Tips on Reporting Facts and Figures

Presenting facts and figures is not, however, just a job for those in finance. Employees in many different areas have to communicate information effectively to their audiences — to persuade, inform, educate, and, occasionally, even to celebrate success. In this article, we look at some of the essential skills for effective presentations, and provide language and communication tips for presenting figures more confidently and effectively.

1. Presentation As Product

Presenting is essentially a business transaction. It means delivering a tailored product to a specific customer who has individual demands. For those presenting figures, the product should be relevant, timely and understandable information. As a presenter, you need to be customer-centred, which means you must think about the needs of your audience first.

A useful method for preparing your presentation is to use the “C-O-L-D” technique:

C for Content. The most common mistake presenters make is to deliver a stream of data without sufficient focus. The answer is to work backwards when preparing. Decide on the main message and then provide sufficient facts as support. Do not overload your audience with too much or overly detailed information before presenting your key conclusions.

O for Organization. Data are easier to understand and assimilate if they are organized logically and transparently. However, structure alone is not enough. For an international presentation to be effective, the key messages should be repeated more frequently than they would be for a national audience. There also should be more opportunity for the audience to ask questions or to comment, which also allow you to engage with your listeners.

L for Language. Working in a foreign language nearly always mean losing a certain amount of sophistication in expression. Too many presenters go too far and use a safe, neutral style of presenting, which often fails to interest their audience.

D for Delivery. Remember, it is not just what you say that matters, it is also how you say it. Effective presenters use their voice (speed, rhythm, intonation, volume), gestures, movements, eye contact and facial expressions. Presentations often fail to impress because they are delivered with a rather flat (uninteresting) and harsh (arrogant) intonation, together with static (wooden) body language. Practise your presentation in front of a mirror. This can help you to find a natural and individual style that you can use with confidence.

2. Presenting Graphics

a) What makes good graphics?

Everyone knows that effective presenters avoid using too many slides or overloading graphics with data. So why do we often still experience “Death by Power Point” or “Execution by Excel”? Many reasons (excuses) are given: “I use a lot of slides because it helps me to keep on track in English”; “I did not have time to prepare, so I just used old slides on the database”; “The slide has to double as a handout”.

Try to stick to the golden “six/six” rule — a maximum of six lines per slide with a maximum of six words per line — and then guide the audience through the data by explaining the focus.

b) Reporting results

Presenting results successfully means mastering four key language skills.

1) Getting the verb and tense right

• Sales grew last year
• Productivity fell last month
• As you can see, we are planning to raise staff numbers soon.

2) Choosing between adverbs and adjectives

• There was a sharp rise in turnover last month
• We expect that output will continue to increase steadily.
• As you can see, we have seen a reasonably positive reaction from the staff.

3) Selecting the right preposition

• Sales have increased by 20 per cent this year.
• The number of new graduates has dropped from 20 to 15 in the first quarter.
• We have seen a rise in absenteeism of 20 per cent this year.
• As the graph shows, output currently stands at 3,000 units per hour.

4) Expressing the result or reason clearly

• The rise in absenteeism is mainly due to increased stress.
• Productivity gains are mainly a result of cost cutting.
• This drop in quality led the customer to cancel the contract.

It is common when presenting to give approximate figures with key phrases such as

• Just over a million
• Just under three million
• Nearly 3,000
• Almost ten per cent
• Something like one in four
• Around two thirds
• Approximately half
• Roughly th same

3. Interpreting Figures

According to Mark Twain, Benjamin Disraeli, the 19th-century British prime minister, once said: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.” Today, more than ever, the meaning of figures depends on their interpretation. So, presenting figures effectively means working hard to communicate the message you wish your audience to get. There are number of important techniques to use:

a) Highlighting

Highlighting takes place on several levels. It includes simple signposting language, which introduce a slide and its contents: “This slide shows …” or “As you can see …”. It also includes more emphatic forms of focusing, in which the presenter signals important elements of information: “I would like to draw your attention to …” or “One of the most important figures here is …”.

b) Benchmarking

The meaning of any figures usually requires a context, for example, a comparison with last year, last month, next year’s forecast or what is happening elsewhere in the marketplace. Make sure you include such benchmarks when explaining the key figures.

c) Being positive

In spite of our best efforts, the figures we have to present sometimes fail to meet expectations. In such situations, it is important to focus on the positive, without “massaging the figures”. Here are some possible strategies:

Minimize the negative

“The figures are a little/a fraction disappointing.” Reality: what a terrible year!

Stress the positive

“We have increased our market share.” Reality: turnover is down 10 per cent.

Look at the broader picture

“We need to see the figures in context.” Reality: whichever way you look, the situation is bad!

Handle bad news with tact

“We may need to downsize a fraction.” Reality: lots of jobs are going — including yours!

d) Persuading

Figures may be presented in a strategy meeting as the basis for a key decision. In this situation, figures can not be allowed to speak for themselves. They have to be packaged with persuasive techniques as follows:

Proposing

“So, based on these figures, I would recommend …”

Highlighting advantages

“So, these figures show the advantage of …”

Pushing for a decision

“So, with these figures, we have no choice but to …”

e) Giving positive feedback

Don’t forget that the reporting of figures may provide a valuable opportunity for positive feedback. Many members of international teams report that, compared to their American counterparts, German managers tend to overlook the psychological need for positive feedback, the celebration of success. Instead, all too often, time is thought to be better spent analysing mistakes.

4. Presenting In Practice

In this section, we will provide an example presentation of market figures.

“This past year has been particularly tough, as the figures clearly demonstrate. As you can see, market share has fallen sharply, down four percentage points on last year to 15 per cent. There has also been a slight drop in turnover to $4.5 million, partly due to aggressive undercutting by our main competitor. However, profits are still good, the balance sheet is strong, and the cash flow is stable. Sales are beginning to improve, and I feel that our underlying position is now quite strong. So I should stress that we are all feeling quite bullish about next year.”