Page 149 - The New Articulate Executive_ Look, Act and Sound Like a Leader

140 DELIVERY

Weak: In the end, we hope to evince a profi t.
Stronger: In the end we hope to make money.

10. Keep a tight leash on statistics. Statistics tend to proliferate like
rabbits in business presentations of all kinds. Polls tell us that audi-

ences can’t remember more than one key figure at a time The ear is
not a funnel into which we can pour information. Too many facts can
defeat the communication.
Some quick tips for rabbit control (managing statistics):

◆ Pick the most important.
◆ Round them off.
◆ Dress them up.

The following are examples of rabbits and their revisions:
Rabbits: Market share increased 3.2 percent, from 5 percent to
8.2 percent in the last quarter, compared to an increase of
4.5 percent, up to a high of 13.5 percent from a low of 9 percent
in the same quarter last year. (That’s too many numbers for the
brain to manage—especially if the rest of the presentation is also
liberally laced with statistics. Worse, the construction is
clumsy.)
Revised: Market share was off more than 5 percent this year.

Rabbits: Production increased 6.3 percent from 8.1 billion bbl
to 10.2 billion bbl from 2010 to 2011. (Still too much stuff.)
Revised: Production was up more than 6 percent—roughly two
billion barrels in the last year alone. That’s enough oil to heat
Boston for ten years.
We dress up the statistic to give meaning to the otherwise mean-
ingless concept of “a barrel of oil.” People can’t picture two billion
barrels of oil. So you make an analogy almost anyone can identify
with—especially if you are talking to a nonindustry audience.