A live, one-to-one or one-to-many presentation can be the most powerful and motivating form of business communication available in today’s noisy marketplace. Done well, a speech can move your audience to adopt a new point of view or take on bold actions. But presentations have their limits — a major one being that you can only deliver so much information from the podium or in front of the room.
To maximize the effect of a presentation there are as many strategies as there are presenters, but a common formula is to have one overriding idea, supported by approximately three points. Those three supporting ideas can have deep or shallow content depending on the speaker, the occasion and the audience. The concept is that there is one idea or goal and that everything drives the presentation towards that goal. This is a highly workable plan.
If you try to deliver ten separate ideas or one idea with 10-20 supporting points you are diluting the message not reinforcing it. Keep your content well aimed, use two to four of your most persuasive arguments and then finish up. Your audience will appreciate your focus and will thus have a good chance of getting your message.
