The Key to Success is in the Preparation

While research has pretty well established that the majority of your communication impact comes from how you look and sound, it doesn't mean your verbal content isn't important. How you look and sound-or your delivery-determines how your message is received, perceived, interpreted and reacted to. If in fact your delivery is powerful and dynamic, then audiences will be hanging on your every word. So it makes sense to ensure that your content is understandable and easy to follow.

Be honest, have you ever experienced any of the following?

• You have to prepare a speech and have no idea where to begin.
• It all seems to flow as you're preparing, but you discover the talk is three times longer than the time you've been allotted.
• Despite the fact that you make extensive notes, during the presentation you find yourself rambling or you draw a blank and can't seem to pick up the thread of your thoughts.
• It takes you forever to prepare because you revise it over and over. Then when it's time to deliver it, you feel panicked and confused because you just can't keep straight what you wanted to say.
• You write out every single word and end up reading the speech verbatim.

These dilemmas are all symptoms of poor preparation. Yet it's in the preparation that we're going to create content that's understandable and easy to follow.

For an audience to understand and connect with your message, it must:

• have a clear purpose
• relate to the audience
• not run over the limit frame allotted

In order to fulfill these criteria and create an understandable message, follow this formula:

Get Everything Down PAT.

Purpose.
What do you want to accomplish? Are you providing information? Showing the solution to a problem? Proving a fact? Do you desire to create action, change behavior or influence opinion? You must be clear on what your objective is so that you can get the desired result from the audience.

Audience.
Who is your audience? What is their knowledge of, interest in and attitude toward the topic? Toward you? Are they more likely to be big picture- or bottom line- oriented? Or will they want to know all the detail? Failure to understand and relate to your audience can derail an otherwise great presentation. For example, if you were a gardening expert, can you imagine how self-defeating it would be if you gave the same presentation on gardening to a group of botanists, a sixth grade class, and some homeowners who wanted to learn how to start a garden? The audience will determine how you approach your topic, so invest time in gaining some insight into who will be sitting in that room listening to you.

Time limit.
How much time to you have? By far, the most common error I see in presentations is the speaker trying to cram in more information than time will allow. Honoring time limits is the mark of a well-prepared and respectful speaker. Think of all the times you've been in an audience-or on the agenda-when a speaker or series of speakers all went over their allotted time. Audiences get antsy and start to tune out. It throws off the agenda of an event where several presentations are scheduled. It leaves the impression that the speaker didn't care enough to plan ahead, that he doesn't respect the audience members' time. Keep in mind, though, that the shorter your talk needs to be, the more preparation time you'll need.

Once you know what you want to accomplish, who your audience is and how much time you have, this will drive your remarks and make it so much easier to prepare. Plus, it will ensure that your remarks relate to your audience and make it that much easier for them to understand.