Partner Article

If you think it's obvious, it isn't

With Simon Raybould of Curved Vision

According to some research I’ve just re-read, there are only six basic types of selling-story: the most powerful stories are those that fall into the category called “I know what you’re thinking”. People love to be understood and if your presentation can show them that you understand them, you’re onto a winner.

One way of showing you understand them, of course, is to answer the questions that they’re about to ask you – before they ask you it. Presentations shouldn’t be a simple Q&A session where you ask yourself questions and then answer them, obviously (because that’s boring!) but here’s a handy tip for checking your presentation’s structure…

Go through each slide or each point you want to use and ask yourself this one, simple question: “does this slide answer the obvious question my audience will have at the end of the previous slide?” It sounds simple, doesn’t it? But try it – if your slides don’t generate obvious questions, ask yourself if they’re really telling people anything important: frankly you can usually cut slides that don’t raise a question. If the slide generates one question but your next slide answers another… well, you’ll lose your audience quickly enough!

It’s a tougher technique than it sounds – you’ve got to be absolutely ruthless with yourself and put yourself in the position of your audience but I promise you it’ll be worth it!

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .