Presenting Numbers with Impact
Recently, I was listening to an economist discuss the state of the U.S. economy: PCE core inflation of 2.7% YoY, 0.5% increase in the cost of housing and utilities, a $34.5 trillion national debt, and 6.4M people unemployed (3.8%).
The presentation was awash in numbers, but to me (and perhaps you) these are just numbers. They don’t tell a compelling story. Is 2.7% inflation a lot or a little? What does a 0.5% increase in the cost of utilities actually mean for a recent college grad, a family of 4, or your grandmother on a fixed income? 6.4M people without a job seems like a lot of people, but 3.8% seems low. Which is it? Numbers alone can’t help me answer these questions.
To realize their potential, numbers need to be put into perspective in your presentations and meetings.
Consider the numbers for the NCAA Basketball Championship games as reported by Nielsen[1]:
Which of the following makes a more compelling case for the difference in audience viewership between these two games?
Option A (Direct Count):
“4.1 million more people tuned in to watch the women’s NCAA basketball championship game than watched the men’s championship 1 day later.”
Option B (Percent Larger):
“The audience for the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship game was 29% larger than the audience for the men’s championship game.”
Option C (Times Larger):
“The audience for the women’s NCAA basketball championship was nearly 1.3 times larger than the audience for the men’s championship.”
Option D: (Comparison)
“If you took every single baby born in every single hospital in the US for an entire year and added them to the viewership of the 2024 NCAA Men’s Basketball National Championship game, it would still be a smaller viewership than watched the Women’s Championship.”
To make numbers more compelling, aim to accomplish three primary things:
First, make the numbers relatable to your audience. Compare them to something that the audience intuitively understands. Not only will your number have more significance, it will also be far more memorable.
Second, add emotional value. Instead of a sterile count, equate your numbers to screaming fans, cooing babies, your audience’s bank balance, or another emotional topic.
Finally, choose a calculation that goes in the ‘direction’ of the point you’re trying to make. In the above example, we are emphasizing how much larger the women’s audience is, so saying 29% larger (Option B) is problematic because 29% is a small number.
When you’re presenting numbers, don’t settle for reporting abstract counts. Instead, take deliberate steps to maximize the impact of your numbers by making them real and relatable. You’ll be more persuasive. \
As for a 3.8% unemployment rate... In April 2020, unemployment peaked at 14.8%. In other words, if you were at a block party of 20 people, 3 of the people you’d meet would be out of a job. Today, you would have to visit 2 block parties before encountering a single person without a job.
[1] https://www.nielsen.com/news-center/2024/womens-college-basketball-championship-draws-record-breaking-18-9-million-viewers/