do I want to say?” but rather, “What information does my audience need and how do I present it so they will both understand and use it.”

v  Your audience makes the difference between success and failure. Their perception of you and your presentation will have more credibility if they believe your material was designed for them.

v  It is not the responsibility of an audience to sift through reams of information to find those nuggets that apply to them. It is up to you to tailor your presentation to the needs of your audience.

Adapted from

“Ten Steps to Award Winning Presentations”

3M Innovation

“When I am preparing a speech, I spend two-thirds of the time thinking about what they want to hear, and one-third about what I want to say”

-Abraham Lincoln

The Three Main Classifications of

Business Presentations

Begin by clearly defining your purpose. What do you want to accomplish with this audience? The clearer your purpose or presentation objective is, the easier the presentation will be to prepare and to deliver. Most professional, business and government presentations focus on one, of three specific areas:

1.  To inform or instruct your listeners of facts, figures and data, which will enlarge or enhance their knowledge, of a given event:

2.  To motivate or inspire is to convince your audience to support a concept, an objective or idea:

3. To sell or persuade is to inspire, to convince, to close the sale or to obtain audience buy in:

Keep in mind the better you understand what you want and why you want it,

the better your chances will be of acquiring it.

Fred Jandt, Win-Win Negotiating

Examples of the Three Main Classifications of a
Business Presentations
Specific Purpose / Objective / By the End of this Presentation, your Audience will:


TO Present Your Presentation with Impact:

You’ve got to Connect

Verbally 7%

v  Words/content

Vocally 38%

v  Rate of speaking

v  Inflection / tone

v  Projection

v  Confidence & comfort level

Visually 55%

v  Appearance

v  Posture, gestures, movement

v  Eye contact

v  Facial expression / body language

Source:
Prof. A. Mehrabian, U.C.L.A.

“The ability to talk well is to a man what cutting and polishing are to the rough diamond. The grinding does not add anything to the diamond. It merely reveals its wealth.”

Orison S. Marden

Designing YOUR PRESENTATION to produce Results

Here is a simple worksheet that you can use whenever you are planning a presentation.

Topic:

Date of Presentation: Number of People Attending:

1.  Audience Profile (Describe any audience characteristics, attitudes, predispositions that are relative to you and your topic). (See - Page 3)

2.  What is the purpose of this presentation? (See - Pages 5) – see also Page 6

3.  What results do you hope to achieve? (See – Page 6)

4.  List below the key points that will contribute to your purpose and desired results.

(Minimum 3 --- Maximum 5)

a.

b.

c.

d.

e.

Presentation Outline Model

A.  Opening

1.  What is my presentation’s objective?

By the end of my presentation , people will: (See - Page 6)

2.  Introduce speech topic

v  What will get their attention?

B.  Content (3 points)

What key points will best support the objective and be meaningful for my audience?

1.  First point:-

v  Statement of fact

v  Support

v  Transition (1)

2.  Second point:-

v  Statement of fact

v  Support

v  Transition (1)

3.  Third point:-

v  Statement of fact

v  Support

v  Transition (1)

(1) See page 15

C.  Conclusion (call for action)

v  Review/summary

Call to action: (What do I want my audience to do?)

Worksheet

Presentation Outline Model

A. Opening:

B. Content (3 points):

1.  First point:-

2.  Second point:-

3.  Third point:-

C. Conclusion (call for action):

The Extemporaneous or Impromptu Speech

Mark Twain said, “It takes three weeks to prepare a good ad-lib speech.” If you’re going to a meeting where someone might ask you to speak, gather your thoughts in advance.

·  Ask yourself, “What is likely to happen at this meeting?

·  Who will be there?

·  What will they probably say?

·  Are there any controversial areas?

·  Will people have questions for me?

·  How should I respond?”

Make notes about the topics you think will come up. Practice extemporaneously until you are comfortable and convincing. Be sure to practice aloud.

1.  Decide what you want to talk about -- FAST

Use one of these approaches
·  Analyze your topic using:
i.  Past/Present/Future
ii.  Numerical; 1st, 2nd, 3rd
iii.  Geographical; east, west etc
iv.  Take a position
v.  Speak from your experience
vi.  Use an example

2.  Feel free to pause for a few seconds to collect your thoughts. The audience will not think you’re stupid; they’ll admire you for being able to organize your ideas under difficult circumstances.

3.  Open with a generalization to stall for time, if necessary e.g. “Deregulation is certainly an important issue right now” will buy you a few extra seconds to compose your response.

4.  Or, repeat the question to stall for extra time e.g. “You’re asking me about the changes that deregulation will bring to the banking industry.” Repeating the question has an extra benefit: It makes sure the audience knows what you’ve been asked to speak about.

5.  Present just two or three points of evidence. Wrap up your impromptu speech with a firm conclusion – a punch line that people can focus on.

6.  Do not ramble. Once you’ve offered what sounds like a conclusion, just stop.

“Adapted from How to Write and Give a Speech Joan Detz”

Five Time Tested Techniques

For Preparing Presentations

1.  The descriptive approach:

v  What is it?

v  What does it do?

v  How does it do it?

2.  The events approach:

v  What happened?

v  Why did it happen?

v  So what?

3.  The progress report:

v  What was planned/

v  What was accomplished?

v  What’s next?

4.  The best alternative approach:

v  Establish need

v  Look at alternatives

v  Choose best approach

5.  The ‘tell them” approach:

Tell them what you’re going to tell them.

v  Tell them

v  Then tell them what you told them

Source:

Adapted from

Making successful presentations...A self teaching guide

By Terry C. Smith

Your 30 second Commercial

“The Elevator Speech”

ð  To talk about Yourself

ð  To Discover the other Person

ð  To find a common Ground

Decide what you want to accomplish

v  Make contacts

Establish professional relationships

v  Close a sale

v  Keep current

Outline your talk

What do you wish to emphasize from your bio?

v  Business

v  Personal

v  Professional

v  Community

v  Be focused & interesting

Tailor your talk

v  To the group

v  The occasion

v  The objective

Be brief

v  Succinct

v  Focused

v  Informative

Know when to stop

v  30 seconds

v  15 seconds

v  Exchange business cards

Agree to get together later (if the interest/opportunity appears to be there)

Have a number of different presentations for each area of your life, i.e.

v  Business

v  Professional

v  Community

v  Rotary etc.

v  Church

v  Social

v  Political

WHEN INTRODUCING A SPEAKER

IDENTIFY THE FOLLOWING

(1) The subject

(2) Its importance

(3) The speaker

ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS

(1) Be brief (30/45 seconds)

(2) Do not upstage the speaker

(3) Be careful with humor

(4) Remain at the lectern until the speaker has arrived

(5) Confirm your facts (VERY IMPORTANT)

To Thank a Speaker

v Thank on behalf of the organization.

v Mention

(1)  Sacrifice of speaker's time

(2)  Sharing of knowledge/talent


Mention some aspect of the presentation which was particularly interesting to you and will be helpful to the group.

v Thank again.

How to Present an Award

v  Highlight the organization responsible for the presentation.

v  Explain the reason for the award.

v  Tell what the recipient did to earn it.

v  Make the presentation.

Accepting the Award

v  Thank the person making the presentation.

v  Thank the organization responsible for the award.

v  Handle the award carefully, and tell what you plan to do with it.

v  It is speech suicide to say you don’t deserve the award. If others also took part, share the honors by mentioning them.

The Question & Answer Session

1. Anticipate questions in advance and practice developing your response as part of your presentation preparation.

2. Let your audience know, at the beginning of your presentation, whether there will be time for questions:

a) at the conclusion of your talk;

b) during the presentation;

c) your availability, following your talk, to answer individual questions or provide additional information.

3. What happens if there are no questions forthcoming from members of your audience?

a) Have a couple of questions ready which you as the speaker may ask, e.g. "Other audiences whom I have spoken to have asked…”

b) Have the chairperson ready with a couple of primer questions.

c) Have questions planted in your audience (be careful - these can backfire).

d) As a final alternative, simply go into your closing … perhaps all of the audience's questions were answered during your presentation.

4. Repeat the question to ensure that all members of your audience know and understand the question you are answering.

5. Rephrase, long rambling statements into short, succinct queries which can be clearly understood by all and easily answered by you.

6. By repeating and/or rephrasing, it provides you with the opportunity to clarify the issue for members of your audience and gives you a few additional seconds to compose your response.

7. Take the question from the questioner - Provide the answer to the audience

8. Treat every question as being important, legitimate and as being well intentioned even though you may suspect it is not.

9. Answer questions from every part of the room - not just the front.


10. If you don’t know the answer to the question being asked.

a) Do not attempt a bluff.

b) Admit it and volunteer to locate the information and get back to the questioner by a certain time.

c) Occasionally, you may go to someone else in the room for the answer, but you should be secure in the knowledge that the person to whom you direct the question will be comfortable dealing with the issue and can answer effectively, i.e. not take the program away from you.

11. Stay away from such phrases as, “frankly”. or “to be honest with you” if used, members of your audience may wonder what you have been until that moment.

12. Phrases such as “in my opinion”, ”I think” or “it seems to me” are unnecessary as well.

13. Remember to retain a strong presence when answering questions...

a) Maintain good posture.

b) Use effective hand gestures.

c) Practice good eye contact.

d) Use a positive speaking voice.

e) Keep your answers short.

14. End a Q & A session with a positive restatement of your presentation purpose or objectives

15. Finally, in answering questions always look for opportunities to restate some of the key points of your presentation in your answers. Repetition leads to Reinforcement and increases Retention. This increases the chance that your audience will take action following your presentation.

Practice what you know

It will help make clear what you now do not know.

Rembrandt

A Presentation is successful when the Speaker:

Ø  Knows the material

Ø  Practices Vocal Variety

Ø  Uses Eye Contact

Ø  Moves naturally

Ø  Body Language

The basic skill in every profession and in most businesses

is the ability to organize and express ideas in writing and in speaking.

Opening paragraph in a

Royal Bank Monthly Letter


Use Power Transitional Phrases

Power transitional phrases tell an audience to “listen up” since what is to follow is especially important. Used sparingly, but effectively, they will recapture an audience’s wandering attention.

Examples could include:

v  It’s essential that you remember

v  If you leave here with only one thought

v  Here is the answer you all want to know

v  Let me repeat that

v  Ask a rhetorical question

v  Now let’s take a look at

v  Switching now to the western division

v  Looking ahead to the next five years

Some additional ways to direct your audience’s attention

v  List… The final point is

v  Emphasize… A particularly important fact is

v  Repeat… Three key points. Three…

v  Restate… Let’s look at that another way

v  Focus… Point to your visual aid

v  Bridge… We’ve seen the causes: let’s examine the possible solutions

Remember the Week Later Test