Making your Presentation forceful

Making a presentation is all about putting things in logical order and presenting to an audience. Right? Not necessarily.

Let’s look at the problem of a manager in Atlas Manufacturing Co.

Vishwas Kohli is a manager in a company. He has a presentation to make this week to some seniors on an idea his team has proposed. He is nervous. His alumni classmate, Ankit Patel is a public speaker and trainer. He decided to call Ankit up to ask him for some tips. After the formalities, the conversation is as follows:

“Ankit, I need some advice. Do you have some time?”

“Go ahead. What’s the issue?” Ankit encouraged him.

“My team has come up with a innovative design change in the product. I need to present that and I am nervous. “

“I see…and…”

“Some of my guys have put together a PowerPoint presentation. But I am not convinced.”

“Then it’s a good thing you decided to speak to me. If you are not convinced, how will you convince your audience?”

“That’s a valid point. I never thought of that. What should I do then?”

“First and foremost, who is your audience?”

“It will be mainly senior management and my guys of course!”

“Hmmm…so Senior management is your target audience. Do you know what they are looking for when they spend an hour listening to your presentation?”

“Bottomline I guess!” Vishwas said laughing.

“All of them would be looking at the bottomline?”

“No…of course not! That is only what Rupesh Garware will look at. But Pereira will be there. He is the Sales and Marketing man. He would be interested in how it will sell. Devan is the manufacturing head. He will reject the idea if it is not easy to manufacture or will take lot more time and material….Ganesh…” Vishwas listed down everyone expected.

“…and is your presentation having material to convince each one of these decision makers?”

“I don’t think so. The presentation only talks about the change proposed. My guys are all kicked about how creative it is and so have put in a dozen slides on that.”

“So your gut feeling was right. What interests your guys will not “sell” to your audience. That is the key. When you make a presentation, think about two things
a) who is your audience and
b) what is your objective i.e. what do you want them to take away or decide based on your presentation.

Once you have these 2 in mind you will always be on the right track. " Ankit clarified confidently.

“I need to start rethinking what to put in this presentation...” Vishwas scratched his head.

“What’s the plan?”

“Simple. First, I will list down my audience. Second I will put down what each one will need to be convinced of.”

“Good plan. You will definitely feel more confident presenting.”

“I feel more confident now. I just need to build around the presentation my guys have made.”

“Let me know how it goes!”

“Will do that! I know this presentation is going to be a hit…”
Vishwas was all fired up as he went to an empty meeting room with a large white board. It was just what he needed.