The Remote Control Test

I would like you to think for a second about the way you watch television. You are sitting on your couch channel surfing. You change to a new channel, you ask yourself: Is this interesting (interest)? Worth watching (benefit)? Do I need to watch this (fear)? Eh no. Next!

As human beings we watch a presentation the same way we watch TV. We decide very quickly if this is something of value to us and if not, we switch off or go to another channel.

You will not be surprised to learn audiences make the decision to listen to you very quickly.

Your audience will decide if your presentation is of benefit or if they really need to listen in the first 45 seconds.

Unfortunately, a lot of presenters spend the first 45 seconds and the majority of the rest of their presentation telling their audience:

• What they are going to tell them
• What they already know
• What they don’t want to know

This approach guarantees an audience will switch off right from the start.

But wait, what about an agenda?

Traditional Slide Focused Presentations tend to begin with an agenda slide. This is a slide that lays out exactly what will be talked about, in sequence, sometimes with exact timings.

For example:

But is this a good thing or a bad thing to do? Let me try and answer that.

Imagine you turned on the radio in your car to your favourite station and the DJ was telling you what was coming up in the next hour. They began:

Have you switched over to another station yet?

They would never do this because they wouldn’t have any listeners.

A radio station picks the best bits coming up in the next hour and uses this to hook you in and keep you listening for as long as possible.

For example:

‘Coming up in the next hour, we will be playing our mystery voice and if you guess right this hour you win 荤5,000. We are going to play last night’s number one and of course, we are going to give you all the latest celebrity gossip.’

This is what you must do as a great Audience Focused Presenter.

Audience Focused Agendas

The first thing to say on this is an agenda is not the same as a hook. A hook gives the audience a reason to listen. It tells them explicitly why the content is of value. An agenda simply lists the topics that will be covered in the presentation. The audience may deduct from the agenda the value, but they may not.

The problem with the traditional agenda slide is it is long and boring to get through for the presenter and can give the audience an option to decide not to listen at certain points, if at all. I completely agree it is important to let an audience know what is coming up in the presentation BUT you need to do it in a smart way. You need to do it in an Audience Focused way.

If you want people to know what’s coming up once you have hooked them in, instead of giving them a full topic list, give them an overview of what is going to be covered to keep them interested or tell them what value they will walk away with at the end.

You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression

I cannot stress how important the beginning of your presentation is. The stronger the hook the more durable the audience’s engagement will be. It is not easy to get someone to listen to you, but if you make sure they really understand the value of your information and what it can do for them you will succeed in getting their attention.

You do not need to employ any out-of-the-ordinary antics like juggling or joke-telling at the beginning of your presentation to get attention. I have seen so many of these tricks go horribly wrong and the presenter doesn’t recover from the bad start.

All you have to do is answer one very simple question for your audience:

‘Why should I listen to this presentation?’

4. Start at the end

The presentation structures I typically see fall into three categories:

Presenting the wrong way up

Most people when they structure presentations do so using what is called deductive reasoning. We saw this structure in action in Chapter 1 in the Space Shuttle Columbia story. Deductive reasoning moves from a general introduction to a more specific conclusion. Simply put, this means building up to your strongest point instead of leading with it.

The main reason this is a chosen approach is presenters want to establish themselves and their credibility before they give conclusions. Traditional Slide Focused Presenting heavily influences this approach.

Deductive reasoning means:

1. Beginning with a general overview, background or intro to the presenter and company
2. Going into detail about the topic, covering all possible areas
3. Finally, at the end, showing an executive summary or final slide that reveals the key message

Just to be clear this is a very legitimate approach to structuring a presentation but there is a massive vulnerability to using it you need to be aware of.

This model of communication, building up to your strongest point instead of leading with it, assumes the audience will listen throughout the build-up till you get to the key message. In this structure you do not give a reason to listen, a hook, you simply dive into the information and hope the audience will still be there at the end when you get to the key message or point.

If you are using this presentation structure, I do understand why but you must ask yourself if your audience is going to wait until the end to get what they need. Would you wait that long? This approach may be fine for a book or a written document because people are choosing to read it at their leisure or dip in and out at certain points, but for a presentation this is a very uncertain approach.

Now here is the good news: you can transform this presentation structure in one easy step.

All you have to do is turn the triangle the right way up.

Presenting the right way up

As we have already learned you must start with your most relevant, engaging and striking point for the audience. You must be confident in yourself and your communication and lead with your strongest point for the audience.

You then spend the rest of the presentation building your story and credibility around that opening point. This is what is called inductive reasoning. Inductive reasoning moves from a specific opening statement to the more general yet relevant material to substantiate it.

Stay connected to your audience

The best way to keep your audience engaged as you deliver your full presentation is to intentionally, actively and continually link your relevant facts and data back to the audience’s needs and make sure the audience knows why every point you make is relevant to them.

During your presentation you need to talk to your audience about them, their reality and how your company or concept will be of value.

The secret to great presenting is to talk to your audience about them even when you are talking about you ... think about it for second.

And how exactly do you do that?

By using one simple word.

The word YOU.

Here comes the science

Researchers at Yale have identified the 12 most powerful words in the human language proven to attract attention and stir emotion. At the top of the list is the word you!

The word you is the most powerful word you can use in a presentation. Using the word you is how you relate your data back to the audience and what is important to them.

Here are two examples of the power of the word YOU in action.

Example 1:

Before:

‘We have 45 offices worldwide with 10,000 staff.’ Audience – ‘So what?’

After:

‘We have 45 offices worldwide which you can access to leverage your existing business. We also have a huge support team which will be available to you with a range of languages and contacts already in place. We intend to give you a key contact in each country if you choose to do business with us.’

Example 2:

Barack Obama, the US President, addressed supporters in Chicago after decisively winning a second term using the word you to relate and engage:

‘Tonight, more than 200 years after a former colony won the right to determine its own destiny, the task of perfecting our union moves forward.

It moves forward because of you. It moves forward because you reaffirmed the spirit that has triumphed over war and depression, the spirit that has lifted this country from the depths of despair to the great heights of hope, the belief that while each of us will pursue our own individual dreams, we are an American family, and we rise or fall together as one nation and as one people.

Tonight, in this election, you, the American people, reminded us that while our road has been hard, while our journey has been long, we have picked ourselves up, we have fought our way back, and we know in our hearts that for the United States of America, the best is yet to come.

I want to thank every American who participated in this election. Whether you voted for the very first time or waited in line for a very long time, by the way we have to fix that, whether you pounded the pavement or picked up the phone, whether you held an Obama sign or a Romney sign, you made your voice heard and you made a difference.’

6. Have a middle not a muddle

The success of your presentation is determined by your ability to put your information together in a way that is meaningful for the audience. This is where the skill of presenting really comes in.

Words and ideas have great power when they are linked together properly and in the right order.

A great presentation has a beginning, a MIDDLE and an end and NOT a beginning, a MUDDLE and an end.

The only way to avoid the muddle is to structure your data around three digestible groups of information. Any more than three and the audience will struggle to remember them.

The rule of three

The rule of three is a very general rule in speaking, writing and music that states concepts or ideas presented in threes are inherently more interesting, more enjoyable and more memorable.

Good stories have a beginning, a middle and an end.

The number three is universal in well-known stories: the three little pigs, the three musketeers or the three wise men.

And of course many advertising or political taglines take the form of three-part quotes: ‘Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’; ‘sex, drugs, & rock ‘n’ roll’; ‘Work, rest and play’.

It is vital not to overload your presentation with too many ideas and messages.

Three core messages illustrated in different ways, re-visited and re-emphasised, will make sure your messages are understood, remembered and most importantly will guarantee you have a middle not a muddle. I call this the 3 × 3.

And finally, end on a high

So far we have spoken about the beginning of your presentation and how important it is to hook your audience in the first 45 seconds. We have also just looked at the middle of your presentation where you will structure your content based on the rule of 3 × 3.

Audience Focused Presenting Preparation Structure

One of the main reasons people become Slide Focused Presenters is because they are dependent on slides to give their presentation structure and to give them as the presenter a feeling of security.

When we are asked to present on a topic we have so much data to choose from and so many thoughts in our heads, we need a method and framework to prioritise our information and construct our presentation. Slides seem to offer us this. But please don’t be fooled.

The purpose of a slide in a presentation is to act as a visual aid and if used correctly it works amazingly. Slides are not designed as a tool to structure content. When they are used for this purpose they force presenters to think and speak in a very unnatural way.

It is vital you have a great presentation structure for your audience to follow, for your own self-confidence and for your peace of mind. One of the main goals of this book is to give you a framework to organise your thoughts and allow you to present logically, impactfully and most importantly as yourself.

I want you to be able to create an engaging, relevant and clear piece of communication that you can add visual aids to if needed. The Audience Focused Presenting Preparation Structure will allow you to do this.