Telling It Like It Is: Using Real World Stories in Your Presentation

There is an old saying I like that goes:

Nothing succeeds like success.

I love the notion that current success can help breed future success.  This idea is the underpinning of why a good presenter always uses real world examples in a presentation.  Good examples help convince people that you know what you are talking about and that what you are saying is relevant to the point at hand.   They are convincing and reassuring to the audience.

I use real world examples in all three presentation types:

1. Pitching:  “Don’t take my word for it, let me tell you the story about…”
2. Organizing:  “I know this doesn’t seem like a big problem now, but let me give you an example of how it affected Joe on the production line”
3. Teaching:  “Sic Isaac Newton discovered gravity when an apple fell….”

 

Good Case Study Characteristics

Whenever I start a presentation, I immediately begin looking for examples and case studies.  A good case study has the following characteristics.

1. It’s Relevant To The Point:  A good case study must illustrate the point you are getting after.  In a Pitch presentation, you might be trying to convince someone to buy your product and so you should include a real life example of how another customer found success using your product.  This is great.  If it’s not perfectly relevant, don’t use it as it will confuse your audience. 
2. It’s Believable:  Never use an example that is not true or is an outrageous example.  There are always outlier examples that are not believable. 
3. It’s Interesting:  No one wants to hear about some boring case study.  Make sure it’s an interesting story. 
4. It’s Available:  Get you case studies approved by legal before you use them in a presentation!

  

Sourcing Case Studies

Finding good case studies is time consuming, which is why you should be thinking about them right from the start.  So where can you get them from?

1. Marketing/PR/Public Affairs – Most marketing organizations maintain some system of case studies.  It’s usually the first place I start.  At Microsoft, we publish an external website of case studies highlighting solutions implemented using Microsoft products and technologies. 
2. “Voice Of …” Systems – Most companies today have some sort of Voice of the Customer feedback process or system.  I always hook into the department whose job is customer satisfaction and look at their reports on what customers are saying.  I often find a lead and when I follow up with the customer directly, I find some great stories just waiting to be told.
3. Reporting – A few years ago, when my National Guard unit was in Iraq, I found myself needing to understand and explain to my superiors why the local insurgents were acting a certain way.  I found that by reviewing after action reports from other units who were experiencing the same things I was able to source compelling examples that I could use to explain what we were seeing.  I could put a name, a face, and a story behind it using the examples that I found.
4. Head To The Shop Floor – All good managers know that if you want to know the truth, you go talk to the people doing the work.  Are you having production problems?  Go talk to the folks on the line and get concrete stories about what is going on.  Are your sales down?  Go talk to the sales people and get stories about why customers are not buying.  Take the stories and put them into your presentation.

 

Conclusion

Finding great real world examples is all about legwork.  From the very outset of every presentation I know generally what subject I will be talking about, so right from the get go I am out looking for those stories, validating whether they are relevant and I can legally use them, and writing them up in a compelling and interesting way.

Thanks for tuning in.  Tomorrow we are going to talk about how to do a great demonstration during a presentation.

 DK

mailto:dkarle@microsoft.com