HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations (HBR Guide Series)

Similarly, your audience should focus intently on what you’re saying, looking only briefly at your slides when you display them. To create slides that pass the glance test: Start with a clean surface: Instead of using the default “Click to Add Title” and “Click to Add Text” slide master, turn off all the master prompts and start with a blank slide.

Like Yoda and other mentors in mythology, presenters should: Give the hero a special gift: Give people insights that will improve their lives.

Each slide should pass what I call the glance test: People should be able to comprehend it in three seconds. Think of your slides as billboards.

If I am to speak for ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if fifteen minutes, three days; if half an hour, two days; if an hour, I am ready now.

“Your audience wants you to be real. So avoid sounding like a corporate spokesperson—but don’t portray false humility, either. Playing small and meek when inside you know (and the audience knows) you’re a giant will not win you any fans. Authenticity means claiming who you are.”

How can you solve their problems? How are you going to make their lives better? Point to benefits you know they’ll care about. What do you want them to do? What’s their part in your plan? Make sure there’s a clear action for your audience to take. (See “Build an Effective Call to Action” in the Message section of this guide.) How might they resist?

Present Clearly and Concisely to Senior Executives Senior executives are a tough segment to reach. They usually have very little time in their schedules to give you. Though that’s true of many audiences, what sets this crowd apart is that they need to make huge decisions based on accurate information delivered quickly. Long presentations with a big

People don’t fall asleep during conversations, but they often do during presentations—and that’s because many presentations don’t feel conversational.

you can find your audience’s resonant frequency by doing a little research. You’ll want to examine: Shared experiences: What from your past do you have in common. Do you share memories, historical events, interests? Common goals: Where are you all headed in the future? What types of outcomes are mutually desired? Qualifications: Why are you uniquel