Speaking With Impact: Using Statistics In Your Presentation

The most important presentation skill that you need in your toolkit is the ability to deliver “effective presentations”.

Effective presentations don’t just educate and inform, but involve, inspire and move people to take action.

A core element of moving people to take action is being able to prove and back up your core points and arguments. Being seen as credible by your audience relies on them feeling they can trust what you are saying… and the information that you are teaching them.

I’m sure you already know the importance of using testimonials, quotes, stories and so on in your presentations? But are you also including statistics?

Because we all know that STATS DON’T LIE!

However, the use of statistics needs to be done with a certain level of skill and aplomb.  So I figured it would be useful here to give you some basic guidelines that you should follow;

Using statistics in your presentation

Do not overwhelm people with all the statistics in one part of your presentation. 

There is such a thing as too much data! Try to restrict their use to 3 stats at a time… then add some qualitative information, or stories. 

State the source for your data. 

The more legitimate your sources are, the more credibility you will have. And therefore the more power your presentation will have.

Back up statistics with personal stories or stories of clients that further demonstrate the point your statistics make. 

Generalizations are great and can hold power… but people are far more likely to remember the specifics of your stories.

Bring the numbers to life. 

This is one of the best presentation skills you can develop.  For instance you might say “In the year 10,000 B.C., there were only 5 million people sharing 57,268,900 square miles of land- imagine that?!  The current population of Sydney spread out over the entire planet!”

So while the audience may not be able to comprehend the size of the land in 10,000 B.C., using the comparison of the current Sydney population makes your point much easier to relate to.

Don’t avoid using statistics in your presentation just because you think they may be boring. Stats can be really influential and exciting if used in the right way. 

You see… when people “see the proof” they are more likely to act! And having people take action is the best presentation skill you can ever learn… especially when you’re selling from stage!

Are you using statistics in your presentations? Have you shied away from including them in fear of overwhelming or boring your audience? Please do share your experiences of using statistics by leaving a comment below.