Every week, somewhere in a glass-walled boardroom, someone is trying to show a group of executives why these numbers matter. It doesn’t always go the way they hoped. Sometimes the charts are impressive, but the room tunes out after a few minutes. Other times, the numbers hit home, and the next steps are clear.
So if you need to present numbers to leaders at your company soon—or you just want those meetings to get easier—here’s what actually works when executives are your audience.
Start by Understanding Executive Needs
It’s easy to assume you should go deep into every interesting detail. The truth: executives aren’t there to become experts in your area. They want the bottom line—the part that affects the business, for better or worse.
Start by asking yourself: What do they actually care about? Are they looking to make a big decision, check progress, or spot risks? For example, a CFO might be focused on trends affecting cash flow, while a marketing chief cares about customer acquisition costs.
If you’re not clear on their main goals, reach out before the meeting, or check with someone who’s done executive presentations before. Knowing what matters to them sets the foundation for everything else.
Set Clear Objectives for Your Session
Before you draft a single slide, decide the top two or three points you need them to remember. Is it that revenue growth is linked to three key regions? Is there one cost that’s out of line?
Write out your main messages—literally, sentence by sentence. Then pick the data that directly backs up those messages. If you include every “kind of interesting” stat, you’ll bury the good stuff. When time’s limited, they should at least leave with the big picture clear in their heads.
Pick Metrics That Actually Matter
Here’s the part people trip up on: not every metric is relevant in the boardroom. You might love conversion rates by campaign or team-response times by quarter. But which of these metrics connects to strategic outcomes?
Put yourself in the executive seat. Imagine being asked to greenlight a project—you’d want to see cost, growth potential, and risk. If you’re not sure which numbers matter most, talk with someone who knows what execs have cared about in the past.
Highlight metrics that move the business. If one graph tells the real story, put it up front. There’s no prize for the most data on a slide—clarity always wins.
Structure Your Data in a Logical Way
Presenting numbers is a bit like telling a story. You want the setup to make sense so people aren’t lost halfway through.
Think about starting with context: where are we today, and why is this important? Next, walk through supporting facts in a simple order. Use clear headings—something like “Revenue Trends,” then “Cost Drivers,” then “Opportunity Areas.” It helps people know what’s coming and keeps the meeting on track.
You don’t need to get fancy with structure, either. If in doubt, go with “What’s happening? Why? What now?”
Pick Visuals That Actually Add Value
Executives spend a lot of time looking at slides, so visuals can help sink in the message—or make things confusing. Simple bar graphs and line charts do most of the heavy lifting.
If a table is required, highlight only the numbers they need to see. Avoid colors or shapes that distract more than they inform. Keep it straightforward.
Once, I watched someone walk through a dozen complicated pie charts. We all left knowing less than when we arrived. Instead, one clean graph showing actual versus projected growth would have made the point.
Forget fancy animations. Keep the visuals focused and quick to read.
Call Out the Key Insights—Don’t Assume They’ll Spot Them
It’s not enough to show a chart and expect everyone to figure out the meaning. Call out the main takeaways out loud or with a bold note.
Say something like, “Sales in Q2 outpaced Q1 by 12 percent, mainly due to our Southeast region.” Bold the 12 percent on the slide. Or point to a trendline and explain what changed.
Connect the dots for them. If there’s a risk, explain why it’s urgent—not just that it exists.
Make Data Simple—Break Down Complexity
Executives are busy people. If you throw up a table with 50 numbers, you’ll lose them fast.
Instead, break things into bite-sized points. Convert percentages to actual figures—saying, “that’s $400,000 more revenue” makes more impact than “that’s up 4 percent.” Skip tech or financial jargon if you can. If you have to use a term, explain it first.
Imagine explaining the numbers to an interested friend outside your department. That’s the language to aim for.
Build a Clear, Relatable Story
You don’t need to be a novelist. But numbers stick better when you connect them to real events or people in the business.
For example: “When we ran the campaign in April, call volume jumped by 18 percent—that’s when our East Coast team saw overtime spike.” Or, “Customer loyalty improved after we simplified billing, and now we see fewer calls about confusion.”
Draw a line from your data to what executives already know about the business. This makes the numbers feel relevant—not just abstract math.
Be Ready for Questions
Executives tend to cut to the chase. Expect questions like, “Why did this change so fast?” or “What’s driving that number?”
Before the meeting, try a run-through with a colleague. Ask them what they’d be confused about or want to explore deeper. Prepare short answers and have backup data on hand. If you don’t know something, it’s okay to say you’ll get back to them—but do follow up.
Practice the Delivery, Not Just the Slides
We’ve all seen someone freeze up or lose their place in a high-pressure meeting. It happens.
Try rehearsing out loud—ideally with someone else in the room. This will expose the places you ramble, or lose your point, or stumble over a detail.
The goal is not to sound robotic. Instead, you want to come across as confident and comfortable with the story you’re telling. If you sound casual and sure of yourself, executives tend to trust you more.
Get Feedback—Then Improve for Next Time
after the session, reach out to someone who was in the room. Ask what was clear and what was confusing. Did they want more explanation on a number? Did you spend too long on details they didn’t need?
Collect these notes—no matter how tiny they seem. Next time, use what you learned to tweak the structure, visuals, or delivery. Even seasoned presenters get better each round.
If you’re building presentations regularly, a site like Page Arnold has tips and resources on making business data clearer, which can be handy.
Wrapping Up: The Everyday Reality of Presenting to Execs
The more you present to executives, the clearer it becomes: they want quick, relevant insights they can act on. They don’t need to see everything you worked on for weeks—just the pieces that shape decisions.
Good presentations come down to a few basics. Understand their needs. Get to the point. Use visuals that make sense. Practice enough to explain things simply, even when the questions start flying.
The first few times might feel awkward, but it gets easier as you adjust your style. And if you keep the feedback loop going, you’ll figure out what works for your company’s leadership—and what just wastes everyone’s time.
That’s really what’s behind all the advice: make the data work for the people who need to use it, every day.