3 Ways to Have a Real Conversation with your Audience

How can you converse with your audience? In the same way that you have a good conversation with a friend or colleague.

Use these three techniques to converse with your audience:

1. Look at an individual while you are speaking. Move your eyes about the audience so that you speak directly to every individual during your presentation.

2. Talk in a converstional style. Vary your pitch, pace and tone just as you would while conversing with a friend. Reading your speech will kill the conversational tone.

3. Tell short stories and anecdotes - just as you would in a normal conversation.

Do these three things and your presentations will feel fuller, more connected and more convincing.

Stop lecturing. Start having more conversations with your listeners.

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Presentation Tip: It's not About You

Focus your presentation on your audience. What do you want them to do?

Presentation Tip 01 it’s not about you from George Torok

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Superior Presentations 68: Move From Left to Right

Move from Left to Right

 

English and other languages originating from Europe read left to right. That means that these people naturally move their eyes from left to right when reading.

They prefer to absorb information in the same manner.

When you speak before an audience you can use that principle to enhance the acceptance of your message.

First you must realize that it's the audience's perception of left to right and not your on-stage left to right that counts. It's not what you thought you said. It's what they thought you said that is important.

How can you use this principle in your presentation?

Timeline

If you asked these people to draw a timeline of a project they will likely draw it from left to right. The left represents the beginning while the right represents the end or the future.

Here's how you can move while talking about your project or proposal. Talk about the past while standing on the extreme left side of the stage (your right). Stand in the middle of the stage when talking about the present and move to the far right of the audience when describing the desired future.

Instead of walking around you could also simply gesture to your right when talking about the past and to your left when talking about the future. Another variation is to make a quarter turn to your right to talk about the past and a quarter turn to your left to talk about the future or goal.

Objections and Obstacles

You can use the same methods to place problems in the past and solutions in the future. When you acknowledge an obstacle or an audience member raises an objection place them in the past - your right.

Place the strengths, benefits and desired outcomes of your idea or product in the future - your left.

Practice

You are reversing your movements for the benefit of your audience. This is not natural so you will need to rehearse these movements. The benefit to you is that they will be more willing to accept your ideas when they can SEE the progress.

Remember to also look in the direction in which you are gesturing to complete the picture. If you do this well the eyes of the audience will move in the direction you intended. That leverages the internal programming of the brain associated with left to right eye movement.

 

Of course when you present in the Middle East you will need to reverse everything above because they read from right to left.

George Torok

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And now a few words from our sponsors

How to get more visitors to your tradeshow booth

Each conference sponsor had a booth in the tradeshow room and they were invited to the main stage to say a few words. This was an important opportunity that many of the sponsors failed to recognize.

Several sponsors took their turn at the microphone and bored us. They were clearly unprepared. Then one sponsor caught my attention with his first words. I listened to every word he said. As I looked around, it seemed that he had caught the attention of the entire audience.

What did this sponsor do differently that made him stand out?

First read what he said and did and then study my analysis of why it worked so well. I’ve segmented his presentation into four parts and added my headings to illustrate the flow of his presentation.

Opening

He grabbed our attention with his first words, “Have you tried to talk with your kids lately?” Then a short pause. “Some days you might not know whether to reach them via SMS, Facebook or Twitter.”

Benefits

Then he explained what his company did to help organizations better manage communication with their customers especially with the demands of social media.

Introduction

Then he stated his company name and invited people to visit his booth to discuss the issues and their options.

Close

Then he stated his first name and again invited people to see him at his (company name) booth.

Now let’s look into the mechanics of what he did.

Opening

Most speakers make the mistake of stating their name first. That’s a bad way to start for three reasons:

1 The audience usually doesn’t hear the name because they aren’t fully listening yet.

2 If the name is unusual or not enunciated clearly the audiences doesn’t understand it and thus they don’t remember it. Plus they might be annoyed.

3 The speaker’s name isn’t of interest to the audience so the first words don’t grab the attention of the audience and that’s a bad way to start a presentation. Starting with your name also suggests that you are going to talk about you instead of the audience or their interests.

Notice how this sponsor grabbed immediate attention and interest with his first words. Why? Because he was talking about the audience and something personal that they related to. He didn’t start by talking about himself.

Benefits

After he knew he had the attention of the audience he explained what his company did and how it could help the listener. He made it relevant.

Introduction

At this point the audience might be interested to know his companies name. Remember that the purpose of this self introduction is to draw visitors to your tradeshow booth. They don’t need the person’s name. They need to know the company name on the booth. And you need to invite them to visit for a reason. State a clear call to action.

Close

Now you can state your first name because the audience is ready to hear it.. Don’t make it difficult for people by giving too much information too early in the conversation. The real conversation will begin when they stop by your booth. At this time simply state your first name to appear approachable. They don’t need to hear or know your last name. Restate the call to action and end by reinforcing your company name.

To finish nicely, end with a smile and a friendly wave.

Notice the four important stages of your short presentation. If you think that’s too much work just consider how much money you or your company invested as a sponsor.

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How to Make Stats More Interesting

Watch this video to discover:
1. how to take stats from boring to brilliant and
2. how to make charts on your slides more entertaining and instructive.

This video is from a TED talk by Hans Rosling. When I first heard the topic and saw the typical chart displayed I expected a boring lecture. I was delightfully suprised. I enjoyed the presentation and understand his message.

If you thought that a presentation packed with statistics has to be boring, watch this and enjoy.






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Superior Presentations 67: Don't Say Sorry

Don't say sorry.

It happens. You're speaking to a group and you stumble on a word or make a mistake. The temptation is to immediately blurt out "Sorry" or some variation of that word.

Don't say sorry when you make mistakes during your presentation. Instead, collect your thoughts as quickly as you can, restate the point correctly and move on.

There are three reasons why you shouldn't say sorry:

1. Often many of the people in your audience weren't listening closely and they missed the error. But when you say "sorry" you unnecessarily draw attention to the fact that you made a mistake.

2. When you say sorry your brain tends to fixate on the mistakes instead of your message. That might cause you to become anxious and feel more nervous about your presentation. Instead focus on your destination, not the bumps along the way.

3. The more times that your audience hears the word "sorry" the less they will feel confident about your credibility. This means that every time you say sorry you are working against yourself. Just imagine if the pilot of your plane announced every course correction with a "sorry". How might you feel about the pilot and the flight?

Here are some of the transition phrases that you might use:

• Let me correct that.
• What I really mean is...
• Correction...
• That didn't come out right.
• Let's try again.

Or you could simply pause, smile, and then start that last sentence again.

What if you didn't notice a factual error when you stated it but recalled it later? You could say, "I want to correct something that I misstated earlier."

Naturally there are exceptions to this rule. If you did or said something that could have offended the audience then you would issue a sincere apology.

My youngest daughter used to say "oopsies" when she made a mistake. It sounded cute. When you are the speaker you don't look or sound cute when you litter your presentation with "oopsies".

Your audience will ignore or pardon simple presentation errors. The key for you is to look and sound competent so you can deliver your intended message.


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How to start your sales presentation

What’s the best way to start a sales presentation?

Start with a success story about how you helped one of your clients.

The big mistake is to start with a story about your company, founder and vision statement. Your prospects don’t care about any part of that. Instead, start with a story about how you helped a client achieve success.

Describe the initial condition or prospect’s challenge. Tell how you helped them and then talk about the results.

Example:

One of my clients was on a losing streak. He was making presentations to clients and getting shut out. After I coached the CEO on his presentation he closed the next deal which meant a $10M deal in his pocket.

I tell this success story in many of my presentation skills coaching presentations. It’s a powerful start.

  
More questions and answers about public speaking at Questions About Public Speaking



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Corruption Implied by These Words

"Thank you doesn't butter my bread."

“What are we going to do?”

"The question is difficult to solve, but possible"

"You need a weightier argument,"

"We'll sort it out."

These phrases are part of a list that the Kremlin has instructed Russian government officials to avoid using. The reason is that these phrases are a few of the ones that have been used to extract bribes and gifts. (As reported in the Guardian)

The Kremlin is hoping to reduce the amount of corruption within the Russian government. Cutting down on corruption seems like a good idea. By identifying key words that have been traditionally associated with corruption the Russians are shining a light on this problem.  By banning the use of these phrases they are stigmatizing the words and hence the practice.

Those seem like a good start because that’s exactly how society tackles problems with diversity and other social issues.

Language and the choice of analogies shape our thinking – particularly regarding immoral, illegal or questionable activities.

Business announces “down sizing” instead of firings.

The mafia called killers “button men”.

The military reports dead civilians as “collateral damage.”

We’ve heard a lot of vague terms, deceptive analogies and implied messages. If you use any of these techniques your audience might start squirming and wondering “where are the skeletons?”

Yes, that’s another analogy. It means, “What are you hiding?”

If you want your audience to trust you – speak clearly. Avoid jargon and innuendo – unless you’re looking for a bribe. "Dogovorimsya!"*

* That’s Russian for “We’ll sort it out.”

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Superior Presentations 66: Start Your Presentation on Time

From George Torok

Start Your Presentation on Time

Respect your audience and especially their time. Develop the habit of starting your meetings and presentations on time. Do that and people will notice. They'll be more willing to attend your meetings and they will make the effort to arrive on time.

They will also be in a better mind set when they notice you starting on time. If you want to annoy your audience, start late.

Announce the times (start and end) and provide directions

If it's your meeting, clearly advise all invitees exactly what time it will start. One trick to convince people of your intentions is to state an odd time - e.g. 9:03, 1:07, 3:36.

If your presentation is the main feature and there are some things happening before you go then it's a good idea to state that upfront. Imagine attending a concert only to be forced to endure unannounced warm-up bands for hours before the main act (a la Justin Bieber).

If your meeting is in a conference center or hotel, ensure that there are clear directions from the main entrances to your meeting room. Check with the venue staff.

Plan to arrive early

You get there early. If you haven't been to this location before be sure to double check the directions and the map. Allow for travel delays and the potential for bad directions.

If you are travelling out of town to deliver an important presentation, you might want to arrive the night before.

Check the room and test your equipment

Visit the presentation room before anyone arrives. Get into the room and get comfortable with it. This is easy to do if you arrived the day before your presentation. At least plan to arrive one hour before the program begins so you can get into the empty room.

Start even if...

At the promised time start your presentation. If you've checked the room and your equipment then you are ready to go. If you've clearly communicated the start time and directions then most of your audience will be ready. Someone will always be late.

To help get people into their seats and ready as the time to start draws near, announce "Five minutes to start", "Two minutes to start" and even "We're starting in 30 seconds."

If your equipment fails just before your presentation - start! Start on time and that means you need to have a Plan B opening while the crew is fixing the equipment problem. Don't make the audience suffer because of your equipment failure or lack of preparation.

Don't do what one Vice president of an IT company did at a presentation. Clearly she hadn't checked her equipment. When she was introduced she walked up to the stage with her laptop and handed it to the crew who were seeing her for the first time. They scrambled to hook up her laptop and ran into problems. Meanwhile the audience was waiting.

She watched the crew for a couple of minutes, remembered the audience and turned to us with an exasperated tone, "Talk amongst yourselves."

She clearly didn't demonstrate respect for the audience or the crew who got her equipment working in a few minutes.

Respect your audience and start your presentation on time.

 

George Torok

PS: Tell me how this tip helps you.

 
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