How to use your ‘story’ in your presentation

I recently undertook presentation skills training for people with a particular medical condition who act as Ambassadors for the charity that supports them. The aim of their presentations is to raise the profile of the charity, enlist volunteers and generate funding.

Listening to the people in the training session discuss in public for the first time their experience of living with the medical condition was moving for everyone present.

How this relates to all of us in undertaking presentations and proposals

Even if our story is not as emotionally charged as that of people living with a life threatening or debilitating medical condition, whether we are selling software, legal services or an art gallery sponsorship, we all have a story to tell in our presentations and proposals.

To achieve our goal (and presentations typically have three goals: to inform, to inspire and to get people to take action) we must use our story as part of a logical argument to induce action and not see the communication of the story as an end in itself.

Be clear on the end goal – informing and inspiring without action is a missed opportunity

Too often people inform and inspire and forget the important part of why they are there – to get the audience to take action.

If the goal is to get the audience to buy our product, donate money or sponsor, we must use our story at the appropriate point within the presentation to build the logical argument.

Building your logical argument

In the case of the charity ambassadors, the logical argument in the body of the presentation is as follows:

• This is the medical condition

• This is my story living with the condition

• This is the charity

• This is how the charity helped me

• This is how you can make a difference by helping the charity

Each chunk in the body serves an equal and valuable part in building the logical argument and the story is used as part of the argument not as the argument.

If you are selling software you might build the argument in a different way such as:

• Your current situation

• Your desired situation

• Why we are competent to solve your problem and develop a solution

• Our solution

In this example the story about the company and product is contained within the third section.

For your next presentation

For your next presentation consider your goal and structure your presentation in a way that builds the logical argument for why someone should take action. Use your story as part of the argument not as the argument.