Structure of a Presentation
Further down this page you will find a standard structure for a business presentation. Business presentations are different from some other types of public speaking in that they are invariably trying to influence the audience in some way. The purpose of the presentation may be to sell something, a product, a service or a solution. It may be to convince your staff that a certain action is required. You may want to congratulate someone on their past performance and at the same time encourage others to follow suit. Whatever it is there is invariably a purpose behind the presentation, which is more than just entertaining your audience.
Step 1
The first step in creating a business presentation is to decide what you want your audience to do as a result of the presentation. The more clearly you define this objective the better. As with all objectives it should be quantifiable and measurable, so that you can tell if and when you have achieved it.
It is best if the objective can be fulfilled and measured shortly after the end of the presentation. In the corporate world a sales presentation may have an objective of selling the product or service, but this is rarely a good objective as the sale will usually happen weeks or even months after the initial presentation. You want to have an objective that will happen in the short term.
Step 2
Now think about your audience. Who are they? Why are they coming to listen? What are they interested in? What level of knowledge do they already have? What problems do the face? Do they recognise this as a problem? What do they hope to gain from the presentation? Why should they want or need to help you achieve your objective?
The more you know about your audience the better, because an effective business presentation is rarely just about what you think or about what you want to happen. Effective presentations always see things from the audience viewpoint. They are about what the audience wants/needs to hear not about what you have to say.
Step 3
List everything you want to talk about. Some people use mind mapping techniques, others will brainstorm lists and some people just know what it is they want to say. How ever you do it, have a list of the topics and sub-topics of your talk. Try to identify three main topics or themes. The human brain copes with things in threes better than it does with lists of six or eight, and in most presentations you will only be able to get across three main points.
Using PowerPoint you can quickly and easily create bullet points for each topic and sub-topic and it is easy to re-order and cut and paste points. Beware, I am not suggesting you create your visual aids yet, just using the software to help organise your thoughts!
Step 4
Use the MoSCoW principle to identify what will be in the final presentation. MoSCoW stands for:
Must have
Should have
Could have
Will not have
Be ruthless in identifying what is an absolute must. You want to theme these in to the three main points of your presentation. If you have too many themes it makes it difficult for your audience to keep track of your points and stay focussed.
The "Should haves" and "Could haves" will often form supporting evidence for the "Must haves" of the presentation.
You should be able to state your core message in two or three sentences, if you can't do this yet keep refining, clarifying and narrowing down your message.
Step 5
How much time do you have for your presentation? The answer to this question will be instrumental in you deciding how much content you can put in, and how much to leave out.
A couple of rules of thumb may be useful at this point. When using PowerPoint or other similar presentation software an average of 5 minutes per slide is not uncommon. So a 45 minute presentation will need about 9 slides. If you have already got 32 slides there is little chance that you will finish on time.
Running though a set of slide and voicing your presentation out loud to yourself, will usually only take about 80% of the time that it will take to cover the same content in front of an audience. Maybe even less!
Always aim to finish well inside your allotted time to allow for any questions and answers. The worst sin in presenting is to over run!
Step 6
The ideal structure for a sales presentation is as follows:
Attention Grabbing Opening
Establish Credibili
ty- Outline problem
- Create vision of success
- Describe scenarios using cause/effect or problem/solution models
- Summarise benefits
- Call to join together to achieve success
- Restate Vision
- Thank audience and handle Questions
- State Call to Action
As the vast majority of business presentations are trying to sell something, even if it only an idea, this structure works well for most business presentations.
Step 7
Grabbing their attention.
Whether your presentation is a stand-alone event or just one in a whole series of different presentations, it is absolutely vital that you start by grabbing the audience's attention. Otherwise they are likely to be still thinking about the last presentation, or a phone call they had just before they arrived at the meeting. They may even be thinking "I hope this doesn't go on too long, I have things to do." You need to capture people's attention and confirm their hope that you will be an interesting person to listen to. You need to get them involved right from the outset.
There is an age old saying about how to present: "Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them". When I first heard this I thought that seems a bit repetitive, surely people will get bored if I say everything three times. But I have since learnt that this single rule adds more to most presentations than any other, as long as you tell it right.
The "Tell them what you are going to tell them" is your opportunity to grab the audience's attention. Put the core subject of your presentation across in a way that challenges the listener and makes the listener think. There are many ways of capturing your audience's attention:
Ask a rhetorical question; Make a confrontational remark; Give a thought provoking quotation from an acknowledged source; Tell a good personal anecdote; Do, show or say something unexpected. The key to a good opening is to make people think; to wake them up and make them pay attention.
For example, if you are an accountant and have to give a presentation on new tax laws, you could start by listing the main areas of taxation you will be covering. But most of your audience will probably be asleep before you have finished the introduction. An alternative, more attention grabbing, opening might be to ask "Who has too much money?", quickly followed by "So, why did most of you give too much to the tax man last year? During my presentation you will discover how to reduce the amount of tax you will pay this year."
While grabbing their attention is important, it is also important that the opening is in line with the rest of the presentation. I saw a video once, of a headmistress trying to introduce a police officer to the children at an American junior school's assembly. The children were all noisily chatting away to each other and the headmistress's repeated requests for silence were being ignored. The lady police officer then tried to quieten them down with no success. So, she took out her revolver and fired a shot into the air. There was instant silence. She had their attention, but when she then asked in her most child friendly voice "How are you all doing today?" There was an equally stony silence.
You only have one chance to make a first impression so it is worth thinking it through properly and working out the type of reaction it will generate.
Once you have grabbed your audience's attention, keep them listening by telling them what they want to hear, rather than what you want to say.
Step 8
Establishing Credibility.
The second thing you should do once an audience is listening is establish your credibility. Tell them why you are worth listening to and why you know what you are talking about. How you do this depends on your audience and your background.
In some circumstances your reputation may proceed you in which case this step is less important, but don't assume that all your audience will know who you are or why they should care what you think.
Step 9
Outline a problem.
People will rarely spend time or money on something if they do not believe there is a problem with it. The old saying "if it ain't broke don't fix it" carries a lot of weight. To convince people that a change is required you need to highlight a problem with the status quo. Again this is where your audience research comes in. Having an understanding of the problems you audience face, whether or not they realise that they are facing them, is key to an effective presentation.
Step 10
Creating a vision of success.
Having outlined a problem area the next thing to do is to paint a picture of how good it could be in the future. The more realistic you can make this vision the better. It is essential that your audience buy into this vision, that they believe it is achievable and that it is what they would like to happen.
Step 11
Describing the scenarios.
This section will form the bulk of your presentation. It is here that you describe the main thrust of your presentation. Depending on the subject matter, the details can be organised in a variety of different ways including: topically, chronologically, geographically, through a lifecycle, spatially, alphabetically or just about any other way that makes logical sense to you. . Having a structure, for the order in which the details are presented, will help the audience to understand and keep track of your presentation.
Problem/solution models or cause/effect models often work well in this part of the presentation. It is best to use reasoned logic, facts, figures and anecdotes to back up your arguments. Cause and effect based arguments, which describe the benefits of success as well as the downsides of failing, can also work well in this main body.
Each topic area can almost be treated as a mini presentation in its own right. The overall presentation structure being rippled down to each detailed area. Do not forget to link the different areas together, using a series of verbal signposts.
Step 12
Summary of benefits.
Having covered all the detail of the presentation it is important that you provide a summary of the benefits that your audience are likely to gain from your approach or solution. NB: This is not a summary of the features but a summary of the benefits. The "what's it it for me" elements if you like.
Each of these benefits should have come up during the previous section, this is just a summary.
Step 13
Call to join together.
Having identified all the benefits, you then want to make it clear to your audience taht these benefits are only available if they work with you together. That it is a "win-win" situation. At this point you may also want to ask if anyone has any other suggestions for the way forward, so that the audience feel included in the decision making process.
Step 14
Restate the vision.
As we near the end of the presentation you now want to restate your vision of success that your audience have bought into, so that you are leaving the audience on a high. Full of expectation of what can be achieved. Remember the old adage "tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, tell then what you told them", this is where you tell them what you told them.
Step 15
Thank the audience and ask for questions. It is always polite to thank the audience for their time and attention and ask if anyone has any questions.
Step 16
State call to action.
The final part of your presentation, after any questions have been answered, must be to state the call to action, which will enforce the objective of your presentation. This is your last chance to influence the actions of your audience after they leave your presentation so you must ensure that the leave with one clear aim in mind, which is of course to fulfil your objective for the presentation.
Step 17
I find it useful to write the whole script of the presentation down on paper, as it helps me to organise my thoughts and work out exactly what it is I want to say, but I would never use this full script as a aid when I am actually presenting.
Instead I use cue cards. Cue cards are card index cards normally used in a rolodex or similar. The are about 5" by 3" cards. On these cards I write the opening phrase for each topic and the key points to make.
Step 18
Creating the PowerPoint slides. Now that you have all of the presentation content worked out, it is time to start thinking about the visual aids that you will use to help put the message across. If you used PowerPoint (or similar) to organise your thoughts back in Step 3, do NOT be tempted to use that as the bullet points of your presentation. Those bullets would be better used on your cue cards. The point of using visual aids is not to remind you what to say, it is to help convey the message to your audience and to conjure up strong mental images that will help them to remember what it is you are saying.
Visual Aids should be exactly what it says on the tin. They should be visual, i.e. pictures, images or graphics and they should help to strengthen the message. They are not the message itself.
Step 19
Finally, all you need to do now, is practise your presentation. This is best done aloud, not just reading the slides in your head. If you have a video camera or a tape recorder available, try taping yourself and watching it back. The more you practise the better you will be on the day.