C-Level Presentation Tip #5: Analyze Your Audience

Executive level presentations can entail all the challenges of scaling Mount Everest: the footing is slippery, balance is critical and the drop is a long way down.

This series of tips will help you make a few tweaks to your presentation practices so you can perform successfully at the altitude of the C-Suite.

TIP #5: ANALYZE YOUR AUDIENCE

This is a fundamental best practice for all presentations, but nowhere is it more critical than with a C-Level audience.

Do your homework before the presentation to discover how the executives in your audience like to receive information. Does the CFO, for example, need time to analyze the financial implications of what you’ve presented before being asked to make a decision? Does the CEO prefer to see an agenda before the presentation? Does the CIO want charts and graphs rather than bullet points?

Uncover this information by analyzing previous presentations you’ve made to this audience or asking colleagues who have presented to them. Understanding C-Level needs helps you structure your presentation to address them. It also minimizes the likelihood of losing your footing and other unpleasant surprises.

 

C-Level Presentation Tip #4: Beware of Too Much Detail
C-Level Presentation Tip #3: Expect and Be Happy About Interruptions
C-Level Presentation Tip #2: Link to Business Issues
C-Level Presentation Tip #1: Start with Conclusions

 

Photo Credit:
flickr/Deetrak  C.C. 2.0

 

Comments

[Kathy Reiffenstein]

The two links provided here by b2bstorytelling are must-reads! They add additional depth and perspective to the commonly heard advice "analyze your audience."

Thanks, Marc, for stopping by and contributing.

And Surrey Private Detective -- don't we just wish that every presentation was filled with eager listeners?!! But most audiences represent a myriad of motivations for being there. And as presenters, we are well ahead of the game when we recognize that.

Best,
Kathy

[B2bstorytelling.wordpress.com]

Kathy, you're absolutely right. Each audience –or even each single member of that audience– may have different and personal reasons for attending. Two tools I often use are a power quadrant (http://b2bstorytelling.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/to-whom-it-should-concern/) and an influencer quadrant (http://b2bstorytelling.wordpress.com/2013/02/19/friends-and-foes/)

[Surrey Private Detective]

The easiest "sales job" (and let's face it, every presentation is a sales job, no matter what the topic is), is to have an audience filled with people who are eager to learn all that you can tell them. That would be in a perfect world. However, that scenario is not normally the case.