The 8 P's of Presentation (2024)

By James A. Baker
Founder
Baker Communications

To design and deliver an effective presentation, it is not enough to stand up and reel off a series of facts and figures. You probably already have a good understanding of your subject and a general idea of what you want to say about it, but will this be sufficient to transmit the same understanding to your audience?

Learning about the eight P’s of effective presentations will help you to more effectively design and deliver your message. Four of the P’s come before the presentation, and four are applied during the presentation itself.

The Four Pre-Presentation P’s

1. Preparation
The first step in preparing a presentation is thinking about the needs of your audience. Do you know who you will be talking to and what they care about? This will actually affect how your audience listens, and should influence what information you include and how you deliver it.

When preparing for your presentation, ask yourself who you will be speaking to. What are they interested in? How do you know? How is your topic relevant to the audience’s concerns? What kind of attitudes, positive or negative, are audience members likely to have toward your presentation? What are your main talking points, the information you really want them to remember? What do you want the audience to do after hearing your presentation?

2. Planning
Planning your presentation is important. You must know what the important points and conclusions of your presentation are, and build your talk around that structure. Listeners can easily lose the flow of a presentation jam-packed with raw data. The best structure tends to include an introduction, an elaborative body, and a conclusion, following the old adage, “Tell them what you’re going to tell them; then tell them; then tell them what you told them.” This approach is necessary because most people typically retain less than 50% of what they hear. Repetition and visual reinforcement help a great deal with retention.

There are other aspects to planning a presentation, and it may prove useful to ask the following questions:

Why: What is the objective or purpose of the presentation?
Who: Who needs to be present?
When: What date and time? How long should it last?
Where: Should it be on-site or off-site? What is the best location?
How: Logistical questions such as room size, seating, supplies and equipment, meals, etc.

3. PowerPoint (or other slide presentation or visual aids)
Many presentations include visual aids, often a slideshow which runs along with the presentation. Plan your slides to run parallel with what you are saying and either summarize or illustrate your points. Number the slides and make sure that they are set up to show in the same order you plan to present the information. Remember that the slideshow is there to support you, not the other way around.

4. Practice
You can have a beautifully prepared talk and masterfully crafted slideshow, and everything can still fall flat if you haven’t practiced. Practice at home, alone, in front of a mirror, in front of a video camera, in front of your family. Watch and listen to recordings of yourself. Watch your facial expressions and the way your mouth moves. Get feedback from others. Run through it until you can do your presentation in your sleep. Then you just might be ready to do it in public!

The Four P’s of Public Speaking
The next four P’s are the keys to effective and compelling oral delivery: Projection, Pace, Pitch, and Pauses. By skillfully controlling and varying your voice, you can attract and hold interest, combat monotony, add emphasis, clarify meaning, and convey enthusiasm and conviction.

5. Projection
Most people do not speak with sufficient volume when presenting. Keep your speech volume loud enough to be easily heard throughout the room, but without shouting or straining. Breathing from your diaphragm will help you achieve this without becoming breathless. Additional volume can be used for emphasis and emotional impact.

6. Pacing
Slowing down the speed of your speaking can emphasize key points or help build drama. Occasionally speeding up can help relieve monotony and create excitement. Pace can also make key words or phrases seem bigger or smaller, less or more important.

7. Pitch
Control your pitch to ensure your voice is not strident or nasal. Raising or lowering your tone of voice can change the emotional mood of the presentation.

8. Pauses

Pause before and on important points, both for emphasis and to give the audience time to understand and absorb them.

By varying your vocal volume, inflection, and pacing, and by skillfully using pauses, you can avoid a dull, monotone delivery. Remember that you must convey emotion to keep your audience’s attention. If your presentation lacks passion, conviction, enthusiasm or energy, your audience will become bored and tune you out. They can’t be expected to take interest in anything you don’t seem to have interest in yourself!

Baker Communications offers leading edge presentation and public speaking training solutions that will help you address the goals and achieve the outcomes addressed in this article. For more information about how your organization can achieve immediate and lasting behavior change that will help your team members or executives quickly connect with their audience, build credibility, and persuade listeners to take action click here.

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