“Can you help our engineers with their presentations? They’re horrible! They always bombard us with too much data.” I’ve been asked this question countless times by business leaders who sit through presentations from their engineering teams. The complaint is that the presentations include way too much data and detail. What needs to be done? There’s a simple solution.

We need to understand that business managers and engineers speak different languages. In addition, they have different needs, interests, and goals based on their roles. If the roles were reversed, we’d probably have the same problem. The complaint from the engineers would be “Can you please help us with our business manager presentations? They’re awful! Full of lofty theories and general ideas but no concrete data!”

You can create the right presentation for the right audience by answering three questions before you construct your message. The answers to these three questions will help you identify how much and what kind of data to include. If you create the right message for the right audience, you’re more likely to achieve your goal. So let’s start with your goal…

1st Question: After the presentation, what do you want the audience to DO?

In other words, what is the next step after this presentation? What does the audience need to do after this presentation? There has to be a purpose for presenting! So, just make sure you are crystal clear on the audience’s next step.

It could be as simple as remembering some key elements for the future so they can make better business decisions. Maybe you want them to approve a new IT budget for system upgrades. If they’re asking for a project update and you’re not quite sure what their next step is or why they need this information, then you need to ask! Find out how they’re going to use this information so you can give them exactly what they want.

Now, in order to equip them for the next step, we need to answer two more questions.

2nd Question: What does the audience need to KNOW and UNDERSTAND?

What does the audience need to KNOW and understand about your subject before they will be able to take that next step? This question is not about teaching them to understand at the same level that you (the expert) understand. It is all about knowing what level of depth they need to understand. This is where the breakdown usually occurs where engineers tend to think the audience should understand the details at their same depth of understanding.

A little empathy can go a long way here. Think about what they need to know, not what you know.

3rd Question: How do you want your audience to FEEL about this subject?

The feeling question is rarely addressed in business.  From what I’ve seen, the business leaders and the engineers are both equally guilty here. The common thought is “What do feelings have to do with business? We make our decisions based on data and logic.” I’ve got some news for you, unless you’re speaking to an audience of robots, you need to deal with the feeling question.

Do you want your audience to feel… bored, excited, frustrated, angry, equipped, confident, proud, anxious, empowered, inspired, calm, supported, comfortable, or uneasy?

It’s not about you…

The more specific you can be with all three of these questions, the easier it will be to construct your message. It becomes much easier to decide how many details to include, which slides to include, which stories to include, and how many examples to include. Overall, it makes your job of creating the presentation easier and much more relevant to your audience.

As humans, we are all created wonderfully different.  As speakers, we need to empathize with the audience’s needs and build the message for them, not just for us. If you do that, you’re on your way to achieving your goals.

Let’s go change some lives. Your audience is counting on you!

See you next week,
Russ

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Twitter- @RussPetersonJr  or  Facebook

What effective message construction techniques have you used or seen?  Leave your comments here.

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