NO MATTER HOW YOU PRESENT….

…routine or improvised,

with many pictures or just your hands, rhetorically brilliant or deliberately simple. Two elements are really central to making your presentation a success. The following explanations focus on these two elements and will support you in the preparation and implementation of your presentation.

Of course there are many more remarkable details that contribute to the success – but to say it with Hans Krankl “…everything else is primary”.

1. Fundamental rights of the listener, which have to be observed by the speaker

Respectful attitude and appreciation towards the audience

Your inner attitude towards the audience is always perceived by your listeners and cannot be masked by even the most sophisticated presentation technique. That’s why:

• Try to see the people before you summarize them as a target group: Do you know who’s sitting across? What interests and moves these people? What are their fears, worries and needs? And if you know these answers – take them seriously!
• The own attitude to the topic of the lecture plays an equally important role, of course: You can only ignite others if it burns inside you!
• Prove your own competence: yes – know better: no! Even if you are sure to have THE right view: Beware of such allegations.

Responsible handling of the time of your listeners

• NEVER present longer than planned or announced.
• If it is likely to take longer than expected, skip less important parts of the presentation and nobody will miss them.
• Avoid speaking more quickly or acting rushed.
• Do not shorten the closing statement or the summary!

Functioning and prepared lecture technique

• A functioning lecture technique that has been tested in a real situation is a matter of course that your audience can take for granted. Unforeseeable things will easily be forgiven. Problems such as low-light beamers, dazzling lighting conditions, insufficient volume, faltering animations etc. are interpreted – because they can be avoided – as a lack of esteem for the auditorium.
• Important: In the case of obviously self-inflicted and avoidable mistakes: there is no excuse for this, it could even be perceived as provocation.

So that your listeners can switch to reception readiness at all, give them the opportunity to get the answers to some basic questions

• The image that the listener creates of the speaker determines the “selective perception” – which contents the listener hears and with which inner attitude he listens. Already in the first 30 seconds answers to the following questions are intuitively sought:
• Who’s that out there?
• What’s this all about?
• Do I even want, or does it make sense for me to listen and watch?
• Also bear in mind that a first assessment of the speaker’s person takes place subjectively in the first 7 seconds (!) in order to give the listener a first orientation grid in the sense of the following questions:
• What kind of guy is he?
• What’s his mood?
• Can I trust him?

2. Bring customer orientation into your presentation

The unasked questions of your listeners

Check each slide, each element of your presentation to see if you can answer the following “unasked questions”:

• Why am I telling you this?
• What does that mean for you in detail?
• Who cares about that? (You should consider it, because …)

Show that you have dealt with your customer

• Find out about the customer’s successes of which he is proud.
• Collect information about the market, the organization, but also about business partners and competitors.
• Ask questions in between – a company presentation does not have to be a monologue!
• “Did I do the right thing?”
• “Do you need more information on this point?”

Start with the basis: clear, compact, logical – for your target group

• Preparing in a target group-oriented way means starting with the listeners. Consider the level of knowledge, needs and interests and prepare the corresponding information.
• From the whole to the detail: first consider the rough structure, the sequence of the information blocks, then elaborate the arguments, design the foils.
• Giving orientation in the lecture: an overview at the start, in between briefly “where are we – what’s next”, summarizing the most important messages at the end.

This presentation is ONLY for YOU

We love the feeling that something was made for us personally. However, addressing our own target group correctly is diametrically opposed to our urge for “recycling”.

• Integrate the world of the target group into your presentation: Images of products or production sites, references to the history of the customer… – both verbally and in the visual aids.
• Adapt your presentation in the choice of colours or by adding the customer logo.
• But your target group orientation must not be exhausted!