I met the exec team at a client of mine recently to report back on a project I’d been running for them. We had a great meeting, the atmosphere was good, and at the end I was asked to think about taking on another project for them near the end of the year – a great result! As we were finishing, one of the four people in the room said ‘I really enjoy our meetings with you, partly because you never do a presentation’.

 

Think about that for a minute – ‘I really enjoy our meetings because you never do a presentation’.  What does that say about his expectations of presenters?!

 

I asked him what he meant: ‘Well, you don’t plug in your laptop and show us lots of slides, you just tell me what I need to know, and do it quickly. Then we can have a conversation.’

That’s the key – ‘then we can have a conversation’ .

 

Most people don’t like being talked at, and they certainly don’t like being bored. Too many presenters make the mistake of filling up their meeting time with information, rather than provoking thought and discussion.

 

Of course, I do do a presentation, it just doesn’t look like people’s idea of a typical presentation!

 

So, bearing that in mind, here are my three ‘quick rescue tips’ for your next presentation:

 

1. Make it shorter – slides. Reduce your slides by at least 10%, and ideally 25%. It feels tough, but you’ll sharpen your message and your thinking when you do this, and your audience will never complain. If you’re using a prescribed ‘slide deck’ then decide which 10 -25% you’re going to skim over. (Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone).

2. Make it shorter – performance. However long you’ve rehearsed (you do rehearse, don’t you?) cut the time down by at least 10%. I promise you can do it. If you get stuck, list your presentation points in order of importance, and remove the lowest 3-5 on your list. Be ruthless about this. If it’s not essential, it goes. You can always stick the information in a hand-out or a ‘just in case’ slide if you need to.

3. Make it shorter – meeting time. Aim to fill up no more than half the meeting time with your presentation, and offer intrigue, stimulation or provocation near the end. Make sure your presentation starts a conversation, rather than ends it.

 

I’m going to finish this post in the same way – what do you think? Wouldn’t you like it if the next presentation you had to sit through was relevant, lean, to the point and short? Wouldn’t you prefer it if the presenter provoked you into thinking differently and engaged you in a conversation, rather than talking at you through most of the meeting time?

 

What do you think..?