12 Suicide Pills for the Business Presenter

How to deliver a career-ending presentation today


Do you hate your job and want to be fired tomorrow? One sure way to move to the front of the line for dismissal is to deliver a suicide-pill presentation. Use any one or more of the following methods to deliver your career ending presentation. Use these presentation tips today and say hello to unemployment tomorrow.


1. Don’t prepare. Forget about research, rehearsing and logistics planning. Preparation takes thought, effort and time. Why invest in those efforts if you think you can wing it. Think of all the leaders in any field who winged it. Yeah, I can’t think of any either.


2. Start your presentation by whining about how little time you had to prepare. Your presentation was scheduled for next week but today’s speaker got sick and you have to fill in – so please bear with me. Or whine about the cold coffee, the weather or room temperature. Mimic Homer Simpson – blame others for your presentation and performance shortcomings.


3. Read your presentation. That’s right. Stand up there and read your presentation word for word from a printed text. That’s boring for your audience and will demonstrate a complete lack of knowledge and conviction. You can always cry to your spouse that at least you got all the words right.


4. Write your entire speech in PowerPoint. Write your speech in PowerPoint because it is easy to do. It’s not effective – but it’s easy. Show how lazy and inconsiderate you are. Then read your presentation from the words on the PowerPoint slides. Yes – show people how stupid you believe them to be. They can’t read. That’s why you will read every slide to them. Even if you only read every second slide that demonstrates that you think that they are half stupid. Read every third slide to demonstrate that they are 1/3 stupid.


5. Be very casual in your appearance. Deliver your presentation while seated, leaning on your chair or sitting on the boardroom table. Why stand when you can sit or loaf? Dress down so you are the worst dressed in the room. Tattoos and piercings are really cool so flaunt them. Do your Al Bundy impression – thumbs in pants stance.


6. Play it safe. Give tons of statistics and data. Pretend you are an encyclopedia. In fact read information from books and technical reports. What could be wrong with that? Don’t give your opinion, recommendation or relevance of the information. Just dump information. Yep – that’s boring.


7. Spew techno babble, clichés and vague wording. Think outside of the box, embrace the paradigm shift and raise the bar. Empower staff. Jump the shark – you’re done like dinner.


8. Don’t look at your audience. Refuse to make eye contact. Treat them as the enemy. Instead look at your notes, the screen, the floor, the wall or the boardroom table. Look anywhere but into the eyes of your audience. Don’t let them see the whites of your eyes. They might recognize your fear.


9. Tell jokes. It works for the late night TV talk show hosts. So deliver your top ten list, a sexist joke, or racial insult. When talking to a group of lawyers be sure to pull out all your lawyer jokes. Show them your best Don Rickles or Red Fox imitation.


10. Run overtime. You were given 20 minutes to speak. Why not give them more by speaking for 48 minutes. Surely that’s what people want? Disrespect other peoples’ time – that’s a good career ending strategy.


11. Don’t conclude. Finish without telling people what you want them to do. Make them guess. After all they have all the time in the world to figure out what the heck you were trying to say. Why make it easy on them?


12. Insult and embarrass your audience – especially your boss’s boss. Perform your impressions of your coworkers. Make fun of their appearance, culture or vision. Demonstrate your sarcastic wit. Preface your comments with, “obviously” and “you probably never heard of this”.

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©George Torok is the Speech Coach for Executives. He helps business presenters deliver million dollar presentations. Read daily Presentation Tips at http://Twitter.com/PresentationsGo Visit http://www.SpeechCoachforExecutives.com for more free career saving tips. Arrange for presentation training and private speech coaching by calling 905-335-1997



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Get out of PowerPoint Hell Help

PowerPoint is not the problem. People using PowerPoint badly is the problem.

The answer is for business presenters to learn how to use PowerPoint smarter.

Here's your opportunity. PowerPoint expert, Dave Paradi is running a series of affordable seminars to show you how to deliver painless PowerPoint presentations.

Miss it and you'll be sorry - and so will your audience.

Watch this video to learn more about the seminars. Dave looks kinda serious in this video. Well, he is a serious guy - especially when it comes to helping people improve their PowerPoint. Dave will give you lots of practical tips on how you can improve your PowerPoint presentations.





George Torok

Presentation Skills Coaching

Presentation Skills Training


Executive Speech Coach, Business presentation tips from George Torok, the Speech Coach for Executives.

Sell more with superior presentation skills

That’s the best reason to develop your presentation skills. To sell more.

If your product sold itself – who would need you?

Steve Jobs is selling innovative products like the iPod, iPhone and Mac Air. Even with the “products that sell themselves” he polished his presentation skills to the point where others study and seek to emulate his presentation prowess.

Selling is about connecting with buyers and communicating the value of your product. Superior presentation skills is about connecting with your listeners and communicating the value of your message.

There is no question that the most successful sales people are superior communicators – whether it is one-to-one or one-to-many.

Selling is not about convincing a prospect to buy a product they don’t want. It is about discovering what they really want and providing that solution to them.

Successful presenting is more about understanding your audience and talking to them in their langue and giving them what they want.

The difficult part is in listening to and getting into the mind of your audience. Once you do that – you will be far more successful in sales and presentations.

How do you do that?

Ask yourself, where do they hurt? Why would they listen to your message? How can you fix their pain? What’s in it for them?

If you aren’t fixing a pain, you can’t sell and there’s no point in presenting.

The sales presentations that fail are those that are about you – the seller.

The most successful sales presentations are about the buyer.


George Torok

Presentation Skills Training

Executive Speech Coach


PS: This blog post is part of the Blog Carnival arranged by Angela Definis

http://www.definiscommunications.com/blog/the-impact-of-public-speaking-on-top-sales-performance/



Executive Speech Coach, Business presentation tips from George Torok, the Speech Coach for Executives.

Daily Presentation Skills Tips on Twitter

Recent presentation tips posted on Twitter.com/PresentationsGo



Text on a screen is only for one person in the room – the presenter. That’s his notes.


Presentation Skills Tip. Seeing is believing. First they need to believe before they can see.


Presentation Skills tip: People might not believe what you are saying because they can’t see it in their mind.


When there is a conflict between the image in the mind and the image in the eyes – the mind wins.


What's your definition of a successfull presentation? It's not the applause.


Images grab attention, aid learning and boost memory. You better be using imagery in your presentation.


Visual learners don’t need text on a screen. They need visuals.


Words on a screen are not visual. They are simply text. Images are visual.


You can create images in the mind of your listeners with simple props. It’s a good way to illustrate abstract concepts.


For daily presentation skills tips follow me on www.Twitter.com/PresentationsGo

George Torok
Presentation Skills Articles
Presentation Skills Tips



Executive Speech Coach, Business presentation tips from George Torok, the Speech Coach for Executives.

The Worst Presentation Sin

What's the worst presentation sin?

Not respecting time.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that your time is more valuable than the collective time of your audience.

Just because you were told that you would have a 60 minute time slot – don’t count on getting 60 minutes to speak.

Why? Because plans and circumstances change.

Be prepared and flexible to change your presentation. Be prepared to leave something out.

Your audience doesn’t need to hear everything that you want to say.

If you were told to prepare a 60 minute speech, be prepared to deliver it in 50, 45 or 34 minutes.

PS: Never leave your important point till the end. You might not get to state it.

PPS: If the conference organizer gave you 60 minutes – be sure to finish in 58 minutes. Never go overtime.

George Torok

Presentation Skills Coaching

Daily Presentation Tips on Twitter

Executive Speech Coach, Business presentation tips from George Torok, the Speech Coach for Executives.

The Torch has been passed

The inauguration of John F. Kennedy Januarary 20, 1961.

John F. Kennedy was a great speaker. Watch his presentations and learn from them.







Executive Speech Coach, Business presentation tips from George Torok, the Speech Coach for Executives.

Industry Experts not Good Speakers

I was the MC at an industry convention. I introduced and thanked the speakers. Most of the speakers were industry experts. They were not professional speakers. They were speaking because they represented their company. They were there because either their company designated them as the expert best able to convey the product information or they were the sales person who drew the short straw.

As expected some were better speakers than others.

The best presentation used a professionally produced video. The presenter was clearly relieved that the pressure was off her.

The worst presentation was words on the PowerPoint slides repeated by the presenter. This presenter spoke to me after seeking feedback. He readily admitted that his PowerPoint slides were crap. His slides were crap and so was his presentation. Blaming his slides seemed to relieve him of his responsibility for his presentation.

The biggest surprise for me was the presenter who remained hidden until minutes before he was to speak. As MC I wanted to meet and speak with every presenter before they went on. You can imagine my angst at not finding this speaker – not even knowing if he was there.

By a strange twist of fate he was sitting near me and introduced himself just a few minutes before he was to present. I confirmed his name and topic title.

I introduced him and he took the stage. He started speaking and then stopped. “Where is my first slide?” he exclaimed.

The AV person at the back of the room replied, “I don’t have a presentation from you.”

The presenter retorted, “But I sent it by email yesterday morning.”

What mistakes did this presenter make?

He sent his PowerPoint slides at the last minute.
He did not check in with the AV and convention organizers when he arrived.
He assumed.
He did not take responsibility for making sure everything was ready for his presentation.

Of course I also made a mistake. I assumed that he had checked in and made everything ready. I just added some more questions to my MC repertoire.

Don’t assume – confirm.


George Torok

Presentation Skills Coaching

Presentation Skills Training


Executive Speech Coach, Business presentation tips from George Torok, the Speech Coach for Executives.

Power Presentations Tip 29: You are here

Power Presentations Tip 29

You are here

When you visit the shopping mall you might look at the map to find the location of a store that you want to visit. The map could be overwhelming and confusing, especially if you are looking at this map for the first time.

There is one thing for which you first search. When you find it you will feel a sense of relief. Your eyes will flit about the map until you find this starting point. You might feel some impatience and frustration if it takes you too long to find that spot.

And once you have found this thing - only then will you be ready and able to start processing the rest of the information.

That important starting point is the spot on the map that states "You are here."
The "You are here" spot tells them where to start and more importantly what information to temporarily ignore.

Before you can take your audience on a journey with your presentation they first need to know where you and they are on the map. That is very important when you are presenting a detailed report, a multifaceted plan or a complex idea.

How do you use the "You are here" technique?

Selling
In a sales presentation you might start with the client's expectations. Your research will tell you what those are. If you don't know the client's expectations you should not be presenting. Don't make the mistake that I've seen many sales presenters commit - they start by telling you about themselves, their company history, blah, blah, blah. Nobody cares until they know where they are on your map.

Proposing Change
When you are presenting a new way of doing things you could start with the status quo and point out the weaknesses or current complaints.You have that information if you did your research.

Reporting
When presenting a detailed financial report you could say "Look at line 10 in your reports to see where we stand. Then let's move to line 11 through 17 to see the component parts."
Get your audience to the "You are here" spot and do it quickly. You'll have a more productive journey.

George Torok

PS: Tell me how this tip helps you.

PPS: Thanks for your comments and feedback.

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Where do the best speakers go to get better?

If you are a good profesional speaker and you want to get way better - where do you go for help?

Attend the "Get Better Get Busier Boot Camp" hosted by two globe trotting professional speakers, Warren Evans and Kit Grant.

I was already a very good speaker. I had been told that by many clients and audience members. And I knew it. If fact I had been teaching and coaching presentation skills for years. And over the years I had attended many classes sessions with other presentation experts. (That's how you get good.)

So I was reluctant to spend my money on more presentation training for myself.

I finally invested in this "Get Better Get Busier Boot Camp" and I'm glad I did. I'm a much better speaker now than before attend the boot camp. I applied the lessons when speaking in Iran while on a hectic speaking schedule full of frequent changes.

Warren and Kit helped me visuallize and create a more effective structure for presentations. They pointed out the dangerous off-ramps lurking in my presentation and how to "close" them. Helped me add and sprinkle more humour throughout the presentation.

I gained from the instruction and direct coaching as well as from observing the other speakers and noting the guildance that they received on their presentations.

Click here to learn about the next "Get Better Get Busier Boot Camp".

NB: This is not an affliate link. I give this endorsement freely and without compensation.

I'm just a happy customer.

BTY: All the net proceeds of this program goes to Laura's Hope a chairity to help solve Huntington Disease.


George Torok
Very, very good Professional Speaker :)

Executive Speech Coach, Business presentation tips from George Torok, the Speech Coach for Executives.