Presentations of any type are a sales pitch, not always a product, perhaps a point of view, capability of an organisation, seeking engagement with an objective or vision, or an idea.
Irrespective, the objective of selling cannot be met unless the audience is first engaged in the process, so the core question a presenter should ask is “how do I engage my audience into the process?” There are many common tools, know the audience, speak to them each “personally”, do not read, get out from behind the lectern, deliver with passion, and so on.
One that appears to be missed is the cadence, the combination of high points, the set-ups questions and desirable answer, observations about the “how it is” followed by the “how it could be” and always finished by a call to take action to move towards a visionary goal . When you think about it, all the great speeches have elements of all these cadence tools. Winston Churchill was a master, Martin Luther King’s I have a dream speech is possibly the best known, JFK seemed to do it effortlessly, and there are many, many others, which the web is making available to us to learn from.
Next time you do a presentation, consider the cadence it has, as it can have a huge impact on the effectiveness of the effort.
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