Maybe what is missing is a sense of overall organization and flow in your talk. Defining your objective is not enough. You also need to logically organize all the data in order to reach that objective. And you need your audience to be able to follow the flow and sequence of the information.

There are many ways to organize information. Fortunately, the kinds of messages that businesses typically need to present fall into a limited number of categories. Each of those types of messages can be conveniently organized using a standardized format.

A format helps you organize the key data and take out extraneous details, so it saves you time in preparing your presentation. The format focuses and narrows your research, encourages you to get going and helps you avoid the "Help, I am overwhelmed" experience.

I've developed five formats for business use--The General Format, Present Strategy Recommendations, Report Progress, Technical Presentation to a Customer and Communicate the Bad News. Here's how they work:

The General Format

Your boss has just called you into her office and asked you to give a I0-minute presentation about your recent business trip to Mexico. This presentation will be given tomorrow to the top management in your company. You swallow, take a deep breath and wonder how you will prepare this talk by tomorrow. You get out the General Format and start to work.

1. Open. Give the objective of your talk, so everyone has a clear idea of what you will be discussing for the next few moments. Your opening will be, "I will update you on the state of our company's business in Mexico."
   
   
2. Key Points. State the three major areas your talk will cover. Many people do not listen or process information until they have a general overview of where you are going and what you will be discussing. They need the broad categories so they can then slot the details into those categories. This also forces you to decide which key areas you will discuss. You tell the management committee, "The three areas I will cover during this ten minutes are: our present business, the potential prospects I met while in Mexico and a couple of strategies for finding new prospects."
   
   
3. Details. Discuss the details of each key point. As you move through each point, restate the point before you go into all the details. You say, "You have heard about the potential prospects Ijust met and the next steps we will take with them. Now let me spend a few moments suggesting strategies the company can use in order to qualify future potential customers."
   
   
4. Example. Give at least one example so your audience is glad to be listening to you. This forces you to not just give facts and statistics, but to think of some interesting story to share. By sharing an example, your voice will change. So if you have fallen into a monotone while stating some of the data, you will get out of that tone when sharing a story. You tell the operating committee about the five-hour dinner you had with a potential customer and how, at the close of the dinner, the customer agreed to set up an alliance with your company.
   
   
5. Close. Recap your key points.
   
   
6. Next Steps. Tell the group what will be happening next. People like to know what to expect. This also helps make you look like you are in control of the situation, and know where you are going in the future. You tell the management committee the plans for your next trip.

You are a consultant who has been asked to analyze the structure of the Quality Assurance group. You have been looking at two different restructuring plans and now must give a presentation to the management committee. How can you explain to them the two possibilities and their ramifications? You can use the Present Strategy Recommendations Format.

1. State the objective. You say, "My objective for this presentation is to explain the best strategy to use for reorganizing the department."
   
   
2. Show the agenda. You list the areas you will cover. You say, "I will give a brief background on the situation in Q.A., then discuss two potential strategies, explaining the advantages and disadvantages of each, and conclude by suggesting one strategy with the next steps to carry it through."
   
   
3. State the present situation. You might say, "Efforts are being duplicated in many areas of the department and there is an uneven distribution of work."
   
   
4. State the desired outcome. You go over the desired outcomes. "The Q.A. department's goals are to reduce duplication of effort and to establish clear lines of work responsibility."
   
   
5. State the potential strategies. You now discuss the two different reorganizing strategies. "Two strategies for reaching the desired outcome are either divide the department by key accounts organized in teams across functions, or keep the department organized by function with established times for all functions to meet together. If the department stays in functions then assign people specific roles and work responsibilities. This delineation is so that no one can say the words, 'That isn't my job."'
   
   
6. List the advantages and disadvantages of each strategy. You spell out the advantages and disadvantages of each strategy.
   
   
7. Recommend a strategy. Based on the advantages and disadvantages, you recommend the most effective strategy. "I suggest the department reorganize by teams across functions."
   
   
8. Identify barriers to implementing the strategy. You list the potential roadblocks to carrying out this strategy and how to handle them.
   
   
9. Suggest next steps. You state the three or four key next steps that you will be taking. You want to do this in the meeting so that no one can come back later and say that they weren't told about the actions you are taking. Listing these next steps is partially to cover yourself against future complaints.

You are supposed to update your group every month or two concerning your new hot advertising projects. Your group may have designed a format for how they like to hear you present about your work but more likely everyone does their own thing. Report Progress is a simple format that helps you organize your project details in a way that is easy for the audience to grasp and quick for you to put together. You can use this format for each of your projects.

1. List the agenda. You would list: Name of project, key issues and their priority, next steps.
   
   
2. Define the subject and the area. You tell them about your project.
   
   
3. List the key issues. Don't overwhelm the audience with too many issues; tell them the ones that are most important for them to know. You can separate the issues in categories so it is easier for your audience to follow. You say, "The three issues are advertising budget, advertisements themselves and focus groups."
   
   
4. Prioritize the issues and delineate the next action steps. You prioritize the important issues and then list them along with the next action steps that will be taken. By listing the action steps you demonstrate that you are not letting things slip and you are on top of what actions need to be taken.

Technical people in many fields are brought in by salespeople to share a company's detailed expertise. Most of these technical people have no training on presenting, yet they are usually very knowledgeable about their product.

The major faults of most technical presentations is that they include too much detail, are not easy to follow and don't make it easy for the customer to compare the product to the competition. This format encourages the technical person to relate to the audience at hand and not to just start spouting off detail after detail about a product.

1. State the agenda for the presentation.
   
   
2. State the name of the product or service along with one key benefit. Choose a benefit that is relevant to this particular customer.
   
   
3. Restate the name of the product and list key features. Again, list only the features that interest this specific customer.
   
   
4. State the customer's name and discuss the "wants" of this customer. You are doing this for a of couple reasons. First, this shows your customer that you have done some homework and know what the customer wants and needs. Second, if you are giving many presentations at many different companies, this allows you to relate directly to this customer. You become clearer about where you are and what this particular customer wants. Someone at Gillette recently told me about a sales presentation at which an outside vendor kept saying he was glad to be at General Motors. He hadn't grounded himself in the reality of being at The Gillette Company.
   
   
5. List questions for your audience. You list the questions you want to ask the audience. It's better you find out now about your audience's knowledge, interests and technical understanding, rather than 30 minutes into your talk.
   
   
6. Give information about your company. List the information about your company that would interest your audience and support your message. Be selective in what you tell them. You don't have to use those 10 overheads the marketing department has created about your company. They don't have to know every detail.
   
   
7. List the features and benefits of your product. Here is where the bulk of your presentation will be. You will need to organize the talk around certain key areas of your product. Your company will have a strategy about how they like to present the product, and your customers will also have their own preferences. For certain products, like software, the technical customers usually want to see most of the features. For other products, the customers want to know all the benefits involved for them and don't want lots of details.
   
   
8. Show a chart comparing your product to the competition. This makes it easy for your customer to see your advantages over the competition and cuts down on the time they have to spend figuring out how you differ from the competition. This makes it easy for them to buy from you. Some of their due diligence competitive analysis work has been done by you. And it makes it easy for them to go back and report on your product to the decision makers. The only reason you would not make such a chart is if your product doesn't compare favorably with the competition.
   
   
9. Summarize. Summarize how the customer's needs will be met by the product you are offering. Remember, this is not a straight summary of your product; it takes into account that particular customer's needs.
   
   
10. Suggest next steps. List the next steps for the customer. Next steps might include: come see a demo at our office, go visit one of our customer's sites, try the product for a month, let us write up a plan for how we can work together.
    

One of the most difficult presentations to give is one that includes some unpleasant news. This Communicate the Bad News format helps you to share the news in a way that may make it easier to take. Some of the situations in which you might have to communicate bad news include: missing a project deadline; the customer who takes business elsewhere; the project that needs expensive equipment to be completed; or the software that really doesn't do what you thought it would do.

1. Discuss the background. This would include any history and past work that has been done that is relevant to the news you have to share. This sets the context. Then after you give a one- to ten-sentence back ground, you might say, "Now that you've heard about the issues we have encountered in attempting to meet the project deadline, I have some more unpleasant news." This helps the person become emotionally ready to hear the news.
   
   
2. State the bad news. You tell the bad news quickly and to the point.
   
   
3. Present options among which to choose. You should never just stop with stating the bad news. Always offer your audience some options to deal with the situation.
   
   
4. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each option. Depending on the situation, you may be attempting to convince your audience of the option that you think is best; or simply laying out all the options so that your audience can make a decision of which way to go.
   
   
5. State the next steps. This may involve telling the audience which option you have decided to pursue; asking the audience to decide which option they prefer, or leaving the choice to be decided at a future date that you suggest.