Because once you've decided on an objective, remember that this is what you are trying to achieve. When you've finished, a hundred people can come up to you and tell you it was a great speech - funny, entertaining, incisive, brilliant, etc. But none of this is important if you failed to achieve your objective.

Many people begin their preparation by selecting a dozen or so slides from their personal 'archive' that they can bolt something around. They use the slides as 'inspiration' to give them some ideas about what they might say. This is letting the tail wag the dog. The selection and preparation of visual aids is the penultimate of my seven steps of preparation.

This is because (and you'll tire of hearing me say this) your slides are there to support you, not the other way around. First you need to decide what you want to say, and THEN choose the slides that help you do that:

The first question you ask yourself when you are asked to speak is: What exactly am I trying to achieve? There is a whole range of possible answers to this question, the most common of which might be:

• To motivate
• To sell
• To entertain
• To inform
• To inspire
• To persuade

But such answers are simplistic and are only a starting point. If your objective is 'to motivate', for example, what do you want to motivate your audience to actually do?

Are you trying to motivate an entire salesforce to achieve next year's sales targets, or a small audience of three prospective buyers to purchase your company's products or services? Or do you want the diners at a black tie event to put their hands in their pockets and give generously to a charity?

A lot of people say their objective is 'to educate' or 'to inform'. But if that's the case, what key messages are you planning to communicate? But think for a moment ...... is that really the case? Do you really want the audience to simply think, 'That's interesting .....' and nothing else?

Because if you want them to go away and do something with that information, then your real objective is probably something else. Maybe you want them to pass the information on to their own teams, or look at how they can help you achieve something. If that's the case, then your real objective is more likely to be to motivate or persuade.

When making a sales presentation, salespeople will often say their objective is 'to get the sale'. But unless they are expecting the customer to place an order right there and then, that isn't their objective. Many sales are long, complex processes that take multiple meetings and presentations over weeks, months or even years. If this is the case, you need to ask yourself, 'What do I want to happen right after this presentation?' The answer is probably something like, 'I want them to ask me to prepare a quote,' or 'I want them to agree to another meeting with the CEO/VP Purchasing'. THIS is then your objective, not 'getting the sale.'

The first time you present to a customer, you might be trying to 'sell' your company, and generate enough confidence in your abilities/expertise to move things to the next phase. If this is the case, ask yourself, 'How will I know I have achieved that?' Perhaps the answer is their agreement to arrange another meeting or introduce you to somebody else in their company. Perhaps it's something else. But whatever it is, THAT is your objective. Having people say 'I really enjoyed your presentation' afterwards is all fine and good for your ego, but if the customer doesn't agree to that second meeting, you've failed to achieve your objective.

So if your objective is now to 'get a second meeting' rather than to 'get the sale', you can now ask yourself, 'What emotions/feelings/thoughts do I want there to be in the customers' minds at the end of the presentation'. Confidence? Trust? Interest? And you can determine the content specifically to create these.

But don't do it with the ubiquitous structure charts/corporate timelines/mission statements that all your competitors will present. Put those things in a handout and leave them behind, or send them in advance before the presentation. A far better way to create these emotions/feelings/thoughts is with stories and visual imagery. This will tap in to the right-hand sides of the audience's brains and will be far more effective.

If you want to get over the point that yourcustomer service is world class, using a slide with your mission statement on it is both boring and predictable. And every one of your competitors will have done the same. Instead, tell a story of how a customer had a major problem/catastrophe and how your company's unbelieveable service saved the day.

And if you want to talk about the business reslts you delivered for another customer, what is a case study if not a story?

You may also have a secondary objective, and I would recommend also having a personal one. A personal objective can be determined by asking the question: 'What do I want the audience to think of me after I have spoken'. For example:

I want my boss to see me as:

• a good speaker
• promotion material
• his obvious successor,

I want the audience to

• accept me as one of them
• view me as a confident, well-respected professional
• gasp in awe at my rhetoric

Do this for every speech or presentation you give, because it has relevance not only to the words you choose to deliver, but also the manner in which you will deliver them.

As an illustration, let's take the Managing Director of a company who is planning the opening speech at his company's annual conference. His objectives could be:

Objective No.1: 'To outline the seriousness of the competitive threat facing us, our objectives for the coming year and our strategy for achieving them'

Objective No. 2: 'To make everybody realise we'll only succeed if everyone pulls their weight.'

Personal objective: 'To demonstrate that I have a clear vision of where I want to go and a strategy for getting us there, and am 100% committed to it.'

He now knows exactly what he is trying to achieve. At any point when looking at his content, he can ask himself, ' Will this help achieve my stated objectives?' If the answer is ' yes', then the material is a candidate for inclusion. If 'no', it should be jettisoned, no matter how funny, interesting or impressive it sounds.

Having determined your objectives, the next thing is to write an elevator speech. This is a twenty-thirty second summary of the message you plan to deliver. Imagine you are in an elevator with your Managing Director or CEO (if you're already the MD or CEO, imagine it's the Chairman or your largest investor), and she asks you, "What message are you going to deliver in your speech at the conference next week?"

You now have thirty seconds to summarise your entire speech. What would you say? Write it down, as this will crystallise in your mind the central message(s) you want to deliver.

Our fictional Managing Director might sum it up as follows:

'One of our main competitors has recently been purchased and reinvigorated and they have stated they are going to attack us head-on using price. We had an excellent 2005, but can't rest on our laurels; we have very stretching targets for 2006. We are going to fight them using customer service rather than price. However, this means re-inventing ourselves. Our objectives will only be achieved if every single department in the company pulls its weight in amazing our customers with our service. I intend to demonstrate my firm commitment to making this happen.'

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