Successfully Speaking: Insight into audience makes presentation more effective

Jane Sanders is an international speaker and trainer with expertise in gender communication, presentation skills, meeting facilitation and small-business success.

Everyone in business benefits from strong presentation skills, whether for one-on-one situations or for staff meetings, community events, sales calls, board meetings or church events.

Here are some tips to help improve the efficiency and effectiveness.

Analyze the requirements

Do some homework in advance. This will help you focus on the task at hand.

Write down the answers to the following questions.

Who or what group requested the presentation? Why was it requested? Who is the audience? How many people? What are their positions and duties? What is important to them? What are their needs? What might keep them from responding as you wish? What is their knowledge of your topic?

You will need to do a little research to get this information, and don't worry if you can't get it all, just learn as much as you can. The answers will help you prepare.

For example, wouldn't you like to know if your audience just experienced pay cuts or layoffs? This would tell you where to step lightly, and perhaps not to ask for donations that day.

Other key questions to ask yourself are:

What is the date? What else is going on then? How long is your presentation? Will others be presenting, too? Where in the agenda do you fall? What resources are available to help you prepare the Internet, an assistant, the library, company files? Where will your presentation be, and what resources will be needed in terms of equipment, refreshments and room set-up?

Determine objectives

What is the end result you want to achieve? The more specific you can be with this objective, the better.

Complete this sentence: Because of my presentation, my audience will

Some examples are: sell more product, buy my service, approve my budget request, join the local industry association, communicate more effectively with the opposite sex, or understand our company finances.

Remember, with any presentation, you are always selling and performing!

Prepare an introduction

Grab attention! Hit them fast and hard. This is your chance to pull the audience into the program and persuade them to listen.

Do something a little out of the ordinary. They expect you to say, "Good morning, thank you for being here." Don't.

Several opening ideas come to mind. Find a quote that relates to your topic. Open with a startling statement, some shocking information. For example, a teacher presenting to students about driving safety could start with a statistic like "620,000 lives were lost last year, unnecessarily, because of unfastened seat belts." Wham!

An eye-opening demonstration is very effective also. A sheriff's deputy once walked to the front of the room, plopped a cardboard box on a table, and without saying a word, started pulling weapons out and dropping them on the table with a heavy clunk. You could have heard a pin drop in that room.

His objective was to persuade the audience to become active in the neighborhood watch program.

Another way to open is to ask the audience three questions. Tell a short story that communicates one of the messages you want to convey.

Use humor, but be careful. Feel free to use a joke, just make sure it's funny, nonoffensive and relevant. Stories, quotes and questions can be funny, too.

Create rapport during your introduction by smiling and looking people in the eye. Maybe start with a short story about an experience with their organization or the occasion. Communicate to them why they should listen. Outline the content, or tell them what you are going to tell them. Explain your purpose for being there.

Use these ideas and notice how they increase the positive results of your presentations.

Next month, we'll discuss preparing the body and conclusion of your presentation, followed by tips to reduce anxiety and improve delivery.