In our last couple of Tips (August and September, 2015), we have focused on the importance of rehearsing our presentations, and shared some strategies for rehearsing effectively. For many people, their rehearsal is about improving some specific delivery skills, such as use of hands, pace, movement, tone and eye contact. Honing these skills is a great goal, but it shouldn't be our primary goal. The primary goal of our rehearsal efforts should be to master the content.

This content includes any information that we plan to use to make our case and compel our audience. In other words, the material on our slides, backup information, case studies and anecdotes, etc. It should also include the flow of the presentation and the transitions we plan to use to go from slide to slide and section to section. Think of it this way - we want to know the content so well that we could deliver the presentation effectively even if the projector didn't work.

Mastering the content takes time and repetition. This is sort of the "grunt work" of preparing for a presentation, and there is no substitute for it. To help master the content, annotate your presentation by writing out your supporting comments next to your bullets. The best time to annotate the presentation is when you are writing it. These supporting comments are the things you are planning to say to bring your bullets and your presentation to life. By reviewing this document periodically in the days leading up to your presentation, you will start to commit the content to memory.

Some may think that this process takes a lot of time. However, by mastering the content, our confidence grows exponentially. This will shorten our overall rehearsal time, strongly impact on our delivery skills and drive better presentation outcomes.