Who Matters Most?

Until the audience has what they need, it will be difficult for them to give you what you need.

Let’s establish a basic principle: when you present anything that won’t be approved, actioned, signed off on or bought on the spot, you need your content to have a life beyond this first presentation.

You might only present it once, but to get any follow-up—whether that is feedback or direction on the next steps—your content will be reviewed, cut down, and shared with others, perhaps several times before you hear anything.

When this is the case for your presentations, there are two crucial questions to ask yourself:

• Who matters most?

• Who can keep you in the game?

The smallest number of people with the most significant impact

Think of it like this. After you finish presenting, you place your content on the table on a memory stick (I know nobody uses them anymore, but go along with the story!). It is there, sitting, waiting. As you leave the room, who will pick it up? Who is going to own taking your content forward from this point?

If no one picks it up, what happens next? Precisely nothing. Perhaps you were entertaining, and maybe this has helped you stay top of mind, but your content isn’t going anywhere but in the bin when the cleaner clears the table later today. It’s game over for this one.

To assist you in crafting a compelling story that connects your content with your audience, you need to determine the smallest number of people who can have the most significant impact on what happens next for you and your content.

Picturing the three critical roles

It can be helpful to imagine your presentation as four people sitting around a table. You are there sharing the story that contains the solution they all need, a confident position to imagine yourself in. But you are not the hero; they are. Your job is to guide them, help them find their way to a better place, and show them the way through the change you see as possible.

The other three seats are occupied by:

the Connector

Establish who is in this role by considering who will move your content forward and who will do the work after you leave.

the Influencer

Here, you need to decide who influences them and the person with the problem you are solving.

the Impacted

Who has a problem that you and everyone else at the table want to solve?

This is your audience: What’s it like to be them?

Imagine what it is like to be in those seats and in these roles. Think about what you would want to see, what you need to do your job, and your underlying concerns and fears as you sit through this context.

This is a critical step in creating a narrative within a story structure that will transform the delivery of your content. It is how you move from being all about you and what you have to say to curating a story that captures their attention and engages with their emotional needs while at the same time giving them everything they need to do their job after you leave.

Over the coming posts, we will unpack each of these roles in more detail and then look at how we move from catering to their rational wants to solve their underlying needs.

Can’t wait?

My Audience Discovery Masterclass will unlock everything you need to know about your audience and set you up to create more compelling presentations if you need to elevate your impact sooner.

You can also pick up a copy of my book from my website, which has the 12 tools every strategic storyteller needs to create winning presentations.