Presenting can feel high-pressure, whether you’re proposing a new strategy to senior leaders, bringing stakeholders into alignment around a launch plan, or updating colleagues on performance and progress. The challenge isn’t just standing up and speaking; it’s ensuring your message is understood, remembered and acted on.
Research in communication and cognitive science shows that this is exactly where many presentations lose their impact. A study (Psychology Today) on information retention suggests that people recall only a small proportion of what they hear, particularly when information is delivered without a clear and logical flow.
This isn’t because audiences aren’t paying attention. It’s because working memory has limits. When information arrives without structure, people become overloaded, key points are missed, decisions are delayed, and presenters walk away feeling their message didn’t quite land.
That’s why structure is such a powerful tool. When you know what’s coming next and why, presenting feels calmer and more controlled. At the same time, your audience finds it easier to follow your thinking, stay engaged, and take away what really matters.
In this blog, we’re going to look at how to structure your ideas for a great presentation. To do this, we’ll share a simple five-step framework you can use to build any presentation with clarity and purpose. Whether you’re presenting in person or online, one-to-one or to a large group, formally or informally, these steps will help you organise your thinking, sharpen your message, and speak with confidence.
Step 1: Think About Your Audience
One of the quickest ways to make a presentation harder than it needs to be is to start with the content.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of gathering everything you know, building a large slide deck, and hoping a clear story appears along the way. Most of us have experienced the result: plenty of information, very little relevance, and an audience that slowly disengages.
A presentation isn’t an information dump. It’s a piece of communication designed to move people from where they are now to where you need them to be; in understanding, alignment or decision-making. That only happens when you start with the audience, not the material.
Step into their shoes
Before you create a single slide, pause and ask yourself:
“If I were sitting in their seat, what would I want to know, and what questions would I be asking?”
This simple shift changes how you approach everything. It helps you prioritise what matters, shape your emphasis, and choose examples that feel relevant rather than generic.
The better you understand your audience:
- the more precisely you can tailor your message,
- the more relevant it feels,
- and the more likely it is to hold attention and prompt action.
Making it practical
Imagine you’re presenting a new FMCG product Go-to-Market plan to a broad group of stakeholders: finance, sales, operations, and brand.
They’re all listening, but they’re listening for different reasons.
- Finance may be thinking about risk and return.
- Sales may be focused on retailer support and revenue targets
- Operations may be considering production capacity and logistics
- Brand and marketing may be assessing differentiation and consumer appeal
If you deliver the same information, in the same order, with the same messaging, you’ll always lose part of the room. Step 1 helps you avoid that.
Where are they now, and where do they want to be?
Start by understanding their current position and the desired outcome:
- How familiar are they with the topic? Are they new to it or already well informed?
- What’s their mindset? Supportive, sceptical, neutral or overloaded?
- What challenges are they dealing with right now that your message might help resolve? Or might your ideas add to their load?
- What would success look like for them, and for the organisation?
Your audience doesn’t automatically care about your topic. They care about what it means for them; the impact, the trade-offs and the benefits.
Choosing the right route
Once you understand where your audience is starting from, you can decide how best to guide them.
Ask yourself:
- What questions are likely to come up, and which should you address upfront?
- Do they need a high-level view first, or detailed evidence early on?
- Will they respond better to commercial logic and data, or consumer insight and narrative?
In a Go To Market presentation, for example:
- A commercially focused audience may need to hear about market size, growth and margin early.
- A brand-led audience may need to start with consumer tension, positioning and category dynamics.
Same product. Same truth. But a different way of framing the message based on who’s listening.
Why might they resist?
This is the step many presenters skip, and it’s often why presentations fail to land.
Consider:
- What objections might exist, even if they’re not voiced?
- What risks or downsides need acknowledging?
- What competing priorities, budget pressures or internal dynamics are in play?
- What is your strongest, most distinctive benefit and can you make it clear?
In FMCG, unspoken concerns might include:
- “Will this cannibalise our existing range?”
- “Is this distracting us from a bigger priority?”
- “Is there real consumer and retailer demand?”
- “Can we execute this without supply issues?”
If you don’t address these concerns, your audience will potentially fixate on them, destroying the strength of your recommendations.
Remember, your role isn’t to share everything you know. It’s about sharing what your audience needs, in the order they need it, to understand, align with, or decide.
Step 2: Know What You Want to Say
Once you’ve put your audience first, the next step is to be clear about what you want them to walk away with, even before you build slides or think about visuals and data.
At the heart of every effective presentation is a single, clear idea. We often refer to this as the Destination of the presentation.
Decide the Destination first
A presentation is a journey you want to take your audience on. And like any journey, it’s hard to plan the route if you don’t know where you’re heading. In the same way you wouldn’t set off driving without a destination in mind, a presentation needs a clear endpoint from the start.
Many presenters do the opposite, building slides first and hoping a clear message emerges. Instead, decide the Destination upfront by defining your core message before building anything around it.
The 30-second test
A simple way to sharpen your thinking is to ask:
“If I only had 30 seconds with this audience, what’s the most important thing I’d want them to think, feel or do?”
That answer is often much closer to your true Destination than a long list of talking points.
Clarify the reaction you want
Ask yourself:
- What do I want my audience to think, feel or do as a result of this presentation?
- Is there a specific decision, alignment or action required?
- Is there a timing element, approval today, sign-off this quarter, action before launch?
The more specific you are, the stronger your Destination becomes.
Identify the motivation
Next, consider what will most motivate your audience. What single benefit, consequence, or driver will matter most to them?
This might include:
- Commercial upside
- Risk reduction
- Competitive advantage
- Consumer demand
- Operational simplicity
Trying to motivate people with everything usually motivates them with nothing. One clear driver is far more effective. Now, combine the reaction you want with its motivation.
Our FMCG example might go something like this:
“By the end of this session, I want the leadership team to approve this product’s Go To Market strategy because it allows us to enter a growing category with minimal cannibalisation risk.”
This sentence becomes your Destination. It should guide every decision you make as you build the presentation, and it will form the basis of the last message you deliver to your audience.
Step 3: Start with a Strong Attention Grab
The opening moments of a presentation matter more than most people realise. Audiences make quick, often subconscious decisions about whether something is worth listening to. If the opening feels generic or disconnected from what they care about, attention fades quickly.
That’s why effective presentations start with purpose rather than long introductions or agenda slides.
We call this your attention grab.
A strong attention grab:
- focuses attention on why the topic matters,
- sets the tone for what’s coming,
- and gives you a confident way in.
It doesn’t need to be flashy or entertaining, but it does need to support your Destination. If your opening is memorable but irrelevant, it risks overshadowing your message.
Keep it relevant
Effective openings are usually simple and focused. Depending on the context, your attention grab might be:
- a single visual, headline or chart,
- a short story or analogy,
- or a well-chosen question.
What matters isn’t the format, it’s the relevance.
For example, in an FMCG product launch, instead of “Today I’m going to walk you through the background to our new product launch …”
You might start with:
- “What would it mean for our portfolio if we could grow in this category without relying on deeper discounting?”
- “This category has delivered double-digit growth for three consecutive quarters, but we currently have no presence in it.”
- “Last season we missed a retail opportunity, not because of price or distribution, but because our range didn’t align with how shoppers were buying in the category.”
Each opening creates a reason to listen. Avoid common traps such as long introductions, detailed agendas or apologising for time or data. A strong opening builds momentum and brings your audience with you.
Before settling on your opener, ask yourself: “Does this help my audience understand why they should care about what’s coming next?”
Step 4: Organise the Middle. What, So What, Now What?
Once you’ve captured attention and clarified your destination, the next challenge is maintaining momentum through the middle.
This is where many presentations lose clarity, not because the content is wrong, but because the logic isn’t obvious. A simple way to avoid this is to use a What, So What, Now What structure.
You can apply this to the whole presentation or to individual sections.
- What?
What’s happening? What’s the fact or insight? - So what?
Why does it matter? What’s the implication? - Now what?
What action, decision or direction follows?
Using our FMCG example:
- What?
Consumer testing shows this product outperforms our current range on taste and perceived quality. - So what?
This creates an opportunity to trade shoppers up and protect margin in a highly promotional category. - Now what?
Our recommendation is to make this the lead launch SKU, supported by targeted promotional activity rather than broad discounting.
This structure keeps thinking clear, avoids overload and ensures every section has a purpose. To help reinforce your argument, each section of your presentation must end with one clear takeaway message.
Step 5: End with Purpose and Confidence
How you finish matters. Your closing is often what people remember most, yet it’s where presenters are most likely to lose focus.
Rather than drifting into a vague summary or ending with “Any questions?”, make sure you finish with intent.
Revisit your Destination. Reinforce what matters most and be clear about what happens next.
For example: “To summarise, this product offers a low-risk entry into a fast-growing category while protecting margin. Based on this, I’m looking for your approval of this Go To Market strategy, with a view to launching in Q3.”
Plan your final line and practise it. Knowing how you’ll finish helps you sound confident, even when nerves are present.
Try the 5 Steps Before You Build Slides
Here’s how the framework might look in practice:
1. Audience: Senior FMCG stakeholders reviewing a proposed Go To Market strategy.
2. Destination: Launch in Q3 to enter a growing category without increasing promotional pressure.
3. Attention Grab: A question highlighting category growth and margin opportunity.
4. Main points: Consumer demand, commercial impact, execution confidence.
5. Closing: Restate the Destination and outline the decision required.
Sketching this outline before you start building slides saves time, sharpens your thinking, and boosts your confidence.
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Ready to Build Your Presentation Confidence?
If you’d like to practise these skills in a supportive environment, or deepen your confidence in structuring and delivering presentations, then we’d love to help.
Presenting doesn’t have to feel overwhelming. With clear structure, a focused message and regular practise, anyone can improve. Start small, practise often, and watch your confidence grow.
No matter your role or experience level, presentation training is a smart investment in yourself, your team, and your future, so why not get in touch? We’ve been coaching people for nearly 20 years, and we’re known as the Business Presentation Skills Experts, training and coaching thousands of people in an A-Z of global and local organisations. We’ve got the experience and expertise to help you and your team become the confident, compelling, and memorable presenters they want to be. View our presentation skills training and coaching reviews to see what they say about our programs. We have a wide range of customised corporate training solutions, both in-person and online, to choose from, each of which can be tailored to your specific business needs.
