Start With the Objective and the Audience
Determining the type of a presentation: for a start, you need to know whether the presentation is written or live. Defining the objective of a presentation: what is your purpose of presentation? Providing a performance report? Or introducing products and services of your company? Or doing a business trade? And so on. Determining the audience of a presentation: for who is your presentation provided?
Are its audiences individuals or groups? Answering these key questions determines all the outlines of a presentation. After determining the presentation’s objective, you need to know what kind of audience you are dealing with. Research the audience of your presentation: Who are your audiences? What status do the audiences have? What is the position of the audiences in the market?
How is your relationship with the audiences? Is the audience a company? What job position and at what level do the representatives (your audience) of that company hold? So far, you have gained some general knowledge about the people you may meet for this presentation and the people who are your audiences. Determining the audience defines what you say and how to say it.
In the next stage, you need to know more about personal characteristics of the audience, especially in businesses where your customer is a B2B1 company: What temper do your audiences have? Are they grumpy people? Or are they people who communicate intimately? How do you know the audience? Through attending a fair? Or in seminars and conferences? Or through referral by others?
B2B or business to business is a situation where a company sells products or services to another company. Gain as much information about your audience as possible before starting any type of presentation. These perceptions define your performance and determine what contents should be presented to what kind of group.