Presenting Does Not Just Mean Sharing Your Desktop
A Template You Can Copy And Apply Right Away
There are certain words that pique your reader’s curiosity. And then there are some that plumet the focus in the first 15 seconds itself!
While the 2021 lockdown scenario continues to endure, our ‘work from home’ skills keep elevating every day. 2020 taught us a lot. It forced us to do the changes we never expected to happen anytime soon.
Atleast I did not expect the cash only bars in Germany to demand contactless payment in a trice!
The pivotal essence of your online job today does not adhere to expensive business clothing or sycophancy with your boss. All this comes down to only one thing, “What are you presenting on your screen?” Read as, ‘How are you capturing the attention of your patrons?’
There is a simple rule to get the core idea of your content through to your audience. For example, let me describe an inaccessible building in my neighbourhood. From the two descriptions below, which one appeals to you the most?
- This complex houses married and single soldiers and their families.
- Defence Quarters
Most of you would prefer Option 2. Why do you think the second one is better? Does it justify the purpose? No. Then? It is shorter. Clearer. The message clé has got through to you.
As a rule, you can convey any content you want in a persuassive way. Persuasion is the effect of successful suasion on your target audience. The questions will help you structure your content in a strategic way.
Who Is Your Target Audience?
The ‘people’ you are going to present the content to. Structure of the content has high relevance to the target receiver. Define the headings in your agenda according to the kind of audience you are addressing it to. e.g. In sales context, Are they decision makers?
If this point is not revised with care, it will not take even a minute for your audience to lose interest in you. An individual’s average attention span today is less than that of a fruit fly. Thanks to the addictive social media algorithms. The goldfish theory of attention span, stated back in 1908, is a mere outdated phrase now.
How strong does the Audience relate to your content?
While formulating the content, you must assess how relevant is it to those, whom it affects it first hand. Who are they? Do they have the pre-requisite knowledge to the topic you are presenting?
Is your content adjusted to their level of expertise. Are the terms you used in your explanation clear to them? If not, did you clarify them somewhere to get all your receivers on the same page?
Delineating the Content
Structure of the content. Check. Clarification of the terms. Check. TMI Filter. Wait… what for? Sometimes while explaining a topic, it is natural for the presenter to stir off topic. Giving out too much about a concept and too less about another.
This is another nudge to the audience’s attention deficit. Result? Wandering attention lickety-split. That’s why it is important to set boundaries on the amount of context you pour into topics and sub-topics.
You must know where to draw the line while explaining the details.
If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough
“The father of Realism”, Henrik Ibsen said “A picture is worth a thousand words”. Then why not cut out those thousand and replace them with a single diagram. Diagrams help the audience to map the content better and hark back to it for a longer time. Long reports are old school. That’s why dashboards are gaining more emphasis than ever in every analyser tool online.
What kind of questions can the audience ask?
The presentation is ready. You have already imagined yourself winning the deal. The moment when the everyone is about to clap for you, someone asks a question. It never crossed your mind or even your path before. You stand there still, with no clue how to handle this. You say that you will find out about this in detail and get back. But sometimes, you have no chance to come back.
Save yourself from this plight, contemplate the listener’s perspective ahead in time. Ask for help from mentors. Ask your colleagues or friends for their experience in similar scenarios.
Make a list of questions and their possible solutions in advance. Add points to your presentation to enable preemptying. Preemptying is a sales technique. Wherein you answer the questions of your customer before they ask them. So you gain their trust and avoid negatiation blockers.
The Final Showdown
When a message is recieved, different people perceive it differently. Not everyone wants to hear the heavy words you used there. Sometimes, a simple story does the magic that technical expertise cannot.
Take time to ponder over your final presentation style. Ask questions like, is the audiene more emotional type? Would a story deliver the core idea better? Can showing more numbers along with a technical reasoning do required convincing?
Use this Pyramid Principal for effective presentation and audience oreinted communication.
Happy Screen Sharing!
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Priyanka Mane | Agilist | Digital Content Creator |Learner
Connect here: Instagram: wanderess_priyanka
| LinkedIn: Priyanka Mane | Youtube: Crunchy n Fit
