Storytelling in Presentations For Dummies

Chapter 3

Knowing Your Audience to Make Them Heroes

IN THIS CHAPTER

Assessing your last presentation

Seeing your target

Focusing on your audience, purpose, and key issue

Understanding what questions your audience will want answered

To improve communication, work not on the utterer, but on the recipient.

—PETER DRUCKER, AMERICAN BUSINESS PHILOSOPHER AND AUTHOR

Every presenter must remember four important words: It’s not about me! When your audience walks into the room, they’re thinking, “What’s in it for me?” Perhaps you think you already know your audience, but do you actually understand their (hidden) agendas or what keeps them up at night? In this chapter, you find out how to better understand your audience, their purpose and key issue, and the questions you need to address to create a presentation that will make each person feel like you’re speaking directly to them.

If you don’t get to know your audience at a deep level before your presentation, it will be like writing “To Whom ...