Expert presenters have a #1 rule: know your audience. Before crafting any type of presentation, first understand who will be listening, why they are there, and what is important to them.

Have you ever endured a product presentation that features screen after screen of whiz-bang stuff the product can do – and only an engineer could love? Although I admire the passion behind the “tell us everything about it”, the effect doesn’t move careers ahead.

Instead: think of who you are addressing and how they might use the product. Will it reduce time to prepare something? Could they do their job better? Will it assist in meeting bonus objectives?

As a very wise friend told me: “My teaching career took off when I realized my job was not to teach them everything I know, but to teach some things they don’t yet know.”