SpeakCraft Presentation coaching Presentation Coach · USD 39
Your first ninety seconds are a table of contents
One talk, restructured, with the six questions the room will actually ask.
The content is right and the order is wrong. You open by explaining what you will cover, spend eleven minutes on how you did the analysis, and reach the recommendation at minute fourteen. A board decides whether to listen in the first ninety seconds, and yours are currently spent on an agenda.
Move the recommendation to minute one and the method to the appendix. The board is not going to check your working, and if they want to they will ask, which is what the six prepared answers in section 03 are for.
Structure
The order to use instead
| Minute | Now | Proposed |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 1 | Agenda slide, what I will cover | The recommendation, in one sentence |
| 1 to 3 | Background and context | Why it matters now, with one number |
| 3 to 14 | Method, data, how the analysis was done | The three reasons, one slide each |
| 14 to 16 | The recommendation | What you need from them, specifically |
| 16 to 18 | Next steps | Risks and what would change your mind |
| 18 to 20 | Questions, usually rushed | Questions, with 6 answers prepared |
Same material, reversed. This is the standard structure for a decision audience and it feels wrong to present because it gives away the ending. Giving away the ending is the point: the board is not an audience, it is a group deciding whether to agree with you.
Opening
The first ninety seconds, written out
Write this one out and learn it. Not the whole talk, just this. It is the only part where being word perfect is worth the effort, because it is the part where you are most nervous and most listened to.
I am recommending we close the Leeds site and move the work to Sheffield, over eighteen months. It saves about USD 1.4 million a year from year two and it affects 31 people. I have three reasons, and then I will tell you what I need from you today.
Proposed opening, roughly 20 seconds
| Why this works | What it replaces |
|---|---|
| States the decision immediately | Today I would like to walk you through |
| Gives the number they will ask for | A number that arrives at minute twelve |
| Names the human cost honestly and early | A cost that appears on slide 24 |
| Signposts three reasons | Eleven minutes of method |
| Says there is an ask | A meeting that ends with nobody deciding anything |
Naming the 31 people in the first twenty seconds is the part you will be tempted to move later. Do not. A board that discovers the human cost at minute twelve stops listening to everything else and starts wondering what else is coming.
Questions
The six you will be asked
| Likelihood | Have you prepared it? | Where it lives | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What happens to the 31 people? | Certain | No | Nowhere. Prepare this first |
| What if the Sheffield site cannot absorb it? | Very likely | Partly | Slide 19, buried |
| What does it cost to do this? | Certain | Yes | Slide 22. Move to the appendix front |
| Have we looked at subletting instead? | Likely | No | You considered it. It is not written down |
| What is the customer impact? | Likely | Yes | Slide 27 |
| Why now rather than next year? | Certain | Weakly | Implied, never stated |
Three questions are certain and two of those have no prepared answer. Write one paragraph for each of the six. You will not use most of them and being unable to answer the first one would undo the whole presentation.
Delivery
Rehearsal and over to you
- Three times
Rehearse the opening alone, out loud, standing
Only the first ninety seconds. Out loud, not in your head. Reading it in your head is not rehearsal and it is what most people do.
- Once
Full run, timed, to one person
Anyone. The point is the timer and the presence of a human, not the feedback.
- Once
Have them ask the six questions cold
Out of order, interrupting. This is the rehearsal that matters most and the one people skip.
- On the day
Slow the first sentence down
You speak quickly when nervous, and the first sentence is the one that has to land. Say the recommendation, then pause for two seconds before continuing. It will feel like an eternity and it will read as confidence.
- What is the honest answer to what happens to the 31 people? If you do not know yet, is presenting on 6 November the right call?
- You considered subletting and rejected it. Why? If you cannot answer that in two sentences, the board will find the gap.
- What would make you change your own recommendation? A presenter who can answer that is trusted with everything else they say.