Allow us to shock you with the following news: in general, audiences prefer more concise presentations. It’s presenters who tend to enjoy rambling on. For some presenters, a measure of success is if they were able to fill the amount of time allocated to the presentation. We know many who, given the baton and asked to present, immediately think, “How am I going to fill an hour of time?” Just making it through the time slot seems like a victory to them.
Of course, that’s just some presenters. Others would quite literally talk all day if not for bathroom breaks. Only the collective call of nature can disrupt their self-absorbed prattling-on.
But the measure of effectiveness with presentations isn’t the amount of time filled. It’s the number of words heard, considered and adopted.Get to the Point Speaking more of them into the air doesn’t increase the intake any more than revving your engine gets you through traffic faster. There is a pace people can handle, and a volume of concepts they can consider. Go beyond their capacity, and you’re just talking for talking’s sake.
Perhaps no presentation “type” is more guilty of this than the sales presentation, which tends to be created with the most honest intentions but often misunderstands the buyer’s motivation. The greatest sales presentations are actually pared down considerably. With intelligent questions at the outset, the presenter quickly explores and targets the buyer’s need and quickly delivers the credibility information and the solution information they’re looking for. After all, what is necessary for making a decision beyond 1) trust and 2) a solution to a problem?
In any kind of presentation, though, the above is true. Far better to do the legwork of figuring out what your audience already knows or needs to know, then create a concise deck that gets right down to it. We’re all inundated with information and facts these days; what we need most is people who can simplify a complex world and point us in the right direction.
So the next time you hop on stage to present, ask yourself if you’re being direct enough. Are you saying what you need to say as quickly as you can say it? Or are you complicating the issues and giving too much information?
Thinking critically on these points will allow you to deliver a presentation that quickly delivers the information they need, and that more than anything else is exactly what most audiences want.
Question: Have you ever been bored to death in a presentation? What do you remember about the information presented?
