Top Tips for Presenting to a Board Level Audience

Today, I’d like to share with you one of my favourite bits of advice for people who are required to deliver presentations to an audience of senior directors either internally or externally.

It’s designed to help you see the difference between the thing you want to show them...

And the thing they'll be delighted they had a chance to see.

And it will keep you from falling into the trap that so many do when they set out to inspire, educate or inform - only to finish the presentation they spent hours creating, feeling like they might as well have been presenting it to a BRICK WALL.

Situations like that can eat away at your confidence - even if you've been around the block a couple of times.

And when they do, they can start taking you down a path of a self-fulfilling prophecy - as you try to sing and dance with more passion and gusto at the beginning of each new presentation - only to be met with less and less enthusiasm by the very people you were hoping to impress.

A couple of years ago, I was chatting to a recently promoted Marketing Director - and she said to me..

“I’m fine talking to small groups, but when the audience gets any larger – or the senior team come over from America – I get?REALLY?anxious.”

We had a chat, and she explained that her main worries centred around appearing nervous in front of peers, together with the?‘stinking thinking’?that others would be judging her – and the fact that she didn’t have many positive experiences from her past to pack all that anxiety down into, so that she could stand up feeling confident and comfortable with a role that she was more than capable of fulfilling.

But here’s the thing I found interesting…

She didn’t want to book herself on any of the presentation workshops that were being put in front of her by HR – so I asked why?

“Because I’m in a senior role now and I don’t want to sit there embarrassed and feeling out of place, in the middle of a load of young people at the start of their careers who spend the whole time asking – ‘what are you doing here’?”

I thought – “that’s fair enough”.

Which is exactly why I created my leadership level presentation masterclasses.

We only deliver one or two of these events every year – always with small groups (usually 6 people max) – and only with a mix of like-minded senior / leadership individuals who just want to?“get better”?at this presentation thing.

If you’d like to join me for the next one – you can find out more at the link below

Anyway back onto one of my favourite bits of presentation advice - which is this:

Most people focus on what they want their audience to SEE and HEAR - when they should be focusing on what they want their audience to FEEL and THINK!

Subtle difference in words – massive difference in results.

Seems easy enough, but most people miss the valuable lesson nestling in that sentence when they first read it.

Start by asking yourself:

"What do I WANT my audience to be DESPERATE to do as soon as I finish my presentation?"

In a sales situation, that might be a fairly easy question to answer - but people tend to struggle when their presentations are centred around things like price increases or end of year results.

And that's why FEEL and THINK are so important to understand.

Ask yourself - do you want them to feel Happy?

Or maybe - Excited?

Confident?

Reassured?

Inspired?

And what thought do you want to ignite at the front of their noggin once you've finished?

What do you want them to ask you - or their colleagues - or their boss - AS SOON as you've finished.

Build your presentations round what you want them to THINK and FEEL, rather than what you want them to have seen and heard - and watch your success rates soar.

For more ideas like that, take a look at the stuff we cover during the one day masterclass below - follow the link and you'll also see some of the feedback it's been getting from people who recently attended.

If you hold a senior position and you're tasked with presenting to serious players within your industry - and you want to be confident that you've got this presentation thing nailed - I look forward to seeing you there (only 6 places at each event)

To your success

Chris

LucrumHouse.com/Chris-Murrays-Senior-Presentation-Skills-Masterclass