Business Presentation

Inspire and Inform: How to Effectively Organize your Content for a Business Presentation

Sheri Jeavons, President

You have to give a business presentation. You have ten things you need to cover, but have only been given fifteen minutes. Many of you make the mistake of trying to cover too much information for the allotted time. In order to get through all of your material, you find yourself talking too fast and rushing through the information. After the presentation, you realize that your listeners were overwhelmed, confused and downright bored. That’s hardly the result you want!

When preparing for a presentation or meeting, take a few moments to really think about what message you want to communicate and what you want people to take away. Be decisive about these points. The following four tips can help you better organize your content so your presentation is one that inspires and informs.

1. Think of your audience. Before you write anything, first determine what your audience wants from you as it relates to the topic. To do this, list two to four goals you know your listeners would like to accomplish as a result of your meeting or presentation. Ask yourself, "What's in it for them?"

2. Be concise. Most communications, whether they’re 30 minutes or three hours, should cover no more than three key topics or key points. Having only three topics or points gives you ample time to give some background information on each. Additionally, many people walk away from meetings and are able to recall only three key points from the communication. In other words, if you try to cover a lot of different topics, you’re not going to be able to focus on anything important and you’ll lose your listeners. You’re better off having shorter meetings with fewer points then one long meeting covering everything.

3. State your goals. In the first two minutes of your presentation or communication, state the two to four goals you’ve identified for your audience. Make it clear why they should listen to you and how you’re going to help them accomplish what they want to do. Don’t go into detail yet; just state the goals.

4. Be repetitive. Every two to three minutes of your presentation (or at the end of every slide if using PowerPoint^®), as you go through your information and cover each topic in detail, restate one of the goals back to the audience. Yes, this is repetitive, but your listeners need repetition for the information to sink in. Remember that they don’t know the topic as well as you, so they need to hear the key points and goals often to get the full impact of your message.