Lately, I’ve been asked to do a lot of presentation trainings. I’m asked to help executives prepare, not only for big conferences, but increasingly for small, important meetings such as new business and investor pitches. My counsel varies depending on the size and nature of the anticipated audience, but certain rules remain the same. Here are 12 tips that it seems to me will work in rooms of any size.
1. Know your audience. Why have they gathered to hear you? What will they know about you in advance? Everything you say needs to be directed at your value proposition to these people.
2. Find an alliance. By virtue of the fact you were asked to speak, you share something in common with the audience. Point to it. Get the audience to identify with you. Reveal some points that show your commonality.
3. Use the same tone you use to address a business colleague. For reasons I’ve never quite been able to figure out, when people get in front of a room they emote, dramatize and pontificate in ways they would never consider in one-on-one conversations. Some adopt Ted Baxter-like voices suitable for selling detergents and gestures that would confuse a mime. Speakers pace and pause for dramatic effect. They use artificial verbal pacing. It’s wisest always to just be yourself. Use the language that feels natural to you, gestures your body is accustomed to using. Artificiality defeats credibility. Audiences, despite most people’s fears, begin on your side. You'll lose them with a phony style. Be yourself, and they'll forgive verbal stammers and presentation glitches.
4. Use humor only if you're usually funny. Humor is a powerful communications tool in the right speaker. People who are usually ineffective with anecdotes and punch lines are likely to bauble humor in presentations. If you want to be a stand up comic, but people usually tell you to sit down, play your presentation straight. Let your credibility and sincerity carry you. The audience probably will appreciate value over entertainment.
5. Lead with your strongest point. Steve Jobs can dazzle audiences by closing with a punchline, but few of us can match either his charisma or his of pacing. Presentations for the rest of us need to inform people what you're there to tell them up front. Repeat your key point a few ways, but be careful not to be redundant. Most of your audience people will hear you the first time and remember.
6. Be current. Put your talk into the context of where and when you are. Show continuity with the event by commenting on what has happened before your talk, or in recent public events. Make your points in a contxt that either fits or conflicts with current, applicable events.
7. Provide rich content. Unless you’re a TV news anchor, it's best to avoid news bites and clichés. Use simple, clear terms intended to inform. Put your work into making your messages simple and easily comprehended, so that the audience doesn't have to work at understanding your point.
8. Praise in public. Bad-mouthing usually falls flat and makes audiences doubt your intent. While a smidgeon of edginess or salting a controversy may provoke interest, use it cautiously, and express yourself in high-road terminolog.
9. Don’t rush. If you are scheduled to talk for 20 minutes prepare a 15-minute talk. You'll fill the space, trust me. The larger your audience the slower your words ome out. For every 100 people in the audience, you will slow down by 25 percent. I don’t know why—it’s a mystery. If you find your self running behind during your address, decide what sections to cut out in advance. Accelerating your speaking pace will nearly always prove ineffective. And oh yeah, don’t waste your air time complaining that you need more time than alloted to tell your story.
10. Use PowerPoint cautiously. In one of my postings regarding media presentations :, I advised that PowerPoint always be avoided with the press. While some technology conferences actually ban .ppt. , in some situations, like venture presentations, your audience may expect or even require it. In general terms, PowerPoint diminishes talks in two related ways: (1) They are boring and (2) They are no more than a presentation outline you are delivering which brings us back to the former point. Use PowerPoint to illustrate, expand points. Graphics can save you 20 minutes of word. Show statistics, charts, photos, graphics that illustrate, but don't repeat you talking points. Use video or even audio clips toward the same goal.
11. Encourage interactivity. It may be my blogger's perspective, or my admiration for the essence of The Cluetrain Manifesto and its authors but the more you change your presentation from a monologue to dialogue the more engaging you’ll be. Ask questions of the audience: How many of you hate Plaxo or use Linked In? Has this ever happened to you? Get them to call out to answers to you. Repeat their questions. When you answer,m speak directly to the person who asked.
12. Finally this point: which is the same I made at the end of another posting on media training.Don’t say anything stupid. It will be the part most remembered.
good one
Posted by: juzar | Mar 02, 2005 at 05:51 AM