Make the Key Points Crystal Clear To Your Audience

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The key points may seem obvious to you, but you need to spell them out to the audience — and repeat them several times — to make sure they grasp them firmly. A classic formula for doing this is:

1. Tell them what you’re going to tell them.
2. Tell them.
3. Tell them you’ve told them.

Make this as clear and explicit as possible — “Ladies and gentlemen, there are three things you need to know about electric potato peelers…”.

If you are using slides, it’s a good idea to use ‘place marker’ slides, to indicate your audience the different sections of your presentation. This has been shown to significantly increase understanding and retention.

Here are some place marker slides I use on my own presentations, created using images from www.iStockphoto.com:

And these are the place marker slides I’m using for this presentation skills programme:

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