When getting up to deliver a presentation, most people never stop to consider what is going on in the minds of the audience. Who are you speaking to and what do they want?
The fundamental question you need to answer is:
“What is in it for me?”
If you are reading this book, your presentations will most likely be delivered in your workplace and your audience will probably be your colleagues. They may, however, also be other stakeholders, such as clients, potential clients, or even prospective employers, if you have to give a presentation at an interview.
Background Research
It might seem obvious, but it is important to know who is going to be in the room.
If it’s an external audience, you won’t know that much about them. They may be invited guests such as clients or suppliers, or you may be going elsewhere to present, for example, at an industry conference or convention. It is, however, possible to get to know your audience better.
These days, there is no excuse for not finding out information relating to audience members. The Internet is a fantastic resource. Start by looking at their company website or social media profile such as www.linkedin.com, which is probably most relevant for business information.
What about information you already hold on your client relationship management (CRM) platform? If you send out newsletters or host seminars, then you already have data that could help you. It depends on what exactly you collect, of course, but some systems can be really sophisticated. You can log basic details on your CRM, such as name and job title, but you might also log what newsletters they have signed up to and what seminars they have attended at your offices in the past. At a firm where I used to work, we could log every client interaction we ever had. At a glance, we could see which colleagues had met with that client and what intelligence they had gathered. Most of this information was used by our marketing and business development teams, but looking at this type of data can also give you clues about someone’s interests and help you to tailor your presentation accordingly.
Then, there is the direct approach to finding out what matters to your audience. You could just ask them by giving them a call to find out what they want to get out of the presentation. You only want to give them what they are most interested in—not everything that you may know on the topic. Each individual member will have a different perspective.
If you are presenting to a senior team or board of directors you don’t know so well, talk to a few people at that level to find out what works for them. If it’s a team you manage or other internal colleagues, you may already be familiar with the personalities and their level of existing knowledge. Use that as a basis for tailoring your talk.
Do they want detail or an overview?
Are there specific issues they want you to address?
What ideas or skills do they want to retain from your presentation?
What are their job titles or roles? What do they do on a daily basis?
What are the current hot topics in this industry?
How many will be in the audience?
What is the age group?
Are there industry-specific terms or jargon you need to be familiar with?
Are they willing to participate and get involved or just want to listen?
This will help you decide whether to incorporate activities.
Put yourself in their shoes. Begin to see things through the eyes of others.
Other ways in which you can research what they may be interested in are through:
Industry newsletters
Relevant websites that may be of interest to them
Social media posts such as trending topics on Twitter
Podcast shows in related subject areas
Do not skip this important fact-finding step.
Audience Objective
Unless you know what the audience is interested in, you are probably going to disappoint them in some way. Their objective will be different from your own objective. Understanding your audience and industry before you speak is crucial. What do they need to hear and experience in order for you to persuade them?
Have you ever walked out of a presentation and thought, “I didn’t actually hear anything I don’t already know” or worse, “I didn’t understand what that was all about!” Quite often, the audience’s needs are not met because they were never identified in the first place. Do your homework. It will pay dividends.
Your audience wants to be informed and entertained. You will, no doubt, have heard the phrase “people like to do business with people they know, like, and trust.” We buy from people when we feel they “get” us, when we feel understood. Solving a problem only gets us so far, as does having a great reputation for being an expert at something. It’s not enough just being good at what you do.
In this digital age we live in, we need to give more value. People have short attention spans and can get pretty much anything they want or find out most things via the Internet. There are many things competing for their time.
Going to a meeting or seminar better be worth their time. Think about what they will find interesting and compelling. What key information do they need to take away with them in order to implement changes? Is it clear enough so that there is no room for misunderstanding? What do they already know and how can you build on that to share something of value that will gain their interest?
When you tap into the conversation in your audience’s heads and respond to that, you can be more persuasive. You want them to feel as if you have prepared something just for them, rather than adopting a cookie-cutter approach.
If you had to sum up in one sentence, how would you describe the objective or goal of your presentation?
It is useful to remember that we each have our own unique way of seeing the world and processing information based on our attitudes and beliefs. This means that something may seem completely obvious to you, but the other person just doesn’t get it. For example, some people like a lot of technical information or detailed facts, while others only want the headlines. When you structure your content, you need to balance these competing needs, which we will look at in more detail later.
There will be times when you have to cover challenging ground. When you have an opinion about something, there will be members of your audience who are quite likely to have a different view—a critical audience. You need to bear this in mind when researching your audience, designing your content, and adopting the right mindset during your presentation. Your duty is to serve the audience by giving them value.
Other aspects to consider regarding your audience and where they are coming from are:
Not everyone in the room wants to be there—they may have been told to attend by their manager
There may be pressures in the business such as a restructure, jobs being laid off
Some people, for example, more experienced colleagues, may have more knowledge than you
There can be a lot to think about in order to give the best value and serve the majority of the audience when you have different agendas to balance. The starting point is to find out what these agendas are through your research.
Putting the audience at the heart of your presentation is key to making the content or message relevant, but it’s you who brings it to life. The speakers who make an impact are those who present their own views. It might be tempting to hone your content to make sure it pleases everyone and offends or challenges no one, but then, what is the point of you presenting the material? Your opinion is part of the value you bring to the table.
Key Points
Research company websites and social media profiles to find out areas of interest for your target audience.
Ask an audience member directly what they want to get out of the presentation
Think about their motivation for being there.
Ask yourself: Is what you are intending to share going to be worth their time?
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