UNIT 3

Knowing Your Audience:

In order to deliver an effective presentation, you must know your audience. The following
questions will help you think through the needs of your audience:

1. What are they like? Think through a day in their lives. Outline what a typical day looks
like for them to help you understand life from their perspective.

2. Why are they here? What do *they* think they’re going to get out of this presentation?
Are they willing participants or mandatory attendees? Highlight what’s in it for them.

3. What keeps them up at night? Everyone has a fear, a pain point, a thorn in their side. Let
your audience know that you empathize—and that you’re here to help them.

4. How can you solve their problems? How are you going to make their lives better? Point to
benefits you know they’ll care about.

5. 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.

6. How might they resist? What will keep them from adopting your message and carrying out
your call to action? Remove any obstacles you can.

7. How can you best reach them? How do they prefer to receive information? Do they want
materials to review before the presentation? Afterward? Do they like the room to be set up a
certain way? What atmosphere or type of media will best help them see your point of view?
Give them what they want, how they want it.
As part of Presentation planning, keep these pointers in mind:

Know the size of your audience.

Will you be speaking to just a few people or to dozens or even hundreds of people? Clearly,
the audience size determines the physical setting and, in turn, guides the type of visuals you
should use. What's more, for a large audience, you may need to use a lectern and a
microphone. If so, that will enter into your planning and preparation as well.

Know the attitudes and biases of your audience.

This may be easy to do if you're presenting to a small number of colleagues, in contrast to an

audience you haven't met before. Easy or not, it's important nonetheless. What does your
audience think about your topic? What do they think about you? Are they likely to be
skeptical - even hostile? Or are they likely to respond favorably? If your goal is to persuade
or motivate your audience, what biases, concerns or fears must you first overcome to achieve
your goal? You may decide in the end that you cannot completely satisfy everyone's
concerns. But at least you can present your position strategically, while taking those concerns
into account and through that, showing your own awareness and sensitivity.

As much as possible, know what motivates your audience.

Your audience may have strongly held views about your topic. They may also have certain
expectations. What are these, and what can you do to help meet them? There may be issues
that trigger strong emotions in your audience. Find out what these are, and prepare to deal
with them.

How much does your audience already know?

Good communicators never talk down to their audience. If your audience already knows a
good deal about your topic, your presentation should build on what your audience knows, and
not simply repeat what is already known. Good communicators also don't talk over the head
of others. If your audience knows little about your topic, tell them what they need to know to
respond as you want them to.

Talk to their interests, not yours.

You should talk to the specific interests of your audience. Again, those interests are easy
enough to know if you're presenting to an intimate group of colleagues. With other audiences,
however, it may take some digging. Don't assume or guess what those interests are: ask,
instead. An audience of senior-level managers, for example, may well have different interests
than an audience of entry-level professionals. Factors such as educational and job
background, professional interest, even recent work or personal experiences your listeners
might have had, are also important. You may also want to know the relationship of your
audience members to one another. Do they have common interests, or do their interests
conflict with one another? Again, the more you know about these, the more likely you are to
connect with your listeners from their point of view.
The "What's- in-it-for me?" rule.

This is also known as the "Why- should-I-listen-to-you?" rule. It applies especially to

business audiences. When preparing your presentation, embed the answers to these questions
early in your remarks, so that your listeners know what they're going to get out of your
presentation.

One more time: Your audience is where it all starts.

It follows that this part of your preparation - the phase known as audience analysis - is
essential in determining how you will build your presentation. The more you know about
your audience, the better you can target your remarks to reflect their specific interests and
concerns. And the more likely you are to succeed as a presenter.

Benefits of Understanding Your Audience:

The more you know and understand about the background and needs of your audience, the
better you can prepare your speech.

When you are speaking, you want listeners to understand and respond favorably to what you
are saying. An audience is one or more people who come together to listen to the speaker.
Audience members may be face to face with the speaker or they may be connected by
communication technology such as computers or other media. The audience may be small
and private or it may be large and public. A key characteristic of public speaking situations is
the unequal distribution of speaking time between speaker and audience. As an example, the
speaker usually talks more while the audience listens, often without asking questions or
responding with any feedback. In some situations, the audience may ask questions or respond
overtly by clapping or making comments.

 Knowing your audience —their general age, gender, education level, religion,
language, culture, and group membership—is the single most important aspect of
developing your speech.

 Analyzing your audience will help you discover information that you can use to build
common ground between you and the members of your audience.

 A key characteristic in public speaking situations is the unequal distribution of

speaking time between the speaker and the audience. This means that the speaker
talks more and the audience listens, often without asking questions or responding with
any feedback.
 It is critical that your preparation efforts include some amount of audience analysis.
The more you know and understand about your audience and their needs, the better you can
prepare your speech to assure that you meet their needs.

The more you know about your speaking environment and your audience, the more relaxed
you will be when delivering your speech. Many speakers, however, often overlook the need
to include any kind of audience analysis as part of their speech preparation. Proper audience
analysis will assure that you give the right speech to the right audience. Most professional
speakers send their clients a multi-page questionnaire in order to gather enough information
about them and the speaking event to properly customize their speeches.

Using the word "A-U-D-I-E-N-C-E" as an acronym, some general audience analysis

categories that these surveys should include.

A nalysis - Who are they? How many will be there?

U nderstanding - What is their knowledge of the subject?

D emographics - What is their age, sex, educational background?

I nterest - Why are they there? Who asked them to be there?

E nvironment - Where will I stand? Can they all see & hear me?

N eeds - What are their needs? What are your needs as the speaker?

C ustomized - What specific needs do you need to address?

E xpectations - What do they expect to learn or hear from you?

Develop specific questions which fit into each of these eight categories and ask the client or
audience to tell you what they want. Essentially, ask them what they need and give it to them.
Role of audience in presentation:

You can contribute to a dynamic interactive presentation by asking the speaker to:

1. Tell you more about a particular concept or situation that has been mentioned or
discussed in the presentation.

2. Define any terms that seem ambiguous or complicated.

3. Explain a visual aid in more detail.

Or you can:

1. Provide an appropriate source of information, example or fact that supports the

speaker’s position.

2. Provide an appropriate source of information, example or fact that contradicts the

speaker’s position.

Here are the key obligations an audience has in order to fulfill their "contractual"
responsibilities:

1. PAY ATTENTION. Give the presenter the courtesy of paying attention, at least long
enough to determine if you are going to receive value. If you feel compelled to multi-task
while in the presentation (e.g., checking or sending e-mail [I'm not talking about Twitter
here], surfing the web, reviewing documents you brought with you, taking a phone call)
consider not attending the presentation at all. You won't get much out of it, you'll be
distracting to the speaker and other audience members and you certainly won't be able to
provide constructive, meaningful feedback at the end.

2. ANSWER QUESTIONS. When the presenter asks a question, volunteer an answer. Don't
sit like a lump, averting your gaze to ensure no possibility of eye contact. The more you
engage in the conversation, the more value you are likely to get out of the experience.
Obviously you're off the hook if you have no idea what to answer, but in most cases, you're
likely being asked for an opinion...so share.

3. ASK QUESTIONS. Unless everything is crystal clear to you, ask questions and challenge
the content being presented. Ask for clarification, ask for jargon to be explained, ask for an
example of how this would work in your situation. Not only will this make it more interesting
and relevant for you, it's quite possible that others in the audience may have the same
questions, so you're helping everyone by asking.

4. RESPOND. Be involved rather than sitting passively. When appropriate, laugh or smile in
response to what the presenter says. Maintain eye contact to capture the nuances of meaning
on a given point.

5. EVALUATE. If you engage in the above four behaviors, you will be in a great position to
provide meaningful, specific feedback to the presenter which will improve his skills thus
ensuring better presentations for future audiences. Take the time to fill in that evaluation
sheet thoughtfully. Even if you're not an expert in assessing presentations, you know what
worked for you and what didn't. Make some notes throughout the presentation about areas or
techniques you found useful and other areas where you wish the presenter had covered
something in more depth or used more examples or made eye contact instead of reading from
his slides. The majority of presenters want to hear how their audiences felt about the
information they provided, even if the feedback points out some weak spots that need
improvement.

Presentation Skills:

Presenting information clearly and effectively is a key skill in getting your message
across. Today, presentation skills are required in almost every field, and most of us are
required to give presentations on occasions. While some people take this in their stride, others
find it much more challenging.

Presentation skills are the skills you need in delivering effective and engaging presentations
to a variety of audiences. These skills cover a variety of areas such as the structure of your
presentation, the design of your slides, the tone of your voice and the body language you
convey.

Presentation skills to meet the need of audience:

It takes dozens of skills to be a good public speaker. These include:

1. Verbal Communication

The ability to communicate in a clear, concise and concrete way in front of an audience is the
key skill required of public speakers.

2. Delivery

Delivery is how you connect with your audience. It includes techniques such as body
language and pauses that give your words punch.

3. Leadership

The ability to establish yourself as the leader of your audience.

4. Selling / Persuasion

A presentation is all about selling your ideas using persuasion techniques.

5. Humor

Lighthearted presentations are almost always best. You don't have to be a stand-up comedian
but the ability to deliver light humor works wonders on an audience.
6. Storytelling

The ability to tell a griping story.

7. Written and Visual Communication

Your visual elements such as slides should be brief, clear and visually effective.

8. Self Awareness

Know your strengths and weaknesses and lead with your strengths.

9. Emotion Management

Presentations can be emotional experiences. For one thing, 3 out of 4 people are have a fear
of public speaking. The ability to control emotions is also important to handle unexpected
events such as rejection (e.g. a heckler).

10. Adaptability

No matter how much you prepare it's possible for your presentation to go off in an
unexpected direction — especially if you involve your audience. The ability to adapt is an
important presentation survival skill.

11. Listening

Active listening is key to leading audience participation.

12. Facilitating

The ability to lead workshops, conversations and issue resolution activities.

13. Networking Skills

If you're speaking at a conference it's important to network before your presentation.

Incorporate what you learn from networking into your talk.

14. Interpersonal Relationships

The ability to establish rapport with an audience is closely related to your ability to establish
and manage relationships with people. Legendary orators (e.g. Bill Clinton) have the ability
to make each member of the audience feel as if they are speaking directly to them.

15. Dealing with Difficult Personalities

The ability to deal with audience participation challenges.

16. Stress Management

Many people find presentations to be a stressful experience. Even if you're comfortable with
presentations, a stressful experience can always pop up when you're in front of an audience.
The ability to manage stress and deliver under pressure is important.

17. Taking Criticism / Resilience

The ability to bounce back from criticism and failure is common amongst accomplished
public speakers.

18. Problem Solving

The best presentations solve problems for the audience. You may also be asked to solve a
problem as part of audience participation.

19. Research

The ability to find statistics, facts, examples and stories that support your message.

20. Organization and Time Management

Giving your presentation an organized flow that fits into time constraints.

21. Gestures

Physical communication including effective use of the stage and gestures.

22. Showmanship

Good public speakers do more than inform — they entertain.