10 Steps To A Professional Presentation
Preparing for a presentation can be a long, winding process that includes deep contemplation, thorough research, organization, writing, editing, slide design, and much more. Considering all of the different tasks that can be involved with creating a presentation, it’s no surprise so many presenters wonder how to prepare for their presentations.
To simplify presentation preparation for you, here are 10 steps you should consider completing as you get ready for an upcoming presentation:
1. Ask Why?
Before you do anything, stop and ask yourself Why? Why am I giving this presentation?
Perhaps your boss assigned it to you, or your marketing team suggested it. Or, maybe you sought out the opportunity for your own reasons.
No matter how you landed the presentation opportunity, you need to identify your personal objective for the presentation before you begin preparing.
To identify the objective, ask yourself, Why am I giving this presentation? or Why is this presentation a valuable opportunity for me?
You might decide your objective is to sell a product, collect email addresses, or develop your personal platform by getting your name known in certain circles. You objective might also be to educate, inform, or improve your credibility as an expert.
Once you have identified an objective, ask yourself Why? once again to play the devil’s advocate and check the logic and value of your objective.
For example, if your objective is to educate your employees, ask yourself, Why do I want to educate my employees on this topic?
Once you have the answer to that question, ask yourself Why? once again.
For example, if you decided you want to educate your employees on this topic because it will lead to higher profits for the company, better job security for the employees, and better quality products for the customer, then through this exercise, you’ve uncovered another nugget of wisdom: you’ve uncovered the value of your objective.
Remember to mention the value of your objective at some point during your presentation. When you give your audience a reason for the call-to-action of your presentation, they are more likely to comply with your requests than if you had asked without providing a reason.
You might have more than one objective, and if so, prioritize your objectives.
For example, your main objective might be to sell copies of your book, however you might also hope to inspire the audience during your presentation. If your main objective is to sell the book, then your second tier objective, to inspire the audience, should also help you sell your book. So, instead of inspiring attendees with your personal life story, consider inspiring the audience by sharing the success stories of people who purchased your book and followed the advice in the book. Your objectives need to move in the same direction, towards the same goal, or else you might weaken you chances of accomplishing either goal.
2. Walk In Their Shoes
Once you know what you want to accomplish with your presentation, turn your focus to the audience.
Once again, ask Why? Why will the audience attend my presentation?, or Why will the audience care about my presentation?
If your objective and the audience’s objectives don’t match up, you need to ask, Why don’t they align?
When contemplating that question, you might discover that you are speaking to the wrong audience, and need to rethink delivering the presentation if possible. Or, you might discover you need to tweak your objective to make everyone happy.
Also, think about what the audience will want to hear from you, and how they will want to receive the information. For example, will they want you to cover the basics, or do a thorough, deep-dive? Will they want your presentation to be filled with anecdotes and lessons from your experiences, or will they prefer data-driven tips? Will they want the presentation to be more interactive, or less?
If you don’t know the answers to these questions about the audience, reach out to the conference or presentation coordinator to get more information about the attendees.
If a coordinator is unavailable or not helpful, try to get a list of attendees and research some of the audience members through a basic Google search. If social media accounts show up for some of the attendees, take a look at what they’re posting. Twitter and LinkedIn are often helpful for understanding an attendee’s professional interests. If you’re delivering a presentation that relates more to people’s personal lives, you might be more interested in what attendees post on Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram. Remember, the point of this research is to determine how you can provide something of value for the audience.
3. Check and Collect
Now that you now what you and the audience hope to get out of the presentation, make sure you have the right type of information to put together a compelling presentation for your objectives.
Assess your existing assets, such as research, case studies, articles, testimonials, stories, and statistics. If you think you are lacking critical information, do some digging and discover new gems to fill any holes in your collection of assets.
Lastly, organize your information so you can find assets easily. Don’t let a cluttered folder of resources slow you down once you get in the creative flow during the presentation development process.
4. Create A Blueprint
At this point you know your objective, the audience’s objectives, and have collected resources to help you creative impactful presentation content. The next step is to outline your main points and supporting materials so you can start to see how all the pieces might fit together.
Don’t think too much during this part of the process. The goal of this activity is to simply give you a starting point for your presentation. Create the first draft of an outline for your presentation content, and then stop. Don’t worry if it is perfect or not; you will have plenty of time to edit in the next steps.
5. Spike The Punch
Now that you have the basics outlined for your presentation, look for opportunities to spike your content with a shot of persuasiveness to help inspire the audience to get on board with your objective.
Ask yourself:
Do I need to rearrange some elements to be more persuasive?
Do I need to be add some stories, data, or research to be more convincing?
What questions might the audience have based on this outline, and how can I answer those questions?
Do I need to add some humor?
Does my outline guide the audience to a conclusion that matches my objective?
Once have elevated your outline by adding some more flavor to the content, take a step back from your content, and let it rest for a few hours or days of possible.
6. Keep It Real
At this point, you should have a fairly strong outline for your presentation content. Take another look at your outline, make any edits that you deem necessary and then pass your outline to a qualified friend or colleague, and request feedback.
You might need to flesh out your outline a bit more before it will make sense to fresh eyes, and if so, take the time to make your outline sensible for another person.
Once you receive feedback from one or more reviewers, listen to the feedback with an open mind. Ask questions to encourage the reviewers to provide more information.
For example, ask:
What questions did you have when reading the outline?
At what points did you lose interest?
Did you doubt or question any of my supporting evidence?
How would you feel about me after hearing this presentation? Would I be more or less likable?
What do you wish I had covered?
What seemed unnecessary?
If possible, solicit feedback from people who are similar to the people who will attend the presentation. However if you cannot get feedback from someone within your target audience, getting fresh eyes on your content is better than working on your content in isolation, so don’t be too picky about who reviews your work.
7. Bring It To Life
Once you have solicited feedback on your content, revised your content, and revised it again, you are likely ready to bring your outline to life by designing slides.
If you’re not a skilled designer, I suggest hiring a presentation designer, or sticking with a simple design style, such as the10/20/30 style that Guy Kawasaki promotes, or the Takahashi method.
If you have some design skills, you might consider layering typography over photography, or even illustrating custom graphics for your slides.
However you choose to approach the design style, make sure to use a consistent color scheme throughout the entire presentation, and also use no more than 2-3 fonts for the deck.
8. Dress Rehearsal
When you have slides that you can use for rehearsing your presentation, start practicing immediately. You want to practice as much as possible before your presentation.
Practicing is important not because you want to have every word and gesture scripted and coordinated. Practice is important because you want to be able to go off script if necessary, without getting off track permanently.
For example, you might look out into the audience during your presentation and notice that everyone looks bored. If this is the case, you might decide to tell a funny story to explain one of your points, instead of proceeding with your presentation as planned. Once the story is over, and the audience is once again engaged, you will need to continue with the rest of the presentation without being frazzled by your impromptu storytelling moment. This is one reason why practice is powerful.
In addition, the more you practice the more conversational you can be because you can avoid the ums and uhs which are clear indications you are trying to recall a forgotten scripted line.
When practicing, try to rehearse in an environment similar to the environment in which you will be speaking. If you will be speaking in a board room, reserve a conference room at your office for your practice sessions. Try to avoid practicing in your pajamas on the couch, or in the car on the way to work in the morning. Every little bit of practice helps, however the bulk of your rehearsing should be done standing up, in an environment as similar to the presentation venue as possible.
If you’re going to be presenting in an auditorium, you might not be able to practice in the same, or even a similar auditorium, but it never hurts to ask. Contact the presentation organizer and ask if you can access the auditorium before the presentation date, and if you receive permission, take advantage of the opportunity, and practice in the auditorium as much as possible.
9. Emergency Kit
Once your slides are complete, and you have practiced all you can practice, you are ready to pack your things for your presentation. If possible, start packing for your presentation at least one week prior to your presentation so you have time to get any tools you currently do not have.
To start packing for your presentation, contact the presentation organizer to get final confirmation on the AV setup. Ask what cords and other technical equipment you will need to bring. If the organizer asks you to send your presentation file in advance so you can use all of their equipment, ask what equipment they will provide to ensure you will be comfortable using their setup. If you won’t be comfortable, ask if you can use your own computer to project the slides and preview your notes.
You should also consider bringing a portable projector, and a variety of extra cords, batteries, and any miscellaneous AV technical equipment you can comfortably bring with you in case there is an AV emergency. Even if the emergency is not your fault, you still want to be able to fix the problem if necessary so your hard work isn’t a waste simply due to a faulty projector or missing USB cord.
10. Arrive In Style
Show up to the presentation in clothes that will help you create the image you want to project to the audience. If you want to be cool and casual, then dress in that manner. However if you want to be seen as polished and professional, then wear your best power suit and dress to impress.
Arrive to the presentation venue at least an hour early. Even if it is not appropriate to enter the building that early, you can go for a stroll around the block to collect your thoughts, or sit in your car and get psyched up for your big pitch. There are plenty of ways to easily and productively utilize that hour if need be, however it is difficult to erase a bad first impression if you’re late to your own presentation.
If you can enter the building an hour in advance, set up your computer if possible, and then walk the venue to familiarize yourself with the layout of the stage and the audience area.
Conclusion
If you follow the 10 steps included above, you should be prepared for your upcoming presentation, however this list is not exhaustive. Many presenters have additional elements in their presentation preparation routine such as an exercise regime, a nutrition plan, journaling, dance class, and much more. Be creative with your routine, and find what works for you. There is no one way to prepare for a presentation, however having a plan to follow is helpful when you’re unsure of how to begin preparing for your presentation.
