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Many years ago, one of our coaches took a statistics
course at a local community college. His professor had
such a heavy French accent that he literally could only
understand about a third of the words he said. He
learned everything from reading the textbook. Most
presenters that use a lot of statistics don’t do much
better than a professor. The numbers come across to
listeners as a foreign language.
Indeed, statistics are the most commonly used yet least
effective form of evidence. But there are some keys to
using numbers and statistics effectively.
·
Limit the numbers.
If you have a lot of statistics or financial
information, don’t go over every number during the
presentation. Focus on one or two key numbers and then
hand out the rest and take questions.
·
Show simple relationships.
Say you’re talking about the drop in the cost of
computers over the last 25 years. Rather than give the
actual percentage decline, you might do a relationship
comparison to bring the figure to life. You might say
that if the cost of cars had declined by the same
degree, a Jaguar would cost only $50.
·
Use an analogy.
An acre is 43,650 square feet. To help your audience
see an acre, tell them to visualize a football field
without the end zones.
·
Tell the story behind the numbers.
Don’t just say
sales are down. Dig behind the numbers to show why
sales are down. For example, you might start by showing
how sales dropped five percent last month because of
poor weather. Well how does poor weather cause reduced
sales? Tell me a story about a single salesman and his
inability to make his rounds due to the excessive rain.
Numbers aren’t the best way to bring a presentation to
life. But if you’re going to
use them, use them in a way that connects with your
listeners.
At Speechworks we help our clients learn how to
communicate in a way that connects and persuades. If
you’re interested in becoming a great communicator give
us a call at 404-266-0888 or check out our website at
www.speechworks.net. |
