An effective presenter represents his or her company in its best light. I like to teach presenters to think of each word they speak as worth one million dollars! If a presenter speaks at the normal rate of 175 words-per-minute, for example, they will speak about 75 words in their first 30 seconds. Do the math. That’s right; they just earned 75-million Dollars!! Don’t waste those valuable 35-seconds saying how good it is to be here today—it’s not; besides, who cares? Get to the point. 

It should be clear in the mind of the presenter and the listeners the purpose of the presentation. A presenter should keep in mind what I refer to as the “Speech Focusing Statement,” which is your "tell 'em what you're going to tell ‘em, and tell ‘em what you told them.”  

The choice of visual aids to help a presenter clarify or support the content of the presentation is crucial. PowerPoint, often the first choice, is an excellent tool, but it is not a substitute for the presentation. I teach presenters basic design of a slide with appropriate fonts and colors and how not to overload the slide with too many words and ideas. Presenters may also find that hand-outs are appropriate, but often overwhelm their listeners with paper and give the hand-outs at the wrong time so that people are reading instead of listening.

Since the bottom line is always about money for the company, presenters should know that the primary question in the minds of the listener is 'Why should I do that?' or 'Why should I think that?' or 'Why should that be the case?'

In any event, all the questions that follow from an action-oriented key message are of the 'why?' kind. That means if the next stage of the presentation sets about answering these questions the talk is following what the audience perceives as its route through the material. The result is that the presenter has them on their side immediately.

Many presenters prepare material that is only logical if you already know the subject or the information that is being presented. But few audiences will know. Hence they become quickly lost and have to work hard to pick their way through the information. Research shows that audiences that have to commit the least mental effort are the ones most likely to accept the material they are given. In other words, if the presenter follows his or her own logic they are making it much less likely that their material will be accepted or acted upon by the audience.

If the talk follows the audience logic by immediately answering the 'why' style questions they will be providing just what the listeners want, mentally. As a result, the presenter will make their material MUCH MORE LIKELY to be accepted and acted upon.