Present like you mean it.

Working at an agency, I spend a lot of time presenting. No matter how great the idea, ideas simply don’t sell themselves. And the way we present is often the difference between selling the best creative idea or selling none at all.

We call it the ad for the ad.

And in your case, the way you present is the ad for anything you’re trying to sell.

We are always trying to improve our presentation skills and can always be better. But we've spent a lot of time learning and practising. Here are some of the best things we’ve figured out that can help you present just about anything:

1. Present the safest idea first. If you're presenting new ideas or methods, present the safest one first. That gets the audience on your side. They’ll think "yeah, this is good, I can live with this". It eliminates any fear of failure. Then when you present the big idea, it's not as scary. If you lead with the crazy one, they'll panic.
2. 90% of advertising is shit. 90% of a lot of ideas in business are shit. They're average, boring, unimaginative and vanilla. But I don't for a second believe anyone actively goes out to create bad work. Great work comes from new (never been done before new) ideas. And new ideas are scary and very, very difficult to sell. The bigger the organisation, the harder they get. Anything short of a great presentation of a great idea will kill that idea.
3. Everything is a presentation, nothing is a presentation. The way you present yourself in an interview, the way you present costs, budgets, deadlines, new ideas, validation for an increase, asking for leave. It's all a presentation. But the more you treat things like a presentation, the less they work.
4. Presenting is a conversation. You're just the one doing most of the talking. Don't shout, don't act, don't make it a show. Speak with your audience.
5. It's also storytelling. Stories work. They make it personal. They connect us. They find common ground between uncommon people. They package boring subjects in emotion. Whenever you can, use storytelling. Try opening with a story. "In Alaska during the 1930s hundreds of seaplanes began to fall out the sky..."
6. Be yourself. When you watch a great presentation from someone you admire you tend to think, "Yes! That's how I must present". No. Be yourself. The audience has given you their time, now you have to give them something of yourself. You can't make it personal if it's not you up there.
7. The audience wants you to succeed. This thought alone should get you over being nervous. They don't want to be there if they're not enjoying themselves. And therefore, they want you to succeed as much as you do. You're in this together.
8. They won't remember what you say. The small detail? No ways. Go back to the last presentation you sat through that you LOVED. I bet you can't write down 5 points. The audience will forget most of the content. But they'll remember how it made them feel. And if you make them feel good, they’ll like it. And the ideas.
9. Connect with the audience. If you want them to remember you, you have to connect. You need the audience to love you more than they love your slides.
10. Make eye contact. The quickest way to improve as a presenter is to make eye contact. Not just with one person. Try make eye contact with everyone in the room. And don’t turn your back on the crowd, always maintain eye contact. Great TED speakers never turn to look at their screen.
11. Make it personal. “I have been using your product for the last 11 years. I love it. But I think it can be better and we want to help you with that”. That’s going to do a lot more for you than some chart Barry from research sent you. Making it personal makes the recipient feel that you’re passionate about their business/problem.
12. Know your audience. Stalk if you have to. Phone a friend. Do what you have to to find out about the people you’re presenting to. You can’t connect with the audience if you don’t know who you’re talking to. If you want to make them feel, you have to know what they care about.
13. Know your shit. If the power cut out, could you present without your slides? You should be able to. It can’t be too rehearsed. Because then it’s not personal. Don’t memorise. Know your shit so if you need to change course, you can.
14. AFWAP. As few words as possible on screen. Don’t use bullets. If you put words on screen, they’ll read them. And if they’re reading words on screen, they’re not listening to you and they are not connecting.
15. Don’t present any ideas you don’t want them to buy. I’ve made this mistake. We had 2 great ideas but felt we should present 3. So we added a mediocre idea and they bought it.
16. You are the message. Not your slides. You. Your slides are there to support you, not the other way around. Again, make eye contact and don’t turn your back on the audience; it shows you have confidence in what you’re saying.
17. Design the slide deck last. Create your presentation as if you were writing a speech. Know what you want to say, practise it, perfect it. Then add your slides.
18. “No one ever complained about a speech being too short” – Ira Hayes. The same applies with a presentation. Remember they won’t remember what you say, they’ll remember how you make them feel.