1. What's The Purpose?

It's vital to start with the end in mind. If you're giving a presentation, what outcome are you looking for? This should shape the content and structure of your presentation. So, whether it's to gain agreement, a call to action, to motivate, or to give information, everything you reveal to your audience should help you achieve your aims.

2. What's Your Story?

A good presentation is all about the story. You're taking your audience on a journey. The success of your presentation depends on the structure and flow of your story and how well you tell it.

Once you've decided on your story, you'll be able to work on how you deliver it so much more effectively. With the right content your self-confidence will blossom – before you know it you'll be making the perfect presentation.

When you're thinking about your “story” you need to bear in mind who your audience is, what their attitudes are, what they know already and most importantly of all, what they expect. These considerations will help you structure your story, making it logical and easy for your audience to follow.

“So, do you have the SAAVY for your presentations to succeed? Use this simple mnemonic to help you create your particular story:

• Set the Scene. Describe the current situation or background
• What question needs to be Answered? State the key question you want your audience to consider
• Answer it. Describe your solution
• Validate it. Prove why/how this will work and/or the results it will bring
• Yes or no? Ask the audience for their agreement (as it relates to your purpose)

Using SAVVY will help you take the right steps, in the right order, at the right time.

3. Message-Driven Visuals

Once you've decided on your story, you need to think about the visuals you‘re going to use to tell it.

If you stood up and started reading out your story word for word like an author's recital, you'd soon have your audience nodding off.

One way you can tell your story with real impact and to engage your audience is to get your visuals right. In order to help your audience to follow your story, you need to show them some “message driven visuals”.

A message driven visual is one where the key message is identified for the audience, as the slide heading, for example. It is not lines of bullet points, lots of tiny text or charts that are hard to read. It is the message, loud and clear. An example could be, ‘New Product Introductions Have Driven Category Growth' next to a chart showing the contributions to market growth made by various products.
Imagine if you weren't there actually giving the presentation, and your audience were merely shown the visuals. Would they be able to understand your story?

Your slides need to be simple and clear. Guide the audience to draw the conclusions you want them to make. Keep all your slides relevant to the story. Don't waste time proving how much you know – it won't bring the results you're looking for and could easily bore your audience! Test your visual by asking “so what?” If you don't know the answer, rip it up. Remember ‘less is often more'.

4. The Right Chart for the Job

When you're using charts, think about their value to your story. For example, a pie chart is a good way of showing comparisons, while a line graph demonstrates moving trends very effectively.

Match your chart to your message. This may sound obvious but it's amazing how many of us forget to do this.

Chart “Don'ts”:

• Don't forget the ‘So What?' test
• Don't use two charts to illustrate your point, when one will do
• Don't complicate your message with additional data that supports your story but could just as easily be distributed to your audience later.

So, these are our 4 tips to help you create perfect presentations:

1. What's the Purpose
2. What's Your Story
3. Message Driven Visuals
4. The Right Chart for the Job

But, if you only do one thing, remember to ask ‘What's Your Story?' Keep your audience with you, then work on your delivery and you'll soon have your audience eating out of your hands!