How to Present, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 3Structure your message

Congratulations on completing your presentation pre-work using the five-step analysis in chapter 2. If engaging and/or persuading your audience is important to you, it's a good idea to capitalise on the time you have already taken to understand your audience better by converting your five-step analysis notes into a presentation that addresses the needs of all your audience members so you can achieve maximum results. This chapter outlines how to structure your message so your point is clear and interesting for your audience.

Let me ask you: how do you normally go about structuring a presentation? In the past, have you designed your presentations by going to PowerPoint and either collating existing slides or creating a few new ones and then working out what to say about them? Or perhaps you have used the ‘introduction, aim, credentials, body one, body two, body three, summary, conclusion' model, which is commonly taught in schools and universities. Or maybe you used one of a variety of mind-mapping techniques available, such as the fishbone. Do any of these methods sound familiar?

These approaches tend to be presenter-focused models, and tend to be content driven.

If you are keen to impress and even persuade your audience in your presentation, what you need is an audience-focused model that addresses the different needs and expectations of all the different people in your audience.

You see, individuals take in information differently, learn differently ...