How to establish rapport with your audience

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Sort and Prioritize for your Audience

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More important than the facts...

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Reading your speech is boring...

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Be clear about the purpose of your presentation....

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11 Killer Tips to Stop Saying UM Forever

Practical tips to minimize your use of "UM" and other filler words in your presentations and conversations - courtesy of London Speaker Bureau


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Build Rapport Rapidly

If you want to persuade people you first need to establish rapport. The sooner you build rapport with your audience, the sooner they will listen to your ideas. The stronger the rapport, the more they will like and trust you.

What is Rapport?

You have rapport with a person when you both see things the same way, which means they believe that you understand them and see things their way.

If you want to persuade them to see things your way, you must first demonstrate that you see things from their position. Then you might be able to shift their perspective.

How can you build rapport rapidly?

Recognize their Perspective

Point out the challenges and frustrations that they face. You might need to do some research to better understand your audience. The fastest way to connect with your audience is to acknowledge their pain. Everyone wants appreciation of their hardships.

Are they sales people who face cold calling, rising quotas and longer sales cycles? Are they professionals striving for more respect from other colleagues? Are they IT managers juggling impossible demands from customer service and operations?

After you have acknowledged their pain, they might accept that you are in their camp. The next thing to do is to remind them of their strengths, valuable contributions and importance to their organizations. Shift the outlook from negative to positive.

These things will establish a growing rapport with your audience. You’ll notice heads nodding in agreement and a keener interest in your message.

Relate Common Experience

Relate an example about how you endured a similar situation. This goes beyond understanding. There is nothing like common experience (especially pain) to bring people together. This principle is captured in the old expression, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

Unmask the Elephant in the Room

State the obvious truth that everyone knows but avoids saying out loud. Similarly, you might ask the unasked questions that prey on everyone’s mind. By giving voice to their repressed thoughts and feelings you become accepted as their friend and perceived as a leader.
Build rapport with your audience by recognizing the view from their perspective to show that you are with them. Then they will be more willing to listen to you and accept your message.


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Slow down when you speak

Recently, I heard a few speakers who spoke too fast. How fast?  So fast, that I stopped listening.  When I mentioned this to two of them, they both responded with, “I know, I’ve been told that before.”

They knew they spoke too fast - yet they continued to annoy listeners with their rapid-fire pace. Perhaps they felt unable to control it or that it wasn’t worth the effort.

Speaking too quickly can sabotage your presentation.

Why should you speak slower?

•     You will sound more confident
•     You can more clearly enunciate your words
•     When you speak slower we can better hear your words
•     Your voice will be deeper in tone and thus more pleasant to listen to
•     You can breathe more regularly and thus feel less exhausted
•     You have more time to think about your words and speak more intelligently
•     The audience will have time to absorb and think about your message

How can you slow down? Here are three methods.

Insert more pauses

The pauses between your sprints will give us that thinking time and a short respite. You might still talk rapidly but the pauses will offer the necessary contrast between your short sprints.

You can use this technique immediately with little effort.

Say less

Strip out the un-necessary words. When people speak fast they tend to use more filler words and cliché phrases. Your important message could easily be lost in the noise. Some people speak rapidly because they are attempting to say too much.

This technique requires you to think and prepare before you speak. You’ll sound more intelligent and confident when you deliver a powerful message with less words.

Rehearse speaking slower

Read a section of text out loud while timing yourself. Note the time. Then repeat the exercise talking as fast as you can. Note the time again. Do it one more time but before you start take a couple of slow deep breaths. Envision a person across from you listening intently to your words. Then read out loud again in a more relaxed manner. Compare the times.

Repeat this exercise over a week. Notice how easier it becomes to speak slower. You can slow down if you rehearse.

This third approach takes more effort but rewards you with the long term benefit. Recognize that you can control your speaking pace and become comfortable with setting the optimum speed.

Start with any one of the above methods to slow down when you speak. Eventually try all three.

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Four ways to reach the visual learners in your audience

The majority of people are visual learners. This means they need to see it before they understand your message and believe it.

In my experience most people need to see some part of your message to make it stick. The question is “How do they see it?”

Three important clarifications

1. Visual means the images that we process in the visual cortex of the brain. 
2. The eye is only one source of visual input. 
3. Not everything seen by the eye is processed in the visual cortex.

Here are four ways to convey visual messages to your audience.

Display images on the screen
Use PowerPoint or other software to display photos, drawings, diagrams, charts, sketches, cartoons or video.  These are images.

Warning!
The most common mistake is putting text on a slide and believing that is visual. Text on a slide is not a visual. It’s simply text which is processed in a different part of the brain (Wernicke’s Area).

Some speakers don’t really care if it’s visual. They blatantly use text slides as their notes – not to help the audience.

Tell Colorful Stories
I believe that this is the most effective way to convey visuals. Tell your stories effectively and you plant strong visuals into the minds of your audience. Test the effectiveness of your stories by asking people what they saw. Tell colorful stories and people will always see your message.

Your Body Language
The most important visual in the room could be you. Your dress, posture, movement and gestures transmit powerful messages about your passion, credibility and confidence. Those feelings are the foundations of persuading your audience to act. Your audience will often remember an image of you that either supports your message or destroys it.

Use Props
Steve Jobs pulled the MacBook Air out of an envelope for the visual imagery. Magicians use props to misdirect attention. You might use a model to illustrate your project. I admired a presenter as he bounced a basketball to transition to his talk about computer animation.  An abstract concept can often be clarified with the help of a simple prop.

When preparing your presentation, plan how you will visually convey the most important message.

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SP Tip # 79: Distance yourself from a bad idea...

Distance Yourself From a Bad Idea

Bad ideas in the past

There might be times when you want to persuade your audience to change. You can use logic, stories, charts and success stories to move them. Here is a subtle technique that can help you.
You physically position the good from the bad.

How do you do that?
You move from left to right. Be sure to move left to right as your audience sees it - not your left to right. You will have to rehearse this to get it right.

Good ideas in the future

Why does this work?
European based languages, including English, reads from left to right. Therefore we have been conditioned since we first started to read to assume that progress moves from left to right.
We read text from left to right to discover more, to learn what happens next and are rewarded with the answers to our questions. Hence the simple act of moving our eyes from left to right tends to build our expectations of progress and good things.

When presenting, you can use this to your advantage by placing bad ideas, the status quo or the past on your right side. That is the left side for the audience.

You can also do this by holding your right hand out or taking a step to your right when you talk about the bad ideas. That visually places the bad idea in the past to acknowledge it while guiding the audience to move on to better things.

Then you show progress by taking a step to your left or holding out your left hand when you talk about good ideas. You place the idea you are selling in the future to encourage acceptance.
You can use this technique to place objections, past failings or criticism's on your right (the audience's left) and hence in the position of bad ideas.

You can use this technique to position a question or idea as bad or good just by your physical movement without saying a word.

Of course, when you speak in the Middle East you need to remember that they read from right to left.

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SP Tip # 78: Four Ways to Transform Your Presentation into a Conversation

 

Four Ways to Transform your Presentation into a Conversation

 



Which feels more inviting to you - "Let's talk" or "I'm going to deliver a speech"?

Most of us don't want to hear another lecture or a pitch. But we are more inclined to participate in a conversation.

Deliver your presentation like a conversation and your audience will feel more engaged and less like prisoners. Hence they will trust you more and listen better. Therefore they are more likely to remember and act on your message.

What are the critical elements of a good conversation that you can use in your presentation?

Language
Imagine that you are talking to one person. Use the word "you" which is both singular and plural. Use "you" more often than the word "I" so your message is about them not you.
Avoid these phrases: "Welcome everyone", "Does anybody have a question?" and "You guys". Those mob words distance you from the audience by placing a barrier between you and them. You wouldn't use those words when talking to one person. Talk to one person.

Eye contact
Look at a single person when you speak. Move your glance from one person to another so that you are almost always talking to a single individual. You might need to glance at your notes, but don't waste time staring at the back wall, the floor or your slides. Talk to people. That individual eye contact will make them feel like they are part of an intimate conversation.

Questions
A good conversation includes good questions. Ask good questions of your audience and listen to their answers. Don't annoy them by repeatedly asking them to raise their hands. Invite questions from the audience and address their concerns. Be sure to pose rhetorical questions for the concerns that they might have - then answer them. That feels conversational.

Pause
A good conversation contains moments of silence. Allow the audience to absorb your message in silence. That demonstrates respect and allows them to internalize your message. Sprinkle pauses throughout your presentation.

The best experience for people in your audience is when they felt "the speaker was talking directly to me".

Don't deliver a lecture - engage in a conversation with each individual in your audience.

George Torok

 ps: 

Call to arrange for me to speak at your conference, corporate event or sales meeting.  
905-335-1997 

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Superior Presentations Tip #77: What’s the purpose of your presentation?

What’s the purpose of your presentation?

Presentations fail when the presenter doesn’t understand the real purpose.

Presenters have told me that their plan was to speak for 30 minutes, cover all the material or represent their company. Some confessed that their goal was to deliver their message, prove their point or receive a standing ovation. Executives and managers said that they needed to report the latest numbers, update the board or bring everyone up to date.

Each of those is a poor description of the presentation purpose. Why? Because those are speaker focused. And if you define success based on the speaker and not the audience the presentation will almost always fail.

You must define your presentation success in terms of the audience. The only valid reason to speak – especially in business – is to move your audience. Every presentation is a step in advancing the group.

Here is the critical question you must ask yourself before every presentation:

What do you want people to think, feel or do after your presentation?

Design, deliver and evaluate your presentation on the answer to that question.

The real purpose of speaking is to move people. If you moved them in the direction you intended your presentation was successful. The level of success is determined by how many moved and how far they moved.

If all you did was cover the material, the presentation was for you and not the audience. That makes it a failure.

Perhaps you want:

Front line staff to adopt a different approach with customers

Association members to volunteer for committees
Investors to contribute more funds
Shoppers to buy
Voters to support you

Be clear about your purpose and be able to state it clearly so everything you do contributes to your success.

The purpose of speaking is not to speak; it’s to move people.

Design, deliver and measure the success of your presentation based on what you want people to think, feel or do.

 

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Superior Presentations 75: The Most Striking PowerPoint Slide to Include in Every PowerPoint Presentation

If you use PowerPoint slides to accompany your presentation, you might like this powerful technique to distinguish your talk from the ocean of PowerPoint presentations. You don’t need to be a graphic designer to create this slide.

This is such a simple technique that many presenters overlook it. That’s one reason you will stand out when you use it.

Use a blank (blacked-out) slide at critical moments.

Here are three ways to use this technique

Start your presentation with a blank screen

Set up your computer and projector before your presentation.  Check your slides for size and focus on the screen then blank the screen. 

You start your presentation standing in the middle of the stage talking to your audience. That is most powerful position and often that is dominated by the screen which forces the presenter off to the side in a less significant position.

With the screen blank there is no distracting slide stealing attention from your opening words.

This means that the first impression that people have of your presentation is you. This gives you the opportunity to connect directly with your audience. This first impression helps to establish rapport and trust. A title slide will never do that.

After your opening you move to the side and click for your first real slide.

Blank the screen during your presentation

During your presentation there will be points when you want to reconnect with your audience by removing the distraction of the slides. You simply blank the screen and move to center stage to talk with them. This will often feel like an intimate moment to your audience.

Do this when reinforcing an important point or answering questions. This technique allows the audience to focus on you and your words.

End with a blank screen

The close to your presentation is important because it’s the last thing they hear. It’s your opportunity to reinforce your key message. It’s your last chance to build on the human connection. The best way to do that is with you speaking to them from center stage while delivering your closing words.

Before you close tell the audience that you are wrapping up with your closing message. Blank the screen and move to center stage. Then deliver your close.

How do you blank the screen?

Here are three ways

Click the “B” key. This is a PowerPoint shortcut. It’s a toggle so you simply hit it again to display the slide.

Use the blackout button on the remote. Most remotes have this feature. Hit it again to display the slide.

Insert a black slide in your PowerPoint presentation so it becomes part of your slide sequence. If you provide copies of your slides to the audience you probably want to exclude this slide from those handouts.

The words that you deliver with the screen blank will tend to have more credibility because you will appear to be more intimate with your audience.

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Superior Presentations 74: Tell Colorful Stories Because...

Tell Colorful Stories

Stories in your presentation can paint pictures in the minds of your audience and connect emotionally.

Notice the visuals in this story and feel the emotional connection.

At the age of seven my son, Chris, started playing mini soccer. The field was tiny to accommodate the youngsters' short legs, stamina and attention span. The goal posts were fluorescent orange pylons set about five feet apart. The kids hadn't grasped teamwork so they clustered around the ball like bees around a flower as the ball rolled aimlessly around the field. You almost never saw the ball but you knew it was inside that moving cluster.

At one game you can imagine my pride and excitement when I noticed my son, Chris standing downfield in position to shoot on goal. Incredibly the ball escaped the cluster and rolled lazily towards Chris. I excitedly jumped up and down on the sidelines yelling, "Chris, get the ball! Chris, shoot the ball!" He moved awkwardly towards the ball then stopped. He ignored the ball and my sideline antics. Instead he stared up in the sky in a catatonic state. Incredibly, every player on the field also stopped running and did the same. My curiosity overcame my frustration and I looked up along with every parent on the sidelines. I half expected to see the alien mother ship hovering over the field. Instead there was the most perfect rainbow I've ever seen. It curved from one horizon to the other. The bands were vibrant in all their colors from red through to violet.

The referee knew when to admit a losing battle. He blew his whistle and announced, "Time out. One minute to look at the rainbow." A minute later he blew the whistle again and called, "Play on." The game resumed. I don't remember if Chris scored a goal that game or who won. That seemed unimportant after the rainbow.

What did you see while reading that story? Notice how the words in the story can plant vivid images in your mind.

Did you see the rainbow?

Did you see me jumping on the sidelines?

Did you see the cluster of children following the soccer ball?

You don't need slides to convey images. You can do it with colorful stories.

What did you feel?

Did you feel both my excitement and frustration as a parent?

Did you feel the beauty of the rainbow moment?

Did you feel as if you were there?

An effective story conveys images and emotion. Those are the two most important senses to reach your audience. They also make it easier for people to remember your message.

Inject more color and emotion to your stories.

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Superior Presentations 71: How many times should you repeat...

 Repeat your key message

If you want your audience to remember your key message, you’ll need to say it at least three times during your presentation.

Your key message is likely summed up in about three to ten words. Average speaking speed is between 110 and 150 words per minute. That means in a five minute presentation about 500 to 700 words were spoken but only ten were critical. Your key message could be lost in that sea of words.

If you only stated your key message once and all your words were equally weighed, there would be at best a 2 percent chance of anyone remembering your key message.

Yes, there are other techniques to emphasize your key message which you should also use. Repeating your key words is the simplest way.

By repeating your key message at least once, you’ve doubled the emphasis and increased the memorability. State your key message three to five times and people will tend to hear it and remember it.

Most of us need to hear a phrase, message or name several times before we remember it. Perhaps you’ve met someone at a meeting and then forgotten their name before the end of the meeting. When you want to commit important information to memory you should probably repeat it several times.

Marketers know this principle. That’s why a 30-second radio or TV ad will mention the product or company name a few times. That’s also why one promotion never seems enough.

You probably remember the key phrase from the famous speech delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. – I have a dream. It would be difficult to forget because he stated it 11 times during that speech.

Here are three ways for you to use this technique:

Repeat your key message like a refrain, as in “I have a dream”.

Capture the key message within a rhetorical question and then answer using the key words, e.g. why is it important to exercise? It’s important to exercise because…

Use slight variations in the wording so the phrase doesn’t appear overdone. e.g. In this tip,  message, words and phrase have been interchanged.

If there’s one thing for you to remember from this tip, it is: “repeat your key message”.

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Superior Presentations 69: Don't Speak at the Audience, Instead...

Speak to One Person at a Time

 

 

If you want to connect with the people in your audience you need to talk to each person one at a time. Each person needs to feel, "The speaker is talking to me!"

How do you accomplish that?

With direct eye contact and the right language.

 

Eye Contact

 

Imagine having lunch with a colleague who is sitting directly across the table from you. Throughout the 45-minute lunch that person never looks at you - not while you are talking or even while that person is talking to you. That person looks at the meal, out the window or at other people in the restaurant. Apparently you don't deserve even a sideways glance. How would you feel?

Now imagine how your audience might feel if you don't look at them. It's not enough to look at them as a group. Instead you must look a person directly in the eyes. As you deliver your presentation don't deliver a speech to the crowd. Instead make it appear that you are having many one-on-one conversations. Deliver a sentence or phrase to one person then connect with another, then another - until each person in the room feels that "The speaker spoke to me." You can enhance the feeling by occasionally smiling at an individual.

You might need to check your notes or your slides occasionally but make it a point to be looking at an individual 80% of the time.

 

Conversational Language

Use language that talks to an individual.

The most important word that helps you establish the one-to-one connection is the word "you". Say, "I'm happy to see you today." "Here's how this will help you." "You might be wondering how this works."

Don't say "you guys". That's trailer trash talk. It's okay when chatting with buddies at the bar but not for a business presentation. In addition it's treating your audience as a mob not individuals.

Construct and deliver every sentence as if you were talking to one person. When you look at a person, imagine that person is the only one you are talking to.

Avoid using these mob words: anybody, everybody and crowd.

How is everybody today? That's bad for two reasons. It lumps the people into a mob. It's also a dumb question because no one can speak for everybody.

Does anybody have a question? That's similar to everybody. It's a mob word and it's a dumb question.

What might you say instead? How are you today? Do you have a question?

Notice the difference.

Don't deliver a speech at your audience. Instead connect with each person by engaging in many one-on-one conversations.

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Guidelines for Presentation Success - Free eBook

When preparing your presentation, consider the things that might go wrong and plan how you might handle them.

Take the precautions to minimize the possibility or impact of things going wrong.

Accept the reality that perfection is not the goal. Being effective with your presentation is the goal.

When things go wrong, appear calm and stay in control of the show. Remind yourself to pause, breathe deeply and smile. This is likely the most important point you can learn from this report.

Never lose self-control. There are many things you can’t control but your behaviour is the one thing for which you are totally accountable. Don’t appear to be angry, arrogant or frustrated. And don’t pretend to be blameless. You can’t control what happens to you but you can control how you deal with it.

When things go wrong, don’t blame somebody else. The audience is looking at you. They are judging your reaction – not the circumstances.

As the speaker you always have the option to end early or take a break.

Sometimes a disaster in your presentation can be a gift because your audience will suddenly perk up and remember how you managed the disaster. Handle it well and you might win their respect and more.

If your audience likes you, they are more forgiving than you think. Establish rapport with your audience early so they are onside when disaster strikes.

Focus your efforts on the portion of your audience that you have a realistic chance of reaching.

Get your free copy of the eBook How to Turn Presentation Disasters into Presentation Success.

Murphy doesn’t hate you. He simply encourages chaos

to watch you squirm.

Torok’s First Presentation Corollary to Murphy’s Law

Click here to download your free copy of
How to Manage Things That go Wrong in Your Presentation


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Presentation Details: Remove the Distractions

What does the audience see when they look at the front of the room? Look at the mess that this presenter ignored.  I wonder how many people in the audience missed something important because they were distracted by the mess on the table.

Presentation Distraction: Pay Attention to Details from George Torok

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Don’t End Your Presentation on “Thank You”

There’s nothing wrong about saying “thank you” to your audience. But don’t end on those words because “thank you” is a weak close.

The purpose of the close to your presentation is to reinforce the key message. People tend to remember the last thing they heard. You might believe that they heard your entire presentation word-for-word – but they didn’t. They also forget most of what they heard. There is a good chance that they’ll remember your close if you deliver it well.

Think of your presentation as real estate. To succeed in real estate, you will need to remember the rule “Location, location, location”.

When delivering a presentation, the prime real estate is in your opening and in your close.

If you set up your close well, most people will listen better because it’s almost over. They might feel obligated to at least listen to your close.

Just imagine that your close is the only thing that your audience heard. What important words do you want them to remember? It’s probably not “thank you”.

You probably want them to act. End strong and use words that motivate them in the direction that you want.

Vote for me

Invest in your future

Join the team

Many speakers end on “thank you” because they didn’t prepare a strong close and “thank you” is the only way they can convey to the audience that they have finished.

If you believe that ending on “thank you” is polite, consider this. Your speech or presentation has value for your audience – otherwise there’s no point in speaking. You give the gift of your value to the audience. If they are polite, they will thank you with their applause. Then you can say “thank you” for the gift of their applause.

You don’t need to thank them for listening because they will only listen if it’s in their best interest. They will never listen as a favor to you.

Consider this. The silliest way to end this post is with a “thank you for reading”. I won’t do that, and now you know why.

Close your presentation strong.

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Superior Presentations 64: How to Handle Questions about Your Flaws

Handle Questions About Your Flaws

Let's admit the truth. None of us is perfect. There are no perfect products. No system is perfect. No organization is perfect.

So don't pretend to be perfect or try to project an image of perfection to your clients, colleagues or the public. I didn't say that you need to reveal all your flaws. Just don't defend when someone points out a mistake. Admit the error and move on.

If you are not perfect this means that you made some mistakes along the way. And someone will point out that past failure, complain about poor performance or challenge you on a flaw.

You might have heard the analogy that an airplane is off course 80% of the time. The pilot or autopilot needs to keep adjusting to get to the destination. As long as you arrive safely at the destination you probably don't care how many course corrections were made.

Consider these three scenarios:

You are speaking to a group of clients to launch a new product or promote a program. A person in the audience loudly grumbles about defective product in the last shipment.

You are training staff how to use a new technology. An individual points out that this is inferior technology and your competition has already upgraded.

You are reporting the status of a project to a management committee. An astute manager reminds the group about past failed promises and questions your capability as a project leader.

How can you handle these unfriendly questions?

The first thing is to focus on your destination not on the errors or course corrections.

If you focus on the flaw, the danger is that you might trap your thinking into defending the flaw. If you do that, you will appear guilty.

Instead, break the question or challenge into at least two parts.

Step One - Admit the truth

Say, "I hear two questions there. The first question is 'Is our system perfect? The answer is no. We have experienced an X percent defect rate. That is better than the industry average but we still want to improve. That's why we invested Y dollars in process improvement over the past five years."

Acknowledge the flaw and explain what you are doing to address it.

Step two - Accentuate the positive

The second question I heard is "Does our warranty program continue to be the best in the industry? The answer is yes. If you haven't yet reported this issue then I'm happy to help you resolve this setback."

Sometimes there might be a third question.

The third question is "How can you help our team successfully complete this project?" Then you tell the committee exactly what you want from them.

Most reasonable people simply expect you to acknowledge the truth and tell them what you are doing to fix things.

George Torok

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