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Business Presentations - Why Words Are Better Than Matchsticks

Blackberry, e-mail, mortgage payments, personal stuff; when you step up to make your business presentations, no one in the room is thinking about you; they're all thinking about themselves. They're all in an information-overloaded stupor, and you're potentially the final piece of information that just might break the metaphorical camel's back... Unless you use tactics that prod and poke your audience awake.

Here's how.

Recently Seth Godin, author of the marketing book Purple Cow, wrote this in his blog: "No one cares about you." And unfortunately, he's right! Yet many presenters start their business presentations by saying, "I'm here today... here's my agenda for today... and I'd like to explain..."

Right there, within the first few moments of their business presentations, sometimes in less than a second, they've lost their audience.

Why? The audience were hoping it was going to be about them, not about you.

That's the first thing you can do to keep your audience engaged: simply put, turn everything you've written about you and make it about them. In fact, make a vow today that never again in your business presentations will you use the word 'I'. Do you promise?

You've just been handed the next clue to keeping them engaged - did you get it? Start each section of your business presentations with a question for your audience, and back it up with the promise of a benefit. You see, when you ask a question it makes the audience want to know the answer - and even better, they want to know if that answer is going to help them live better, get richer, or save money.

Let's look an example from a recent business presentation on call center improvement.

"Are you aware that targets used to motivate staff in call centres are actually the cause poor morale? Stay tuned for the next five minutes and I will tell you why you shouldn't use targets, and give you an alternative which will put plutonium-fueled rockets under the seats of your call center employees."

And the final alternative to wedging matchsticks under their eyelids: use action verbs and colorful language. If you were paying attention (were you?) - it's in the previous sentence.

The sentence would have been just fine as: "And the final alternative to keeping them awake"; but would it have painted that vivid picture of you physically keeping your business presentations audience awake with matchsticks? Probably not.

So in summary:

    Make it about them, not you
     

    Start with a question
     

    Use action verbs and colourful language.

 

Oh, and one more business presentations tip: summarize regularly!

 

Stuart Corrigan: http://www.presentationsthatmakechange.com/landing.html

 

Related: Business Presentations

 

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