Supercompetent Speaking: Presenting to Tough Audiences

By Laura Stack, MBA, CSP

As if public speaking weren’t already challenging enough, occasionally you’ll find yourself presenting to an especially tough or senior-level audience. Examples might include groups of your company’s managers and executives, including your boss and theirs; disgruntled clients; highly knowledgeable potential clients; and the simply cynical. In such a situation, a slight misstep can hamstring your entire effort. These groups are usually sharper, more expectant, and less forgiving than your typical workshop or keynote audience, so you don’t dare let a sub-par or uncertain delivery overshadow your content.

With tough audiences, your prime directive should be: Don’t Waste Time. This applies to every audience to some extent, but it becomes imperative when dealing with those who can affect your income level or damage your career. These usually aren’t patient people, and they won’t appreciate a stumbling presentation with unclear objectives or lack of direction. They’ll also expect you to know your subject inside and out, so you can respond convincingly even to unusual or pointed questions that might not normally arise.

Consider these tips when dealing with such an audience:

1. Step everything up a notch. Ratchet it all up: your research, preparation, professionalism, attire, attention to body language and facial expression, and brevity. Doing your homework becomes especially important with a tough audience. Know their depth of knowledge as precisely as possible and learn their jargon, so you can speak their language. Then practice, practice, practice! Work even harder than normal to suppress your nervousness and to filter out the filler words (ums, ers, and ahs) during rehearsal. Arrive early to your venue and test all your equipment to make sure it works, so you don’t wind up surprised and embarrassed.
2. Take special care with the basics. Focus like a laser on the elementary aspects of public speaking, making doubly sure you avoid the most common presentation pitfalls. Deliver your presentation rather than just read it; don’t overdo the graphics; make sure your listeners can read the slide text from wherever they’re sitting; don’t overwhelm them with too many facts all at once; and speak clearly, confidently, and enthusiastically.
3. Exercise flexibility. If given the opportunity, arrange to present at the time of your choice, depending on your energy level and travel arrangements. If presenting a half-day seminar, I request a block either before or after lunch, not broken up by lunch, with a short 15-minute break halfway through—I believe it flows better. If that doesn’t work for the client’s agenda, however, I remain flexible and follow the requested time, format, and length.
4. Take a quick read of the group’s temperament before you start. Does your audience seem aggressive? Impatient? Bored? Take their mood into account throughout the presentation and respond accordingly. If you must, shorten your talk (if you can do so without skipping salient points).
5. Aim for clarity. Acknowledge your audience’s importance and time constraints up front and get right to the heart of the matter. With an ordinary crowd, you might emphasize your main points a few times and give more detail. But the higher you go in an organization, the more concise you need to be. Senior leaders want you to telegraph your main points in an executive summary. Don’t restate the obvious or repeat your points. They require a simple, straightforward message, logically organized and clearly delivered. Tell leaders what your ideas mean and focus on the impact your points can have on their organizations. Don’t try to overwhelm them with data; just tell them what they need to know to make a decision.
6. Quickly establish your credibility. Use case studies to demonstrate how other companies, departments, and teams have effectively used your solutions. Describe why it works—without going into much detail about howit works—unless they ask for that data. If they do ask, you must have thorough knowledge of the solution.
7. Present factually material only. Forget spin, half-truth, and opinion; never present any of these as real, because at least some of your audience members will know better. Always know the source of any “research” or “expert” you cite. Sophisticated audiences may even know the subject matter better than you do, so exaggeration will kill your credibility. If you do offer an opinion, present it as such.
8. Be realistic. For your listeners to accept and implement your ideas, those ideas must align with the company’s corporate mission, vision, and culture—as well as economic reality. Unfamiliar concepts may miss the mark and end up ignored, so home in on the audience’s primary needs. Use examples from their industry to bolster your arguments—ideally, company-specific ones—as well as examples from other industries, so you can expand their thinking about what’s possible.

When you’re giving a presentation to senior leadership, you’re having a dialog. Expect to be interrupted by some tough questions, both during the presentation and at the end. In fact, I suggest you invite questioning if no one initiates it. Have all the details, contingencies, and fiscal figures right there at your mental fingertips (or paper reference), just in case someone brings them up, and deliver the information with confidence and conviction.

Laura Stack has consulted with Fortune 500 corporations for nearly 20 years in the field of personal productivity and is the best-selling author of several books, including “What to Do When There’s Too Much to Do”(Berrett-Koehler, July 2012). She is the president of The Productivity Pro, Inc., and served as the 2011-2012 president of the National Speakers Association (NSA). Stack’s productivity-improvement programs have been used worldwide at companies such as Starbucks, Wal-Mart, Cisco Systems, and Bank of America. She is the creator of The Productivity Pro planner by Day-Timer.For more information, visit www.TheProductivityPro.comor www.NSAspeaker.org.