《HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations》

Amazon Book Store-> HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations

1. If I am to speak for ten minutes, I need a week for presentation; if fifteen minutes, three days; if half an hour, two days; if an hour, I am ready now.  -- Woodrow T. Wilson

2. Planning a presentation
   2.1 Audience: Know your audience and build empathy
   2.2 Message: Develop persuasive content
   2.3 Story: Use storytelling principles and structure to engage your audience
   2.4 Media: Identify the best modes for communicating your message
   2.5 Slides: Conceptualize and simplify the display of information
   2.6 Delivery: Deliver your presentation authentically
   2.7 Impact: Measure and increase your presentation's impact on your audience

3. I 've also learned a lot from success. When audiences can see that you've prepared -- they'll want to connect with you and support you. You'll get people to adopt your ideas, and you;ll win the resources to carry them out. You'll close more deals. You'll earn the backing of decision makers. You'll gain influence. In short, you'll go farther in your organization and your career.

4. Designing a presentation without an audience in  mid is like writing a love letter and addressing it to " to whom it may concern". Ken Haemer, Presentation Research Manager

5. The people in your audience came to see what you can do for them, not what they must do for you. So look at the audience as the "hero" of your idea-- and yourself as the mentor who helps people see themselves in that role so they'll want to get behind your idea and propel it forward.

   * Give the hero a special gift: Give people insights that will improve their lives. Perhaps you introduce senior managers at your company to an exiting new way to compete in the marketplace. Or maybe you show a roomful potential clients that you can save them money and time.

   * Teach the hero to use a magical tool: This is where the people in your audience pick up a new skill or mind-set from you -- something that enable them to reach their objectives and yours.

   * Help the hero get unstuck: Ideally, you'll come with an idea or solution that gets the audience out of a difficult or painful situation.

6. Present Clearly and Concisely to Senior Executives
   Long presentations with a big reveal at the end do not work for them, They'll want you to get to the bottom line right away --- and they often won't let you finish your shtick without interrupting.
    When presenting to an audience of senior executives, do everything you can to make their decision making easier and  more efficient:
     1. Get to the point:Take less time than you were allocated. If you were given 30 minutes, create your talk within that time frame but then pretend that your slot got cut to 5 minutes.That'll force you to be succinct and lead with the things they care about --- high level findings, conclusions, recommendations, your call to actions.
     2. Give them what they asked for: Stay on topic. If you were invited to give an update about the flooding of the manufacturing plant in Indonesia, do that before conveying anything else.

     3. Set expectations:  At the beginning, let the audience know you will spend the first 5 of your 30 minutes presenting your summary and the remaining time on discussion. Most executives will be patient for 5 minutes and let you present your main points well if they know they'll be able to ask questions fairly soon.

    4. Create executive summary slide:  Develop a clear, short overview of your key points, and place it in a set of executive summary slides at the front of the deck; have the rest of your slides serve as an appendix. Use 10% rule of thumb: 50 slides -> 5 slides for summary.
 
    5. Rehearse: Before presenting, run your slides by someone who has success getting ideas adopted at the executive level and who will serve as an honest coach.
 
   Sounds like a lot of work. It is, but presenting to an executive team is a great honor and can open tremendous doors. If you nail this, people with a lot of influence will become strong advocates for your ideas.

7. When getting ready to present to an audience you've never met, do some research online. If you know the names of stakeholders in your audience, look up their bios.  Knowing people -- really knowing them --- makes it easier to influence them.

8. Define how you'll change the audience
   Before you begin writing your presentation, map out that transformation --- where your audience is starting, and where you want people to end up.

9. If you tap into the group's resonant frequency, you can move the people listening to you. Think about what's inside them that's also inside you. That way, you're not pushing or pulling them; because you tapped into something they already believed,
    * Shared experience: What from your past do you have in common.
    * Common goals: Where are you all headed in the future? What types of outcomes are mutually desired?
    * Qualifications: Why are you uniquely qualified to be te audience;s guiding expert?

10. Are ideas born interesting or made interesting?  --- Chip and Dan Heath

11. Define Your Big Idea: Need a subject (often some version of "you" to highlight the audiences' role) and a verb (to convey action and elicit emotion)
   Your big idea is that one key message you must communicate.
   * Your point of view: express your perspective on a subject, not a generalization like "Q4 financials". Otherwise, why present?
   * What's at stake: convey why the audience should care about your perspective.