What about financial professionals?

In discussing how communication professionals sometimes fail in creating financial communications, one conclusion was that they simply don't understand the subject matter and audience well enough. Financial professionals therefore, should have more success as they understand both. Where they fall short is by providing too much information and too little insight. They are so familiar with the numbers, they mistakenly put every financial result into the presentation. And, as they believe that the "numbers speak for themselves," they provide little explanation for the trends or put the financial results into a context the audience understands.

To build an effective story around financial results, you have to decide which are the important measures. Choose the three or four key benchmarks that demonstrate the company's progress over previous years or against the broader market - and that are consistent with those used in the industry and the company's peers. Also, explain why these are the appropriate measures to choose, to assure the audience that you are not cherry-picking the most favourable financial results. Put these numbers in the context of the company's strategy or the market. Simply rhyming the results off - "revenue was 17 million dollars in 2008, compared to 12 million dollars in 2007" - does not add to the audience's understanding. Stating "revenue was 17 million dollars, increasing by five million dollars as a result of our successful initiatives to sell into new markets and increased sales to our current customers" helps us understand the reasons for the increase. Context helps us see that the revenue is increasing as a result of a successful strategy which will continue to deliver results.

Presentations that rhyme off facts without context are called "laundry list" presentations. One way of judging whether you are providing analysis or reading a list is to review the speaking notes for your presentation (you should have speaking notes). Notes for a laundry list presentation will follow a repetitive subject-verb format, i.e., "revenue grew by 10 percent to 20 million dollars, EBITDA declined by 3 percent to 200 thousand dollars..." If you see this repetition, add some context - answer the audience's questions before the end of the presentation. Another test is to look at your script and mark each use of an dependent clause (a phrase that would tend to add context). If you find none or very few, then you know you are presenting a laundry list, not telling a story.

If you can find it, an excellent but out-of-print book is called Analytical Writing by Thomas P. Johnson, published in 1966 by Harper and Row.