Reading Time: 2 minutesWhen you think about the audience for your presentation, you’re most likely thinking of a mass. An amorphous entity, a row of nameless faces. This is not very conducive to hitting the right note, because as we all know, it’s easier to talk to a single person than to a roomful of (mostly unknown) people.
So how can you overcome this barrier?
One very helpful way offered by presentation gurus is to “create a persona”.
Which simply means to flesh out the personality of a “typical” audience member.
You already know the category to which your audience belongs. For example, the sales department of an organization.
So first, you need to stop thinking about the department as a whole and, based on your prior experience and interactions, visualize one person who represents that category.
Then, you need to ask yourself a whole lot of questions, for example:
• Is this person male or female?
• How old is s/he?
• What level is she at?
• What are her interests outside of work?
• What are her values, aspirations and personality traits?
Once you have some answers to the questions above, for example:
• Female
• 30
• Mid-level
• Enjoys travelling solo
• Team player, high-achiever, self-motivated
Creating this persona will help you overcome the barrier of communication as you will have a “character” in mind and will be able to imagine and therefore address your “audience” better.
Next, ask yourself questions that relate to the presentation you are working on:
• What are her challenges at work?
• How does your product/service help address crucial pain-points?
• How much information would she already have on the subject of your presentation?
• What is the format she is mostly likely to appreciate?
And so on.
This will help you to fine-tune the content of your presentation and deliver it in a more convincing, one-on-one manner.