Short article: 💬 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐇𝐚𝐜𝐤: Always Focus on Your Audience’s Needs

As you prepare the presentation, you always need to bear in mind what the audience needs and wants to know, not what you can tell them. Your business audience is busy and decisive. It wants concise, no-nonsense information. Presentations often lead to decisions, so your first goal should be to help your audience see why your message matters to them.

Always create your slides with your audience in mind. Your presentation needs to be built around what your audience is going to get out of the presentation. When you know more about your audience and their expectations, you’ll be able to tailor your talk to make it more interesting.

In order to deliver an effective presentation, ask yourself the following questions before you start:

#1 KNOW.

Take some time to consider who might attend. Why are they here? What do they want to get out of my presentation? What does my audience already know about my subject? How will I make my message interesting and relevant to them?

#2 EXPECT.

What are their expectations? How can I solve their problems? What can I say in order to meet or exceed those expectations?

#3 FEEL.

Will my audience have positive, negative, or neutral feelings about my message? How should I address those feelings? What are their doubts, fears and misperceptions?

#4 REMEMBER.

Think about what attendees will remember 24 hours after your presentation. No matter how good your talk, attendees won’t remember much a day later; perhaps just a view core messages and some of your most compelling slides. What is the key message (or three key points) for my audience to take away?

#5 DO.

What action should my audience take based on my message? Do I provide a clear call to action (More informations here)? How will I motivate them to take that action (more informations here)? Remove any obstacles you can that might keep them from adopting your message and carrying out your call to action. How do they prefer to receive additional information (before or afterward)? You can find tips for creating good handouts in this article.

Pay attention to the needs of the audience and achieve your goals!

Achieving your presentation goals and getting your message(s) across doesn’t take much. Take our five tips to heart and address the questions in your preparation time. Answer them as accurately as possible and use them to create your perfect presentation to achieve your goals!

Do you have any questions about the article or about PowerPoint in general? Feel free to contact us by email at [email protected]. We will help you!

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• Creating a handout
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