SCORE: Tip #1 - Structure
As a consultant to the retail industry I was frequently involved in creating Power Point presentations that would explain our ideas to clients. In the beginning, like most people who prepare a talk, we would ask ourselves, "What do I know about this subject?". If we were missing information we would research the web or talk to other knowledgeable people. When we were satisfied that we had all the content that a client could possible need to make a decision, we took that information and structured it into a nice, neat, logical sequence that the audience could easily follow. Makes sense, right?
Here's the problem. People don't care very much about logic or what we know unless they are already committed to us. In fact if truth be told, when they are listening to us deliver our presentation they don't even really care about us. The client really only cares about one thing, "What's in it for me?"...and by ME we are talking about the client.
Did you notice anything about that question? It isn't about facts and figures. Most people try very hard to convince a client using logic and then wonder why they are not being successful. To be really effective we have to capture our audiences' commitment in the first 5 minutes of our presentation. We do that by grabbing their attention, reminding them of specific concerns they are trying to resolve and then giving them a solution.
Tip #1: The first thing we need to do before we structure our content is to think like the client and answer the question "What's in it for me?"
