When you are preparing a presentation, one of the first things to do is to focus on your message.
Think of your message as the one thing you’d like the audience to remember from your presentation. State it in one sentence, if you can – think of it as fitting on a headline of a newspaper or a billboard.
What’s the one thing stated, succinctly, in one sentence, that you’d like the audience to take away from your presentation? Whether you are talking for ten minutes or an hour, what would you like the audience to remember?
If we were to interview the audience after your presentation and ask, “What was the point of that presentation? What was the message?” would they all say the same thing? They may describe it using different words, but in essence, it should be the same content.
We’d want them to say, “Well, the point of that was to understand the three reasons for not moving ahead with this project now.” Or,”Well, the purpose of that presentation was so he could explain his management philosophy, and how he’s going to lead the team.” Or, “The purpose of that was to explain the first quarter numbers, and why they are not as good as we expected.”
So before you start putting together your material, your outline, and your slides, it’s important for you to be clear on your message. State it in one or two sentences and write it on the top of your notes or outline.
Because, if you’re not clear about exactly what you’re trying to communicate, it’s going to be very difficult for the audience to understand it.