Stop Ignoring Your Audience!

Start this year by making your audience the focus of your presentations from the very beginning of your preparation to the final delivery. Their needs and expectations should be for the focus of your message and should shape the content you decide to include.


If you can ask yourself a few key questions before you write the first word of your presentation, your audience will notice the difference and reward you by listening to you, remembering your message and acting on your proposals.


It doesn't take a lot of time. It's more about changing the way you approach your preparation.


So, next time you have to give a presentation, start with these key questions:


Who are the decision makers in your audience (they are the only ones that really matter)?
Why are they attending your presentation?
What do they expect to learn from you?
What do you want them to do with the information you're giving them?
What do they need to know in order to act on your proposal?


When you've answered these questions, base your presentation preparation on the answers you came up with.


Try it! Your audience is waiting for you to pay attention to them. This small change in thinking can make all the difference.


I wish you luck in your presentations in 2011. Let me know how the changes you make have helped you make outstanding presentations!

© 2011 Jeanne Trojan. All rights reserved

Stop Reading Your Slides!

Want to know the fastest way to get your audience to stop listening to you and for you to lose credibility? Read your slides to your audience. It's amazing, but some people still think this is an effective way of presenting.

This practice was once quietly accepted, but I have noticed audiences becoming visibly uncomfortable when speakers do this now. And, I absolutely empathize with the way they feel. Why should we sit there and waste our time while you read something aloud that we can read much faster to ourselves? Why don't you either say something that adds value to your slides or just do us all a favor and forget about presenting and send them by email?

Does that sound harsh? Well, it's meant to. It's time that people wake up and realize that reading slides to the audience is one of the worst presentation sins they can commit and doing so has serious consequences for their image and their organization's brand.

I'm sure that most of my readers never even think about doing such a thing, but will you all do me a favor? The next time that someone you know gives a presentation and reads their slides, please gently tell them to stop it!. Thank you.

© 2011 Jeanne Trojan. All rights reserved