Some presentations need to go into detail, but it’s important to help your audience not get lost in the weeds. Anett Grant, CEO of Executive Speaking, Inc., recently offered these tips for staying on point at FastCompany.com.
- Don’t show off everything you know. Think about what your knowledge means to your audience. How can you help them achieve their goals? You call a plumber to fix a leaky pipe, not to find out every single thing they know about plumbing.
- Find your cruising altitude. Presenter are like pilots: They should quickly find a cruising altitude that’s smooth and one-directional. If you don’t position your ideas at the right level (and keep them there), it could be a turbulent ride.
- Avoid trap questions. Some questions are impossible to answer without going into a lot of detail. The key is to recognize these questions so you can stop yourself before getting lost in the weeds.
- Swap data points for images. Imagery is usually more powerful than a data dump. In making the case for pivoting from trying to sell a product to partnering with other businesses, a marketing exec didn’t do a deep, data-driven analysis. He simply said, “Our business is like a fork. And we build the best fork. But customers don’t buy forks. They buy place settings.” With that powerful image, he was able to introduce a change that grew the company.
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