The Psychological Sell: Grab the minds of the audience, navigate them through themes and ideas, never letting go. Then finish off with the call to action.
Don't make the audience think - make your points very clear.
The Person who is able to tell an effective business story is perceived as being in command - and deserving of the confidence of the others.
5 Cardinal Sins of making a presentation
I. No Clear Point: What was that about? What was the key point of the presentation?
II. No audience benefit: The presentation fails to show how the audience can benefit from the information presented. The audience is left thinking – so what?
III. No clear flow: the sequence of ideas is so confusing that it leaves the audience behind and unable to follow. “how did the presenter get there”?
IV. Too detailed: Too many detailed facts – some of which are irrelevant. Sometimes – the main point is obscured.
V. Too Long: The audience loses focus and gets bored before the presentation ends.
Focus: Separate the wheat from the chaff and give the audience what they need to know.
I. Start with the objective in sight
II. Shift the focus from the features to the benefits
III. Outline WIIFY – what benefit does your presentation offer the audience? (triggers include the following)
a) This is impt to you because
b) What does this mean to you?
c) Why I’m I telling you this?
d) Who cares?
e) So What?
f) Here’s WIIFY
Capture the audience early with an opening Gambit
1. Question: Provide a question directed at the members of the audience.
2. Factoid: A striking statistic or little-known fact.
3. Retrospective / Introspective: A reflective look backward or forward.
4. Anecdote: A short human interest story.
5. Quotation: An endorsement about your business from a respected source.
6. Aphorism: A familiar saying.
7. Analogy: A comparison between two seemingly unrelated items that helps illuminate a complex, arcane or obscure topic.
Key Flow Structures - For Presentations
a. Modular: A sequence of similar parts, units or components in which the order of the units is interchangeable
b. Chronological order: Organizes clusters of ideas along a timeline, reflecting events in the order in which they occurred or might occur
c. Physical: organizes clusters according to their physical or geographic location
d. Problem/Solution: organizes the presentation around a problem and the solution offered by you and your company
e. Issues/Actions: Organizes the presentation around one or more issues and the actions you propose to address them
f. Opportunity/leverage: organizes the presentation around a business opportunity and the leverage you or your company will implement to take advantage of it.
g. Features/Benefits: organizes the presentation around a series of your product or service features and the concrete benefits provided by those features
h. Rhetorical Questions: Asks, and then answers questions that are likely to be the foremost in the minds of your audience
Establish links between the key objectives for the presentation, WIIFY and the flow structures
Saturday, January 9, 2010
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