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Audience Analysis

Presentation Script

Robert C. Thomas - RobertCThomas.com

Page 26

The Audience -- Analyzing Your Target Market

by Robert C Thomas
The audience wants to know: What does this have to do with me? When preparing a presentation, many people tend to concentrate on the information they must assemble and the technical challenges of putting it into Powerpoint or another presentation format. Unfortunately, combining great data with a great Powerpoint presentation will FAIL if it does not reach the target audience: the audience watching it. In marketing the first and most important question is: what is the target market for this product? So the marketing people do a lot of research to discover the characteristics and interests of their target market. As a presenter, you have been assigned a target market: your audience. Your audience is your target market. And you need to research and study them. Because as you begin your presentation, everyone in the audience is asking YOU:

*** What does this have to do with me? ***

As the presenter, your job is to answer this question. The reason my presentation is interesting to you is... This means that not all data and information are equal. For example, different people will want different information and data on a new product release. Sales people want to know the selling features of the product and product delivery date. Customer Support people want to understand how the product functions and the fault analysis procedures to determine defective products Production people want to know the projected production schedule and projected delivery dates Advertising and marketing people want to know details about the target market(s) and the projected media, PR and advertising campaigns

This is perhaps simplistic (and even a bit inaccurate), but the larger point remains. Different audiences have different interests. And the audience will determine not just the information and data in your presentation, they will also determine the style of your presentation. It doesn't matter how sophisticated your Powerpoint is. If the focus and style of your presentation does not match the interests of your audience, then it will be unsuccessful. Provide information and motivation. To do this, you must analyze your audience and figure out how best to present the information you've collected so that the people in the audience will find it interesting and relevant to their job. Product features mean different things to different divisions of the company. Media campaigns do not have the same importance to everyone in the company. Production complexities are only of interest to certain people in the corporate organization. Graphs and charts are necessary for some audiences, while other audiences will consider them boring and unimportant to what, in their thinking, is the larger point. If you are asked to motivate everyone in the company to do the same thing, it is important to analyze what part each person in the company has in achieving this objective. Decreasing costs and increasing revenues mean different things to different divisions. People in the advertising division are focused on facts that are of no interest to the people in research and development, who, of course, are interested in a different set of facts from the people in logistics and delivery.
Presentation Script Robert C. Thomas - RobertCThomas.com Page 27

How can your presentation help people be successful and advance in their jobs? Beyond the obvious corporation-centric interests of your audience, everyone attending also has their own professional-centric interests. How can your presentation help them increase their sales, keep their department from being cut, grow their budget (or keep it from being cut), be more efficient, increase satisfaction in upper management, etc. Consider the differences. Audiences in-house, intra-company (subsidiaries), inter-company (suppliers, independent distributors), and general public audiences all have different perspectives on what you're trying to do. Have they ever worked with you, have they ever had a meeting with you, do you know their colleagues, is your status with them already secure, must you impress them, etc... these factors affect your approach. If the presentation is an in-house presentation (not so formal, everyone already has some awareness of you and your job and the content of your presentation) you might be expected to do a presentation that is humorous and self-referential. If your presentation is for independent distributors, you may be expected to impress them with the quality of your products and the ontime delivery of orders. If your presentation is for a community group, you may be expected to show everyone in the audience that your company is a good neighbor and responsive to the needs of the community. The same sets of information and data may need to be presented to everyone who has any interest or contact with the company. But, depending on the audience, you will probably want to sort and arrange the information and data according to the different perspectives of the various audiences. Otherwise, they may feel you're wasting their time. When doing international presentations... there are important cultural differences that must be taken into considerations. Many Americans prefer presentations with video and animations. Many Germans want to see figures and lists and graphs. Many Italians feel that a presenter and his presentation must show a high level of style. Many Brazilians want to feel they are getting to know the presenter personally. Finally, consider the expectations of your superiors and your corporate identity. The expectations of your superiors must somehow be met. And your corporate identity should be reflected in your presentation. This is often where the real creativity comes in. And this needs to be considered from the beginning, because it will affect EVERYTHING you do! Involving the audience... Involving the audience can be a very successful technique for adding interest to your presentation, but it is not an easy technique to master. It takes practice, and if you plan to use it, add a little bit of participation at a time to each presentation and be prepared to move quickly on if it doesn't work. Audience participation during your presentation could involve a short segment where you ask the audience questions, have them offer a few words in support (or against) an idea you're discussing, etc. Whatever involvement you'd like to have during the presentation, make it very specific and, on a per-person basis, very short. Also, whatever you want them to do during the presentation should be "practiced" before you "officially" start your presentation. For example, before "starting" ask people in the audience a question, ask them their thoughts on a specific topic, ask them for suggestions about something very simple (the seating, the lighting, recent sales figures, etc). Then you can "begin" the presentation and people will know what to expect when, later in the presentation, you ask them questions or otherwise involve them in your presentation. This technique should be practiced at small presentations or meetings first. Note: It's best to NOT pass around product samples or parts until the end of your presentation. Otherwise, during your presentation there will be a constant ripple of distraction and whispering going through the audience as everyone passes along and examines the product sample.

Presentation Script

Robert C. Thomas - RobertCThomas.com

Page 28

Presentation Lessons You Didn't Learn in B-School

by Carmine Gallo I recently gave a seminar on presentation skills to a group of Fortune 500 marketing professionals, many of whom hold MBAs from top business schools. After the seminar ended, several participants told me the core curriculum in their schools didn't cover the techniques I had discussed. While a few schools do require communications courses, most of the estimated 90,000 people who graduate with MBAs each year in the U.S. aren't required to take courses designed to improve their presentation skills. With that in mind, I put together five essentials all business owners should be aware of when presenting, regardless of where they went to school or how many degrees they earned. You should take center stagenot the slides themselves. I can't tell you how many MBAs present their slides like this: "As you can see on the slide, this chart shows" On the other hand, outstanding communicators use slides that are highly visual and with less data than you might expect. This lets the audience focus on the speaker, rather than spending their energy trying to read the slides. The slides should complement the speaker and not the other way around. Yes, data is an important part of many Powerpoint presentations. But balance your data-heavy slides with slides that have more images and fewer words. Deliver a message with a specific audience in mind. In business it's not a stretch to say that most people in a presentation audience won't care about the message unless it benefits them directly. Keep this in mind: content needs to be created with the specific audience in close focus. Adapt your presentation to your audience. Internationally, everything from word choice, eye contact, and emotion can be interpreted differently, depending on the country. Audiences will react in different ways: Some will be more animated while others will sit quietly and even close their eyes. The most important start is to acknowledge that there are cultural differences and to learn from your local team or recent visitors who have experience with the culture. Be aware of your body language. Whether we like it or not, your audience will size you up and make snap judgments about you in the first 90 seconds of your presentation based almost entirely on your body language. What's scarier is those judgments are very difficult to change. Ninety seconds doesn't leave you a lot of time to get very far through your PowerPoint deck. In other words, your body language speaks volumes before you deliver the bulk of your message. Practice even if you think you can wing it. Those presenters who appear to improvise effortlessly and quickly respond to tough questions on the spot are often those who rehearse more than average. Most people underestimate just how much practice skilled presenters apply to their craft. The vast majority of speakers will glance at their slides the night before a presentation (typically slides created by someone else). The best speakers spend many hours over many weeks ahead of a presentation to get everything just right. They also practice tough questions in advance.

Presentation Script

Robert C. Thomas - RobertCThomas.com

Page 29

PRESENTATION PRE-PREPARATION
Objective - Why am I making this presentation?

Audience - Who am I making this presentation to? How many? Venue - Where am I making this presentation? What kind, how large a room? Time and length - What time of day is my presentation, how long will it be? Method - What is the style of my presentation? Content - What percentage of my presentation is... graphs = descriptive text = lists as text = lists of numbers = photos = videos = etc... = Structure - Divide your presentation into 3-5 parts, what are they?

Objectives & Form - List your presentations sections in the proper category... 1 Introduction of Problem (Goal) 2 Exploration of Problem 3 Exploration of solution(s) 4 Conclusion

Presentation Script

Robert C. Thomas - RobertCThomas.com

Page 30

Audience Analysis
What is their direct business involvement with your product /service? When they talk among themselves about your product/service, list three specific topics that interest them... If you asked them what was most interesting about your prod/serv what would they say? Are you presenting as a colleague of theirs or as a superior of theirs? Is their work day more involved with numbers, figures, ideas, actions, or activities? What kind of visuals would your audience enjoy? What style of photos (activity, animals, machinery, landscape, people, etc) would they find interesting? Is their business culture more focused on personal qualities or professional qualities? Do they use humor as part of their business culture? None, little, lots... Do they use small talk as part of their business culture? None, little, lots... In their business culture (national), what personal qualities do they most respect in colleagues? In their business culture (national), what personal qualities do they most respect in superiors? Other important considerations...

Answers...

#Rank

Presentation Script

Robert C. Thomas - RobertCThomas.com

Page 31