Why do millions of people watch football? For the goals. For ninety minutes, they’re waiting for that one moment. Take the goals off the pitch and what’s left is twenty-two people pushing a ball back and forth. With plenty of effort, but no reason to keep watching.
A presentation without a goal feels exactly like that. You know it from the other side: after eight minutes you’re still thinking “why am I actually here?” No direction, no promise, no reason to listen. So out comes the phone.
What your audience is wondering
In the first minute, every listener asks the same question: what’s in it for me? If they don’t get an answer, they switch off. Not out of rudeness. Their diary is simply full too.
In a webinar, it happens even faster
Online, your audience is only one click away from their inbox. No colleague next to them who’d notice, no chair to get up from noisily. Anyone who doesn’t know in the first minute why they should keep watching quietly disappears to another tab. Their camera is off, so you won’t even notice. So in a webinar, your goal needs to be on the table even sooner.
Start at the finish line
First decide where you want to take your audience. Only then do you start on your slides. Ask yourself three questions:
- What will they know afterwards that they don’t know now?
- What will they feel?
- What will they do differently?
Can’t put your goal into one sentence? Then it isn’t sharp enough yet. And neither will your presentation be.
Stephen Covey made it one of his seven habits: begin with the end in mind. What works for a whole career certainly works for twenty slides.
Name the goal, but don’t give away how you’ll score
Say at the start where you’re heading. That gives direction. But don’t reveal the solution yet. Just like in a match: you know there’ll be a goal, just not by whom or how.
Your audience thinks: something valuable is coming. I want to know this! That’s how you build tension and keep them curious about what’s next.
Cut what doesn’t lead to your goal
A goal also works as a filter. Everything that doesn’t lead towards it can go. Including that beautiful chart you spent three days on. It hurts, but your audience will thank you.
- One message per slide, three bullet points at most. More about that in the tip on too many bullet points.
- Keep it short. TED speakers get eighteen minutes at most, and they’ve often rehearsed for weeks. Twenty minutes is more than enough for most presentations.
End with a hook
Want people to keep talking about your story after your presentation? End with a thought-provoking question on your last slide. That keeps your subject alive and gives you a strong start for next time. More about that in the tip on cliffhangers.
In short
No aim, no goal. First decide where you want to score, then how.
Not sure whether the goal of your presentation is sharp enough? With the Presentation Check, we look at it together, before your audience does. Or learn in the training how to build every presentation from your goal.
