Compelling Presentations: Winning Over and Executive Audience

By Oli Monk

Whether you already run your own business, are part of a big corporation, or simply want to improve your technique; an essential business skill is being able to present.

This is true whether you are briefing staff, asking for funding, consulting with senior executives or just pitching what you do best for more sales. Time pressures mean that clear, concise communication is key. This book aims to teach you the essential principles, and a tried and tested method that will allow you to generate clear and compelling presentations quickly and easily.

The focus of the book is presenting within a work context, so the approach discussed is fairly formal. The same principles apply to more public presentation, but you have more room to be creative. Here, we are looking to get our messages across as clearly and concisely as possible, so there is not much room for non-essentials.
The upshot of the above is that we are going to be focused on what you present and pulling it together, not how you present it; although there are a few pointers provided there too. This is not the only way to do it, but it does work. The process is also not tool specific; it is applicable to all kinds of presentation. You could even use it on acetate if you really want to go properly old school.
We aim to give you confidence to:
•Communicate ideas to Senior Staff or Investors clearly & concisely
•Be prepared for and know what to expect from an Executive audience
•Generate compelling presentations fast

I’ve tried to pitch this book so it is suitable for everyone, from beginners who are just starting out to experts looking to refresh and sharpen their skills. So, you are likely to come across some standard rules that may look very familiar and, hopefully, some approaches that you’ve not seen before.
It is written to be applicable to whatever presentation tools you want to use, but does assume you have some familiarity with generating slides with that package.
The book is split into twelve sections and we start by discussing how to use the context of the presentation to shape it, then move on to the principles to follow when generating it. We then discuss what to look for when refining your presentation and work through an example. Subsequently, we look at the key issues to consider before presenting. The penultimate step is the pre-presentation preparation and we cover things to think about as well as providing a basic check-list for you to adapt for your own use. The final stage is the presentation itself and we look at common issues and things to avoid. The overall approach is then drawn together into a simple 9-Stage process for you to use. An appendix provides some sample presentation structures for you to adapt for your own use.

On completion, you will have a thorough understanding of what to do to pull together your presentation, but more importantly you’ll understand why and how that relates to your audience and have the tools to generate effective, compelling presentations quickly and in a repeatable way.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Oli Monk
• Release date: Dec 23, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370971374

Oli Monk

Born in Redhill, lived in Cornwall, now living in the Midlands. Married with no kids or a TV. Budding entrepreneur who is into red wine with good friends and still trying to learn to speak french with a proper accent.

Book preview

Compelling Presentations

Winning Over an

Executive Audience

Author: Oliver Monk

July 2016

For Lizzie, who brought me tea;

and for Alice, who kept my notes warm.

Copyright © 2016 Apprond Limited

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Printed in the United Kingdom

First Printing, 2016

APPROND Limited

1 Parsons Street, Dudley

Birmingham

DY1 1JJ

www.apprond.co.uk

Smashwords Edition

Contents

1 Introduction

1.1 Content and Overview

2 The Executive Perspective

2.1 Focus Your Approach

2.2 Reasons for Presenting - Outcomes

2.3 The Cultural Context

2.4 Key Learning Points

3 Logic Flow

3.1 A Customer Focus

3.2 Key Learning Points

4 Timing & Clarity

4.1 Timing

4.2 Complexity vs Simplicity

4.3 Key Learning Points

5 Layout and Presentation Structure

5.1 Contents or Agenda

5.2 Start with the End in Mind

5.3 Presentation Body Slides

5.4 Supporting Slides

5.5 Focussing Down

5.6 Longer Presentations

5.7 Key Learning Points

6 Refining Your Presentation

6.1 Pitching

6.2 Language

6.3 Data

6.4 Key Learning Points

7 Review Stage

7.1 Key Learning Points

8 Worked Example

8.1 Sample Solution Summary

8.2 Key Learning Points

9 Preparation – Before You Present

9.1 Handouts or Briefing Packs

9.2 Pre-Checks

9.3 Rehearsal

9.4 Key Learning Points

10 The Presentation Experience

10.1 Attitude & Unexploded Bombs

10.2 Expectations

10.3 Key Learning Points

11 Bringing it All Together

12 Summary of Key Points

Afterword

Appendices

A1 Sample Presentation Structures

A2 Preparation Checklist

Illustrations

Figure 1: Ideas Funnel

Figure 2: Ideas Hourglass

Figure 3: Before Example

Figure 4: Better-Than-Before Example

Figure 5: After Example

Figure 6: Refined After Example – Slide 1

Figure 7: Refined After Example – Slide 2

Figure 8: Presentation Process

1 Introduction

Whether you already run your own business, are part of a big corporation, are looking to start your own business or simply want to improve your technique; an essential business skill is being able to present. This is true whether you are briefing staff, asking for funding, consulting with senior executives or just pitching what you do best for more sales.

Time pressures mean that clear, concise communication is key and this book aims to teach you the essential principles, and a tried and tested method that will allow you to generate clear and compelling presentations quickly and easily.

The focus of the book is presenting within a work context, so the approach discussed is fairly formal. The same principles apply to more public presentation, but you have more room to be creative. Here, we are looking to get our messages across as clearly and concisely as possible, so there is not much room for non-essentials.

The upshot of the above is that we are going to be focused on what you present and pulling it together, not how you present it; although there are a few pointers provided there too. This is not the only way to do it, but it does work. The process is also not tool specific; it is applicable to all kinds of presentation. You could even use it on acetate if you really want to go properly old school.

We aim to give you confidence to:

• Communicate ideas to Senior Staff or Investors clearly & concisely

• Be prepared for and know what to expect from an Executive audience

• Generate compelling presentations fast

Sounds too good to be true? Well, let’s have a look at what is in store for you.

1.1 Content and Overview

I’ve tried