How to Present Financial Information Without Losing Your Audience — or Your Credibility

Presenting financial data or complex information has always been difficult. The human brain can manage complexity, but it was never meant to process dense data quickly while also listening, understanding, and making sense of it. The key to success isn’t in impressing people with spreadsheets or bombarding them with details, but in approaching the task with a high level of mindfulness.

Before you open a slide, share a chart, or reveal a single number, start with the most important question you can ask yourself: What does my audience truly need to know, and why do they need to know it? You may be energised by a sea of numbers, but that doesn’t mean your audience shares your enthusiasm. If they love line charts, pie charts, and bar charts as much as you do, then by all means give them everything you have. But if they don’t, flooding them with data is the fastest way to turn off their attention. You may as well be speaking in another language.

Sometimes the best way to learn how to present complex information is to know what to avoid. If you are preparing to present financial data or intricate details, these pitfalls can cost you your audience’s attention, trust, and engagement.

Don’t Prepare Your Presentation Without a Strategy

The more complex the information, the stronger your strategy must be. Data without strategy is just noise, and a lack of clarity causes confusion. Before you begin, you need to be able to answer five essential questions with complete accuracy.

– What is your message

– Why does anyone need to hear, understand and care about it

– What exactly do you want them to do with the information

– How do you want them to feel when you’ve finished speaking

– What will it take to connect with them emotionally as well as intellectually

These questions lay the groundwork for a strategy that values your audience’s time and intelligence. Without them, you are merely transmitting information instead of truly communicating meaning.

Don’t Present Your Information as a Long List of Bullet Points

Only share what is entirely relevant to your audience. If the data does not directly support the point you are making, omit it. Keep the rest available for reference but avoid overwhelming your audience with it unless it becomes necessary.

Avoid using bullet points whenever possible, as they encourage presenters to condense ideas rather than fully express them. They tend to produce slides that resemble documents and tempt you to read rather than speak. In a previous article, Death by Bullet Point, I shared several guiding principles that remain essential.

– Avoid restrictive templates

– Keep to one idea per slide

– Use a clear, simple background

– Keep text to a minimum

– Use large, simple fonts

– Avoid unnecessary animations

The quickest way to lose your audience is to overload a slide with data and hope they can make sense of it.

Don’t Speak Over Your Own Slides

The moment anything appears on a screen, your audience will start reading and interpreting it, even before they hear a single word you utter. Many presenters then make one of two crucial errors while their audience is busy reading.

Some read the text aloud, and when you read what your audience can read for themselves, you are effectively telling them they cannot read.

Others start speaking over the slide while their audience is still trying to decipher it. The human mind cannot read and listen effectively at the same time. You must choose: do you want them to read or listen? If you want them to read, send a document. If you want them to listen, keep the slide simple and let your voice carry the message.

Speaking while your audience is silently decoding your data causes cognitive overload. It is not only ineffective; it is unfair.

Don’t Focus Exclusively on the Data

Data alone is never sufficient. Your audience can read data without you, but what they cannot do without you is understand its meaning, relevance, and impact. When presenting financial information, concentrate on:

– Short, relevant, compelling stories

– Metaphors and analogies

– The story behind the data

– Why the data matters

– Examples and comparisons they can relate to

These are the elements that transform numbers into insight.

Don’t Leave Out the Insights

Your audience does not need another data dump; they are already overwhelmed with information. What they want is your perspective, your interpretation, your judgment, and your sense of what the data reveal.

Once you have established accuracy and credibility, they want to know:

– Your thoughts on the data

– How you feel about the information

– What it reveals that others may have overlooked

– How it is influencing your market or industry

Presenting financial information is a chance to share a professional and personal viewpoint. Encourage their insights as well, because data gains significance when it becomes part of a conversation.

Don’t Focus Solely on the Past or the Problem

Your audience does not need another problem; they need a path forward. Present the problem clearly and then move immediately to the solution. Use the data to illuminate the issue, then guide them toward the next steps.

Reflect on this:

– What does this data mean in real terms

– How can they use it to make better decisions

– What will the future look like if they act on it

– What positive difference will it make

– What would you like the data to look like in six months

Align everything with the team’s vision, objectives, and upcoming actions.

Don’t Be Vague or Generic

I recently observed an executive delivering a presentation to fifty colleagues. He began by expressing concerns about missing the annual forecast, then showed slide after slide of complex charts. Things got worse when he urged his team to “button down the risks,” “look for opportunities,” “put the fires out,” and “pick the low-hanging fruit.”

Most of the audience left without understanding what he truly wanted them to do. These phrases were already familiar in their daily tasks. He provided no clarity, detail, or guidance.

Be clear, specific, and personal. Ensure they understand exactly what you require from them.

Don’t Show Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets are for sorting, filtering, and calculating. They are not meant to be displayed in full during a conversation. Showing a spreadsheet on a slide does not impress your audience; it overwhelms them.

Your task is to filter the data until only the core message, insight, and essential truth remain, those needed to make a decision or take meaningful action. Present that message visually, using images or simple graphics instead of raw spreadsheets.

Don’t Just Wait for Questions

When presenting data, questions are inevitable. Do not wait for them; anticipate and prepare for them. Incorporate the answers into your presentation.

Prepare especially for challenging questions. They are the ones that establish your credibility.

Don’t Focus on Looking Good

Contrary to popular belief, the purpose of a presentation is not to show how much you know, how clever you are, or how hard you work. It’s natural to want positive judgment, but making that your main goal is the fastest way to lose your audience.

Your job is to share knowledge, information, and insights that genuinely benefit the audience. They are not interested in your brilliance. They want to see how you can make their lives better, easier, happier, or positively different.

If you need help presenting financial information:

– Book yourself onto a powerful public speaking course.

– Invest in some really good one to one public speaking coaching.

– Get yourself some excellent presentation training

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