Stories Make Presentations Easier to Follow and Easier to Understand.
The more technical a presentation, the more vital it is to include stories and examples. A technical presentation without examples is purely theoretical. However, a technical presentation with examples is extremely practical.
For example, let’s say that I’m delivering a presentation on last quarter’s financials for my company. I could just give the audience the numbers…
“Last quarter, we had a 15% increase in revenue, but profit was down 1.2%.” I’ve given the audience the technical aspects of the presentation. But the audience is likely to be unclear of exactly WHY the numbers came out the way that they did.
So in order to give the audience a clearer understanding, I’d need to include the story behind the numbers. What happened to cause the increase in revenue and why did profit suffer?
The Example Adds Clarity to the Numbers.
“In the middle of the quarter, we invested in some new advertising that ran in the last month of the quarter. As a result, for the last few weeks, the phones have been ringing quite a bit more frequently. But not all of the new leads generated from the advertising have closed yet. So the profit from that investment should return shortly.
For example, Chris, one of our telephone sales reps got a lead two weeks ago from Microsoft. He is now in the process of negotiating a big $80,000 contract. He expects that contract to close in the next 10 days. We have another seven pending contracts that should close in the next 30 days as well.”
The example clarifies the data and makes it easier for the audience to understand — even if they are unfamiliar with the technical side of the business. You don’t have to be an accountant to understand how the revenue can be up and profit down temporarily. That is, if the speaker uses a story to explain.
Stories Also Make Presentations Easier to Remember.
When we give our audience a list of facts, figures, and numbers, most often, the audience will forget them quickly. However, when we give the data in a story format, the data becomes much more memorable.
For example, “Year to date, Joe’s closing ratio is 12.3%, Colette’s ratio is 21.7%, and Bill is at 7.5%. The average ratio is 13.83% which is 3.8% higher than our 10% goal that we set in January.”
Many presenters will give lots of data in a format such as this (a list, a chart, a graph.) But if we just recite the data and numbers without the context, the figures are very challenging to remember.
So let’s test the theory. Without looking back at the numbers above, who had the highest closing ratio? And what was that ratio? If you were able to remember the number, then congratulations. You are in a vast minority of people.
Most people forget numbers the moment that they hear them. Now let’s deliver the numbers in a story format and see if it’s easier to remember.
This Format Makes the Numbers Easier to remember.
“At the beginning of the year, we set a goal of have a 10% closing ratio for our sales team. One of the ways that we wanted to accomplish this goal was to focus more on repeat business. Colette, who is one of our best sales reps, took this goal to heart. And she has really focused on working with her current customers.
For example, last fall, she worked with Jet Blue on a series of contracts that brought in about $50,000 in business in their New York hub. Since they are such a good customer, she started working with them to do similar programs in one more of their hubs in Salt Lake City. As a result, she was able to generate an additional $50,000 on the West Coast last quarter. She increased her personal closing ratio to 21.7% because she is getting multiple contracts off of the same lead.
After reading that story, who is our best sales rep? What was her closing ratio? How much total revenue was she able to generate from Jet Blue? If you were able to correctly answer these questions, you’re now seeing the power of stories.
Stories Reduce Public Speaking Fear.
Just as a long list of numbers and statistics is hard for an audience member to remember, it’s equally hard for the presenter to remember. As a result, when we stand up to recite a list of facts, we put tremendous pressure on ourselves in increase nervousness dramatically. However, when we deliver the facts and figures in a story format, the delivery is much easier.
When we tell a story from our own first-person experience, all we have to do is play the video in our head of what happened. Then, we just recite it as we remember it. This takes away a lot of the pressure. One of the most dramatic changes that people receive when they learn this secret is a great reduction in public speaking fear.
In fact, if you can use stories to prove or your bullet points, you’ll wow your audience, and pretty much eliminate your fear of public speaking in the process. It’s a win-win solution to public speaking nervousness.
Stories Can Save You
This is an embarrassing example, but it really shows how this works. I was hired to deliver a keynote speech for an association in Chicago. So on the plane trip into ORD, I wrote out the speech that I’d be delivering a couple hours later. (Since I teach people how to write presentations pretty quickly, this is kind of a normal habit for me.)
Well, before the speech, my client introduced me to the president of the organization. He let me know that the meeting would be called to order shortly. He said that he would start with a few points of order, but that I would be introduced shortly after the start of the meeting.
As I sat down in my seat, I looked over at the seat next to me, and it had a meeting agenda sitting on it. As I looked down at the agenda, I noticed that it had my name listed as the keynote speaker. But the topic of my speech was total different than the one that I had designed on the plane.
My heart dropped, and I started to feel a little dizzy. Panic was just about to hit me, and I paused, thought about the topic, came up with a few tips. I basically wrote the whole speech as I was walking up to the front of the room to deliver it. When the speech was over, I got a standing ovation. What made the speech work, though, was that I reinforced each of the tips with a simple real-life story of how to use it. Every time I completed another story, my nervousness dropped. It worked perfectly, and the audience loved it.
But What if I Can’t Think of Any Stories?
So you understand now the importance of examples and stories in your presentations, but what if you don’t have any stories to tell?
It’s kinda hard to always have a relevant story for every topic of presentation. Sometimes you’re young, don’t have the life experience yet, or just simply don’t have the best memory to recall any story that might fit. I’ve got a decent repertoire of good, tested stories I like to pull from pretty often, but even that well runs dry sometimes.
In cases where you are completely stumped on any story or example to throw in there, here’s a couple methods that make it easier to come up with something to do the job.
1) Look to Stories From People You Know
There’s nothing that says the story has to come from you. Look around to people you’ve known in the past. Parents, friends, coworkers, clients, anyone at all that has told you a super memorable tale. Chances are, if you liked it enough to remember it, your audience probably will too. It doesn’t lessen the impact or detract from you to tell other people’s stories either. In some cases it can even be better than using one of your own.
If your story begins with something like “this reminds me of something my father used tell me…” it gives a certain level of vulnerability and openness that lets the audience instantly feel like they know the speaker a lot more than before.
2) Look to Stories From People You Don’t Know
There’s also nothing that says the story has to come from your own life. Doing some research into similar examples in history can sometimes bring you the most applicable story for your topic. It might not be as personable or vulnerable as sharing a story of your own, but sharing something that applies perfectly to what you’re trying to present can convey the idea better while also making the presenter look like they know what they’re talking about.
Take for example, if you’re giving a presentation proposing your company should start incorporating side project time. Maybe you haven’t ever worked at a company that has side project time, or maybe you don’t know anyone that has worked at a company that has side project time. Lucky for you, the story behind the invention of side project time at 3M and the invention of the sticky note is one of the best stories in business and will sell them on the idea way better than your story or your buddy’s.
So give examples and stories a try, and soon you’ll feel way more comfortable and your audience will be way more engaged!