As members of the green industry, we are asked to give presentations to customers, garden clubs, trade show audiences, co-workers or managers. Sharing our expertise in a professional, well-prepared presentation can enhance our credibility and can perhaps make a sale.
Presenting is much more than being an expert on your topic, albeit you certainly need to be one, or at the very least know more than your audience does about your topic. As a speaker, you are performing on stage as an actor, gradually expanding your story (imparting information). Even the most experienced presenter has some nerves, but with time there are some things you can do to harness your butterflies. Even after several decades of speaking in public (I started extremely young), I still get some anxiety. This soon evaporates though, if you are well prepared. Following a few simple steps can make the whole event seem so much less intimidating for you, and more entertaining for your audience.
Know your audience
Before you even begin to create and prepare your presentation,you need to gather some information on your audience. Understanding their level of knowledge on the topic is paramount when creating your presentation, and can save all kinds of embarrassment. If you use jargon or speak in acronyms, nobody has a clue what you are talking about and your audience will soon lose interest, leave or go to sleep. A quick phone call to the organizer can give you all sorts of information. If you are from out of town, finding out some local knowledge can help personalize your talk. Humour is fun to use, if it is used well. So often we hear a presenter run off what he thinks is a funny line and there is stunned silence. Or a speaker makes a totally inappropriate remark, because he did not know the audience. Being courteous and understanding of your audience helps build a rapport that takes the audience through a story with you. Remember, nobody cares how much you know, they want to know how much you care, and tailoring your presentation to them demonstrates this.
Preparation and practice
When time is short there is the temptation to go into a presentation and wing it. How many times have you done that? A confident speaker may pull it off, but on the other hand, he may not. Even the most experienced professional speakers spend many hours on preparation. An actor would not dream of going on stage without preparing, no matter how well he knows his craft. Start getting ready one week to three weeks before a presentation. Gather the information you need, make a list of things you need to do and things to take with you, make notes on what you are going to say and then practice and practice some more. At first it can seem a bit weird standing in front of a mirror or a few friends and speaking, however, this avoids the presentation being as a big a surprise to you, as it is to the audience. Even when it is a topic you have delivered before, it may need a bit of updating, fine tuning and practice to familiarise yourself with the content again.
As far as is possible, check out the venue and know your room. Make sure it is arranged how you want it. If you are coming from out of town, send a diagram to the organizer. Figure out where the lights are, and doors and windows (no, not to make a quick escape!) This will help decide where you can be best positioned, to avoid interference from people coming and going, light for your projector, power outlets, light switches, can everyone see you? Do this at least two hours before the start if you can, even better the day before. Even if it is a room at your own garden centre, someone may have dumped a pallet of pots in front of the door at the last moment.
Check your equipment. If using projectors or other AV equipment, check it out well ahead of time, make sure everything works how you expect it to, and have a back up plan.
Practicing involves learning to speak out loud what you are going to say, honing your material, going through the full presentation, several times. I usually try and do it at least 10 times (even three hour ones). This also helps you get a measure of the timing and adjust the length to suit your allotted time. It is amazing how settling this can be.
The presentation
You are never going to memorize a presentation word for word, so don’t even try, it will just confuse you more. Just remember the topics and the rest follows. Develop your talk in a logical order. I start out making notes of everything that comes into my head on the topic. Doing this on a computer allows a quick rearrangement of the topics into a logical sequence. Under each topic make a few brief notes of what you want to say and any props you may need to demonstrate the point.
One method of remembering each point is to develop a mental picture related to each topic. This will help recall what it is you want to say. We remember pictures far more easily than words. See the picture in your mind’s eye, then all you need to do is describe the scene.
Notes make very good props, but they should not be a crutch and are no substitute for practice. Use with caution. Create small postcard-sized notes to take with you, which can be used quite inconspicuously.
If you are using PowerPoint, this can act as your note card, however, again be careful how you use it. Effective use of PowerPoint is a whole different topic, suffice to say, it is used badly more often than it is used well. Avoid reading a slide or notes verbatim, especially from a screen. Your audience can read, too, and this is just boring.
PowerPoint is a valuable presentation tool, but limit the number of slides, and use only four lines of bulleted text per page at a font size the audience can see. This is also a great way to show photographs, rather than using a slide projector, and has the bonus that text can be added. Avoid getting cute with PowerPoint sounds and transitions. Use sound only if necessary and use only one transition throughout the show.
Different speakers use handouts differently. For business presentations and sales pitches, handouts are the offer. For information and demonstration presentations, handouts are a useful reminder of what you said. Some speakers like to give them out at the beginning and some at the end. As a rule, I leave blank spots in handouts, and get the audience to fill them in as we go along, inviting some audience participation.
The delivery
Make sure you arrive early, leaving plenty of time to relax. Check the room or area out, and set up and test any A/V, projectors and other props ahead of time. If you are doing a demonstration, get everything ready and go through your checklist.
Props are a useful way of demonstrating a technique and keeping the audience attentive. Use care in selecting props. Too many can clutter the presentation. When demonstrating with a prop, such as a plant, holding it up makes it easier for the people at the back to see. One adage of speaking is that presentations are 20 per cent content and 80 per cent entertainment. People want to take knowledge away with them, but as much as anything, they come to be entertained. Only a well polished and rehearsed presentation will do this. Business presentations or sales pitches are more formal and require more substance, but still need a polished delivery. Knowing your audience, and why they are there, will tell you what to do.
For planting demonstrations have several stages prepared so you can move from one to the other seamlessly and avoid silent pauses while you catch up. If the audience cannot see you demonstrate an intricate detail, don’t bother, or use pictures on a screen, so everyone can clearly see what you are trying to say.
Delivery is as much about the speaker as the content. Your voice needs to be clear and confident. Good vocal variety helps retain audience attention. Body language — not wildly flaying arms in the air, but choreographed gestures that help emphasise a point — go a long way to enhancing the audience’s enjoyment of what you have to say. Moving around allows you to involve the audience in the presentation. But movements must be deliberately planned, not untamed meanderings from side to side or swaying like a windswept tree. If you don’t have a use for your hands, keep them at your side, not in your pockets. This takes a lot of practice to get used to.
Involving the audience is a great way to keep its attention, however, this requires strict management of time. Watch the time as your show progresses. Try to put a small clock where you can see it at a glance. Looking at your watch is distracting, and looks like you are in a rush to get out of there. About 10 minutes before you are due to finish, begin winding it down, and finish bang-on time. As tempted as you may be to force people to stay until the bitter end, nothing is worse for an audience, or more disrespectful of their time, than the verbal meanderings of a speaker, 20 minutes after he was due to finish.
Wrapping it up
As your presentation comes to an end, now is the time to invite questions. Why wait until the end? If questions are invited all the way though, this can play havoc with your timing and the talk can so easily go on a tangent. The speaker is the leader, keeping the show on course from beginning to end. When questions are asked, not all audience members can hear, so repeat the question before answering. Keeping questions to a specific timeframe keeps presentations within the limits set by the organizer and the expectations of the audience. Wrap up questions when the time is near, “We have time for one more (or how many) questions,” pick someone, answer the question and then close off.
There are those who recommend the speaker should not thank the audience, it is they who should thank you. Personally, if someone is paying for me to be there, I thank my audience.
In a short presentation you are not going to impart all your worldly knowledge in one go. Trying to do so will simply overwhelm your audience. Pick a narrow range of items, stay on subject and above all else, have fun and help your audience to have fun. The more you practice, the easier it is and the more fun you have doing it.
Stephen Head is a B.C.-based professional speaker, who has been entertaining audiences for many years in North America and Europe. He speaks on retail topics including store planning, display merchandising and customer service.