When creating a financial presentation, you obviously need to include a lot of numbers. Unfortunately, presenting too many numbers can be mind-numbing for your audience. Just think back to the last monthly or quarterly meeting you attended. Chances are you walked out feeling tired and wondering why you had to sit through such a boring meeting.

The fact is that financial presentations can be exciting and eye-opening if you prepare your subject matter correctly. The reason that so many monthly and quarterly meetings are boring is that people present only the numbers. They conduct a "data dump" and expect the audience to work at understanding the information. 

When you incorporate the following elements into your financial presentations, you make it easy for people to leave your meeting saying, "Wow! That was interesting. Now I have the information I need to make decisions." In fact, that’s why you have monthly and quarterly meetings—to give data so people can make better business decisions. Here are some suggestions:

1. Validate the goal or purpose.
Before you show any numbers, you must first validate the goal and/or purpose of sharing the numbers. What decision is going to be made as a result of these particular numbers? This validation should be only one or two sentences. State it in a positive manner and show that you understand what the audience is striving for. Example: "We are approaching the third quarter and our goal is a 15% increase over last year’s numbers. Today I will review last quarter's results followed by what we are doing differently to meet our third quarter goal."

2. Don’t just show the numbers.
Most people will use a spreadsheet for this step. You may explain some the numbers, pointing your audience's attention to a particular column, row or total. However, the most important element is to tell them why the number(s) are important to them and how the information will help them make better decisions or understand current trends. Make sure you tell them why they should care. Good lead-in statements include: "These numbers are important because…"  "By knowing these numbers you will be able to…"

3. Depict the numbers in graphical form.
To make sure your audience understands exactly what you are telling them, consider showing the same numbers you just presented in the spreadsheet in a colorful graph or chart. Don’t just show the spreadsheet and move on. Show the spreadsheet, and then break it down into a graphic or chart so people can visually grasp what the numbers mean. Keep in mind that they will not remember all the numbers, but they will remember pictures.

4. Tell people whether the numbers are good or bad.
At some point during your explanation, tell the audience whether the numbers are good or bad. You may think the implication of the numbers is obvious, but realize that your audience likely isn’t paying full attention to everything you're saying. Therefore, if the numbers have gone up or down, state how much variance there is. Don’t simply show last month's numbers and this month's numbers and expect people to do the math or see the correlation. Make the assumption that people are not giving you their full attention and know that your job is to bring people back to the big picture.