TIPS FOR OPENING A PRESENTATION
Openings Matter More in Zoom
The challenge we all have in using Zoom is that the audience is highly distracted. Everything we do must be aimed at focusing their eyes and their minds. The Opening plays a crucial role in that.
Research indicates that an audience listens more intently in the beginning of a presentation. So, a good opening must grab the audience, communicate the key points, and indicate why those points are benefits before you move on to the next section.
While there are many strategies to consider in opening your pitch, let’s agree that those first 5 minutes can make or break you. Regardless of the strategy, the direction of what you want to say should be heavily influenced by the benefits you are proposing.
Develop the benefit by asking yourself what challenges lay in the road for your client. How will those challenges hurt the client’s success. When you find a legitimate challenge that you can help the client overcome, you have the basis for your opening. They will be all ears.
The most important part of a new business pitch
You have their attention, but not for long. Make the most of it. There are four or five different strategies for an opening and one easy rule: the opening is never about you or the company you represent. The opening is always about the prospect. Everything you say in the opening should be aimed at making the prospect’s life easier, richer and more successful.
One strategy for an opening is problem-solution. Start by discussing an issue you know is important to the prospect (you know because you’ve asked enough questions previously) and talk about how your solution solves that problem. If you can convey that information by way of an interesting story, even better.
Richie Havens was a folk rocker and the first performer at the original Woodstock concert. He was asked how he puts his concerts together. He said he only rehearses the first song he’ll open with and the last song he’ll close with. Everything in the middle just “rolls out”.
That’s excellent advice if you’re preparing a presentation. Focus on the first thing you’ll say because it gets most of the attention and sets the table for the rest of the pitch. Then, know how you’re going to close the pitch. The middle is typically the stuff that you already know lots about and you’ll probably need less time preparing.
Make sure to rehearse your opening number and your closer before you take the show on the road.
Put Your Best Stuff Into the Opening!
In a trial, the jury sometimes decides innocent or guilty in the first five minutes after hearing each lawyer’s opening remarks. The deciding factor for the jury is siding with the lawyer who seems most confident. Two important lessons come from this: juries or prospects or clients make their decisions very early in the process, so put your best stuff into the open. Secondly, learn the techniques that confident speakers use.
These techniques are relatively easy to master: strong eye contact, powerful voice, good posture, animated face, arms and body, the use of storytelling, command of material, speaking with passion. Practice 2 or 3 of these techniques in each rehearsal and you will be a much better presenter.
Don’t Rush the Opening of a Pitch
You’re making a competitive pitch and the prospect asks you to hurry along. He or she has a lot of people yet to interview and wants you and your crew to present quickly. When this happens, be afraid. Be very afraid.
You rush through the opening and leave out important information. The way you opened sets the fast pace for the rest of the pitch so now everyone on your team rushes. The big idea that you worked so hard on never gets a fair airing because it was presented at high speed.
There is nothing more important than the opening. Even if your time has been cut in half, do the opening the way you rehearsed. If you constructed the opening properly it will contain the most relevant information the prospect needs to hear.
Sometimes in a presentation you need to deliver bad news. Perhaps the budget isn’t going to work, or some facet of the plan can’t happen, or a valued partner changed his mind. When is the best time in the presentation to deliver bad news? In the beginning.
Getting bad news out in some portion of your opening serves a number of purposes: It positions you as an honest person with nothing to hide. It allows the client to evaluate whatever you are presenting in light of this bad news. It gives you a chance to use the news to build your case in the pitch.
Some presenters like to tease out the information over the course of the presentation, and then make a big reveal at the end. It’s much better to front load your presentation with the key information people need. Give your audience as much information as soon as possible. Don’t hold them in suspense. If on Zoom, assume you will lose their attention pretty quickly.
The more they know, and the faster they know it, the more they’ll pay attention.
If your presentation is reporting on the status of things rather than a pitch or formal presentation, use the 6 O’clock News opening technique.
Give all the headlines first then dive into the specifics, usually starting with either the biggest story or the most controversial.
We’ve all seen speakers who start by blandly saying “how excited I am to be here today”.
To paraphrase a bit I saw on The Daily Show,
Are you really excited?
Really? Excited?
Would you mind telling your voice, face and personality that you are really excited?
How to Get the Audience’s Attention
“It is becoming increasingly clear that attention is the new currency.” And this was before Zoom. You can only imagine how bad it is now.
Your audience will listen better when what you say is immediately seen as a benefit to them. We used to think the challenge in a presentation is to be interesting, but in today’s world your audience is multi-tasking even as they sit staring at you.
Tell them how what you are espousing is a benefit to them.
None other than The Great Communicator himself, Ronald Reagan, said “You begin with a hell of an opening, you coast for a while, and you end with a hell of a closing.”
Two Things Guaranteed to Put Your Audience to Sleep as an Opening
-Introductions of your team/company
-Agenda
Instead, start with the challenge you are solving for the client said dramatically then circle back to all of these housekeeping items.
When you open with “This might be a bad idea, but…,” or “I’m not an expert, however, ….” or ”I’m sorry this took so long…” it gives the audience permission to dislike your presentation.
Presentation Myth: Funny Openings
While it is true that you need to get attention, being funny doesn’t always do that. Grab the audiences’ hearts and minds by telling them something that will make their job easier, or make them more money, or make them look better in their boss’s eyes.
Then they will be mesmerized.
I’ve been asked to speak about…
You’ve all heard presentations that start with “Today I was asked to speak about…”
That kind of opening has at least two major problems:
The audience must wonder just how passionate and committed you are to the subject. You were asked to speak. What did you really wish to speak about?
The opening softens your body language too much. You’re not strong and passionate, you are motionless and unsmiling.
Lots of speakers start talking as soon as they get to the front of the room and leave immediately when they finish.
The power of the speaker would be much stronger by pausing 4 seconds before you start speaking to settle and make eye contact. Then, after delivering your closing line, take another 4 seconds to look at the audience again before you turn and leave.
If you are making a presentation on Zoom, don’t follow this advice. No pauses. Get into the subject quickly.
Confidence in a Zoom world
Confidence is the key to a good presentation. When the audience senses you are confident in what you are saying, they are apt to believe you, and to do as you suggest. When running a Zoom conference, your face is magnified and the audience can much more quickly tell whether you are faking it or not.
In A Zoom Presentation, Don’t Give the Audience Reasons to leave
It’s hard enough in a Zoom meeting to keep the audience glued to your content. Don’t make it easier for them to stray. Keep a strong eye contact with the lens. Sit up. Get stoked. Look and speak like you want to be there. Tell stories. Smile.
Storytelling Makes You Appear More ConfidentWe are at our best when telling stories. We are more animated, make better eye contact and are generally more confident. If telling stories makes you more confident which causes the audience to believe in you more…tell more stories.
Holding Attention in a Presentation
The folks in your audience have a short attention span. After about 30 seconds people start wandering in and out of the speaker’s comments. There are tricks to keep them tuned in for more than that. Eye contacts keeps people more connected. An animated speaker helps. A strong voice also keeps attention longer.
A transition from one point to the next is a great opportunity to bring them back. The transition should not be seamless. Be abrupt. It gets attention.
As you start the transition pause briefly, then, with new energy, or different modulation or different pacing start on the new topic. It’s as if the audience is being treated to a whole new speaker. They’ll be reinvigorated. So will you.
Make the presentation you rehearsed
I can’t tell you how many times people about to make a presentation decide, at the last moment, to change something crucial. Often, they change the opening. It happens because a previous speaker gave them a new idea, or just because they had second thoughts.
When you change at the last minute you don’t have a chance to rehearse. No rehearsal means less confidence. And, when you don’t have confidence, the audience can smell it.
Give the presentation you planned and rehearsed. You’ll do great.
Good posture conveys pride in speaking
Good posture signals to your audience that you want to convey things to them that you are confident to discuss. Good posture for meetings and presentations is not a military posture, which can look anything but relaxed. It’s a prideful posture. Chest out, shoulders slightly back. Head held high. Big smile.
If you’re seated, sit closer to the edge of the seat, lean in towards the table but don’t slouch.
Posture is just as important in Zoom presentations. If you are too far from the lens, or slouching, you’ll start top lose your audience faster. Don’t give them reasons to leave.
Standing tall and proud is a powerful weapon when you are presenting. The audience reads that posture as belonging to someone who is sure of himself, confident in what he is presenting and immensely passionate. You’re not slumped over. You’re not looking like you just found out your cat will never get into college. You believe in what you are saying.
Think Positive During the Whole Presentation
Often in my workshops when someone is called up to speak they walk tentatively up to the front as they mumble something like “well, here goes nothing.”
When you are called to speak, walk up to the front with great purpose, conviction and confidence. Even if you are scared to death, let the audience believe you can’t wait to talk.
Be strong. Walk forcefully with your head high and a bounce in your step. Look everyone in the eyes and belt it out.
I guarantee you’ll be better for doing it this way.
How Speaking Volume Adds Energy to Your Presentation
Where does energy come from?
Sometimes speakers are criticized for not having enough “energy” in their presentation. One easy technique to inject more oomph into your talk is to speak in a stronger voice. It’s a human-nature trick. When you speak louder, your face becomes more animated, your posture straightens out, and, your arm and hand movements are more engaging.
The winner in every political debate is the one who seems the most confident.
The ability to seem confident when speaking is the strongest card you can play. Stand up straight. Look people in the eye. Smile. And, believe what you are saying.
Smiling Makes Your Voice More Interesting
Another reason for smiling has to do with your voice. It’s much easier to modulate your voice when you’re smiling. Try the opposite. Put your serious face on and talk. You instantly become monotone. You’ll notice that your face reflects the monotone. No animation. No smile. No nothing.
When presenting at a conference room table, don’t sit at the end of the table. Sit close to the middle. You can be heard better and work the room easier.
When it is your turn to present, sit on the edge of the chair, make sure the chair seat is as high as it will go, then lean in with your arms on the table. Don’t sit back until you are finished with your presentation and have answered every question.
Many people think that the sign of a good speaker is someone who never uses verbal ticks like “ah” and “um”. But, I disagree. The best way to judge a speaker’s impact is if that person conveys a sense of confidence. Audiences are swayed when they believe the speaker is confident. We all have verbal ticks. As long as you don’t have so many that the audience is counting you’re OK.
What really matters is that you look and sound like you believe in what you’re saying. If a few ahs and ums slip in while you’re talking, don’t let it bother you.
Resolve not to be your own worst enemy. Don’t tell yourself you can’t present, or that you’re not good in front of people or anything like that. Presenting is like learning any skill. You’ve got to master a few of the basic techniques, practice, get good feedback and you’ll be great.
Bottom line: If you can stand up straight, look people in the eye, speak in a big voice and smile, you can be a great presenter.
When delivering your elevator speech remember these two techniques-
Take a slight pause after you say your name. That way people will hear and remember it easier.
-Don’t give the name of your business right after your name, it’s too much information. Separate the two with other stuff.
Making face to face contact is the most valuable way to market yourself, so be prepared.
Answering Questions from the Audience
While making a presentation, if someone in the audience asks a question or makes a comment, it important that you listen “actively”. Don’t just stand there motionless. React. Nod your head. Acknowledge you understand to show you are listening intently. Same with questions to you on Zoom.
This keeps you in control of the presentation and shows supreme confidence.
What do you do when your audience starts to glaze over?
Here are a few tactics:
-Pause. Whenever the presenter stops speaking, everyone looks up to see what’s happening.
-Change your tone. Slow up and speak a little softer, or speed up and speak louder. It’s an attention getter.
-Move. Just changing the side of the room where you are presenting to the other side will refresh the audience.
-Address the issue. Ask if people need some clarification or if they want to take a short break.
-Be self critical. Are you speaking too long? Are you really connecting with the audience?
It’s a very good idea to contact members of the audience by phone afterwards and ask them to evaluate the presentation. Everyone needs feedback.
Presenting is a Skill, not a Talent
You can make a good presentation is you learn a few basic skills. You can do ballroom dancing if someone teaches you some steps. Playing golf requires learning how to stand, how to hold the club, the motion of the backswing and other movements.
If you want to be proficient at something, learn the techniques required to do it correctly. Don’t wing it.
Most people aren’t born great presenters. They can become great by taking lessons and practicing them.
The audience wants to love you.
We all get nervous when going into a business pitch and we sometimes paint a picture of the prospects as being stoned faced, ill-humored people who hate everyone. That couldn’t be more wrong.
Prospects on the receiving end of a pitch want you to be great. They want you to hit the ball out of the park. Their responsibility is to interview a bunch of companies and pick the one they think will the do the best job. If you’re great, you’ve just made their job real easy.
Not to mention that when you think the prospect hates you, she will. You’ll make sure of that. Think positive.
The audience is your friend. Be great.
What to do when the audience is stone-faced.
It happens. The audience just is not responding to you. It could be the subject matter, the speaker, or the audience is tired and uninspired. Who knows?
You’ll be tempted to crack jokes and lighten up the delivery. Don’t. Continue to make eye contact. Smile, but stay serious and focused. Don’t rush. Finish according to plan.
It’s impossible to Wow the audience every time. There are too many moving parts, many of which are out of your control.
Improve your personal curb appeal when presenting.
Research shows that people are more likely to listen and agree with someone who is dressed well.
Persuasion takes more than words.
Belief is More Powerful than Proof.
Your presentation can be loaded with facts and figures, but if the audience doesn’t believe in you, then you won’t convince them.
Look confident and they will buy whatever it is you are selling.
The Most Important Part of a Presentation
It’s you. You Are the Presentation
No one reads a comic strip because it is great art. They read it because they like the characters and story.
No one watches a presentation because the PowerPoint is awesome. They watch because of the presenter and the topic.
Gestures Add Energy to Your Presentation
Gestures help the audience and the speaker.
Gestures increase attention and paint a picture for the audience. If you are saying that the effort to do something will be huge, for example, just holding your hands up and far apart underscores your point and is memorable to the audience.
Gestures add energy to your voice and delivery. It’s hard to be monotone and quiet when moving your hands and arms.
Rehearsal Is More Important In Zoom Meetings
Research indicates that people making on-line presentations rehearse less than if they were presenting face to face. Zoom meetings, especially with PowerPoint, requires more rehearsal to get the timing of the slides down.
Passion Makes Presentations Unforgettable
In the past few months, I have seen almost 75 presentations.
The ones that stood out all had one common element. The presenters spoke with passion. You could see it in their body language. You can hear it in their voice.
It’s difficult to coach speakers to be more passionate but if you can help them find what ignites their own passion within their narrative, the presentation will be unforgettable.
The most persuasive technique in a presentation is eye contact. It compliments people in the audience. It makes you look more confident.
Tom Peters was asked what he reminds himself about most in business. He said, “Do I make eye contact 100 percent of the time?”
Winning pitches use active language.
Passive language makes you sound weak and uninspired: “We understand that you want to complete this project in record time. Here is our approach.” Active language tells the prospect you are in charge: “Here is our approach to complete this project in record time.” It’s a subtle but very powerful difference.
The bonus for using active language is that it will convince you that you are the leader, and you’ll act accordingly.
It is more difficult to be persuasive on Zoom. New strategies must be used.
1) Offer content in smaller bites 2) Animate bullets in PowerPoint 3) Focus on Opens and Closes
Guidelines for Making a Zoom New Business Interview
Remember, your audience’s attention span is worse on Zoom than in real life (it’s not great in real life). So, move the meeting along.
-Do a fast introduction of who from your side is on the Zoom call. Just names, not title and job function.
-Do not have your PowerPoint already pulled up and on the screen. That takes away from seeing all the people in the meeting. It may be your only chance to connect with them.
-Before getting into your PowerPoint, do a little preface to say what they are going to see. It might spark conversation, which is always a goal of an business development pitch
-Go into your PowerPoint pitch
-Every few minutes check in with the audience for questions and comments.
-When the PowerPoint is done, close it up so you can see everyone again.
-Now, say something like “I have a few closing remarks I’d like to make, but first, let’s open this up to Q&A.
-Allow Q&A to run for as long as the prospect has questions. Then deliver a fast summary of what you presented today and ask for the business.
Recently someone told me that while they understand the importance of rehearsal, there is just never enough time to do it. There’s hardly enough time to prepare the proposal and to think about the prospect’s challenges and solutions.
But, often what wins the pitch is the pitch. All of the prep work you did needs to be choreographed into a seamless story that the client can grasp, appreciate and, recognize that it is coming from a well oiled team. To do it best, everyone on the team needs to rehearse together. Everyone has to make time.
If you don’t want to rehearse, or can’t do it, then don’t waste all of those hours and money. Your chances of winning just dropped.
It seems crazy to put all of that time in schmoozing a prospect and investing in a proposal to waste it all because you couldn’t find time to rehearse.
Crazy.
Often times in a pitch you are presenting some big idea that your team worked diligently on. If the idea is truly a blockbuster there are two dangers you should be aware of:
-You’re so anxious to present this killer idea that you don’t fully communicate the thinking that went into it,
-You fall into the trap of believing that because the idea is so good, the explanation doesn’t need to be. “The idea will speak for itself.”
It is criminal to not sell a great idea because you didn’t package it properly in a solid presentation and didn’t rehearse thoroughly.
Don’t Rush the Opening of a Pitch
You’re making a competitive pitch and the prospect asks you to hurry along. They have a lot of people yet to interview and want you to present quickly. When this happens, be afraid. Be very afraid.
You rush through the opening and leave out important information. The way you opened sets the fast pace for the rest of the pitch so now everyone on your team rushes. The big idea that you worked so hard on never gets a fair airing because it was presented at high speed.
There is nothing more important than the opening. Even if your time has been cut in half, do the opening the way you rehearsed. If you constructed the opening properly it will contain the most relevant information the prospect needs to hear.
Put Show Business Into a Pitch
Business theatrics is a more accentuated way of presenting. Bigger voice. Broader gestures. Strong posture. Broad smile. Dramatic pauses. Keep your eyes glued on the audience. Business theatrics adds energy and confidence to what you have to say.
A good pitch must always have an element of show business.
Presenting at a Conference Table
When making a presentation seated at a conference room table, take a power position when it is your turn to present. Raise the chair seat as high as it will go. Sit on the edge of your seat and lean forward, arms on the table.
You should move and be animated but never stop leaning in. Hold that position through your presentation and any discussion that follows.
That body language says that you are in command.
Make eye contact with everyone in a pitch
When you’re pitching, make sure you look at and talk to everyone on the prospect’s side of the table. Don’t fall into the trap of just connecting with the CEO. You never know who will make the decision or how other people on the client’s team will influence that decision. Some feedback I get from prospects when pitches go bad is that the pitch team only focused on the one in charge causing others to feel slighted.
Same is true on Zoom. When it is your turn to present, look into the lens. Nowhere else.
Your goal in a pitch is to have the audience like you. One step in that process is to smile. When you smile, they smile back.
Oh, and smile.
Presenting as a Team- A Check list
☐ Rehearse as a team. Everyone has to show up.
☐ Plan what each person says in turning the presentation over to the next person.
☐ There is one theme and everyone speaks to it.
☐ Avoid repetitive comments. Each person doesn’t have to thank the prospect, for example.
☐ If a person doesn’t have a speaking role, don’t take them.
☐ Make sure the people who will work most on the account speak the most.
☐ Don’t speak over a team member’s presentation to add stuff.
☐ Smile no matter how dumb a comment one of your team members makes.
When making a new business pitch… listen more, talk less. Research shows that the more you can get the prospect talking, the better your chances of winning the business. You’ll get the prospect talking by asking smart questions, such as those suggested in Spin Selling. Don’t help the prospect answer questions. Allow the prospect to answer.
Stop juicing your presentations with glib phrases like disruptive technology, cutting edge, award winning, strategic partnership, synergy, win-win, at the end of the day, drill down, mission-critical, paradigm shift, value-added…
Research shows that the audience responds more favorably to short common words, than long, multi-syllable words. Talk like a regular person.
I have heard these pitch excuses 1,000 times.
The other guys have an in. They don’t like us. I get nervous in front of them. Our work could be better. I wish we had more time to prepare. The PowerPoint is boring. Our big idea is small. We don’t have enough detail. We have too much detail.
When you are preparing for a pitch and someone is constantly telling everyone why you can’t win, throw him out of the room.
Instead tell me why you will win your pitch.
A strong presentation is 50% logic and 50% creative. The logic is the content which is easy to assemble and can usually be done quickly.
The creative element requires time. Percolate on the presentation for a day and look how to connect dots with interesting metaphors, analogies and stories, especially in the opening.
3 Don’ts in a pitch
-Don’t start with the agenda
-Don’t begin by talking about yourself and your company
-Don’t open with a joke
If you lose a pitch have someone* call the prospect to ask specific questions about the pitch. Did the team seem engaged? Were they interesting? Knowledgeable? Did they talk too much? Not enough? What did other firms do better? What one thing should they have done differently?
What you’ll learn will be gold.
*The best person to make this call is someone not associated with the pitch team and who remains neutral throughout the conversation. It’s too late to be defensive.
Perfect is the Enemy of Great.
People sometimes get so fixated on making a perfect presentation that at the mere flub of a word they crumble. It isn’t worth it and the audience will never notice. Make a great presentation. Not a perfect one.
Presentations Should Never Go Over Time
At a presentation skills seminar I attended the trainer said “never run over your allotted time. Especially in a business presentation, time is precious.”
I agree.
PS: Her presentation ran 14 minutes over.
Don’t let your pitch end at the Q&A segment.
Leave time at the very end to come back, reiterate the takeaway, thank everyone and ask for the business.
How To Make Your Business Development Interview Powerful
Nothing causes more anxiety than a new business pitch. The folks on your team want to win the business and not be the one who says the dumb thing that scuttles the effort.
Over the years I have been in hundreds of pitches and learned valuable lessons the hard way. Here’s a baker’s dozen of them:
Most people try to be persuasive by giving a dozen reasons to buy their product.
Often it is the non-verbal things that are the deciding factors for your audience. People tend to buy from folks who appear confident.
The way to look confident is easy; have good posture, make eye contact, smile, speak in a strong voice and don’t be afraid to move your hands and arms.
The more confident you act, the more likely they will buy whatever you are selling.
A friend who shall remain nameless* wrote me the following:
Oh, I’ve been sitting in on presentations from very good agencies this week. The sameness of them numbs me, however.
We put clients first
We have a passion for your business
We have really really good media contacts
We are clever problem solvers
Better to demonstrate these things as solutions to the prospect’s issues rather than say them.
* The fabulous Sally Jackson
The topic of a pitch should always be the same…how can the audience use your knowledge and experience to benefit their needs. It’s always about what you can do for them, not what they can do for you.
Winning at Business Development 101
Your chances of winning a pitch will be much better if the prospect likes you. Here’s how to do that.
-Smile
-Listen
-Make eye contact whenever you speak.
-Stay within your allotted time.
-Answer questions when asked. Really answer them. No double-talk.
-Follow up immediately after the meeting with answers to questions you didn’t know.
-Be a good host. Make them comfortable. Have drinks and snacks.
There are 3 things a prospect is looking for: Can you solve my problem? Can you do it in a simple, uncluttered way that is easy for me? Do I like you?
The Do-I-Like you part is crucial, so do all of the things suggested at the top of this blog.
Even in workshops when practicing how to close an interview, people have trouble asking the prospect for business. It’s just one of those things people hate to do.
But, if you don’t ask, then the answer is no. Some people start babbling. They ask for the business but then keep chatting. After you ask, stop talking. It obligates the other side to respond.
Find a way to ask that is comfortable for you to say and then rehearse it. For example, an ask can be: We enjoyed putting this demo together. Of course, we’d love to do real work for you. How do we go about doing that? Or, How do we move this conversation forward so that we might have a chance to work for you?
Ask and you shall be rewarded.
If you have an expertise, share lots of it freely with your audience.
They’ll value it enough to pay for more.
Offer to Help, Not Sell
There is a panhandler who calls himself The Town Crier. He constantly shouts at the top of his voice the time, weather, sports, major news stories, and lots more. The news is timely and useful.
I’ve noticed that The Town Crier’s cup is always filled with dollar bills. I often put one in.
Sometimes in a pitch we focus too much on asking for the business and talking about ourselves. Create value by giving your audience information they can use, and even profit from. They will reward you with their business.
I saw Monty Python’s John Cleese live the other night. At a Q&A session someone started by saying what an honor it was to be speaking to one of his all-time comedic heroes, etc. when Cleese interrupted and said in his best high-brow British “Get on with it, please”.
It reminds me of business pitches that start by telling the client how great they are, how smart they are, how excited we are to be here, etc. You can look into the clients’ eyes and see them thinking “Get on with it, please.”
I suppose because we sometimes refer to meetings with prospects sales pitches, we’re selling our company and our differentiation.
Instead, focus on the prospect and their issues and offer ideas to help advance their business. If you have good ideas, they’ll hire you. If the ideas are differentiated, then they’ll understand your competitive advantage.
In the Opening of a Pitch, the Only Subject to Discuss is the Client
When a good server comes to your table he says two things: Welcome, and, can I get you a drink?
A bad server says: Welcome, here are today’s specials.
When you open a pitch be a good server. Attend to the client’s needs before you start selling your product.
Here’s a good test of your next presentation. When it’s over will your audience know what you want and why they should agree?
Zoom, for better and worse, is becoming more and more prevalent. Eye contact still counts. Look into the camera lens when you present. Your image on the other end will appear to be looking directly at your clients and coworkers.
When making a presentation with lots of data and statistics, mix in a heavy dose of empathy. Use personal stories to make dull numbers come to life.
Presentation Tip: Negative Benefits
A powerful technique to use in an opening is to convey what the benefits are to the audience. Sometimes those benefits are negative. Research indicates that people are more persuaded to protect that which they have than something they may get. They are more persuaded by “if you don’t do this you can lose 10% of your income” than by “do this and your salary will grow 10%”.
Rehearsal is extremely important. It is equally important that everyone on the team feel they are in a safe environment to rehearse. Safe means that they can fumble through ideas and concepts without people jumping on their every word. Safe means the leader is not trying to micro-manage the entire presentation and everyone’s part. Safe means that people can experiment with what they want to say and change what doesn’t resonate without feeling like a dope.
Rehearse Like a Basketball Player
Professional athletes practice. They practice all of the time. Even after playing 6 or 7 games in a row, basketball players come out the next morning to practice.
If you’re making a presentation you need to practice. You need to think through all of your plays. How are you going to open? What is the single big message you want people to take away? How will you summarize and what action will you ask of the audience? Then you need to rehearse all of this in front of real people.
Now you’re ready for game day.
The best way to rehearse your presentation is in front of people. Any people. Half of the reason we’re all so anxious about speaking in public is — the public. We worry about how our comments will be received, and if we look goofy saying them. So, while rehearsing in front of a mirror can help a bit, the best practice is in front of real people; colleagues, spouses, children, strangers on the subway. On Zoom, you have the advantage of being able to connect with someone easily so that you can rehearse in front of them, and, you can record the session. Watching yourself present will be an eye-opener. You’ll feel more confident.
Rehearse Transitions in a Presentation
One of the many reasons everyone needs to prepare and rehearse is to have intelligent transitions from one thought to the next. You may know the subject matter cold, but unless you’ve planned the flow of your remarks, you can fall into an awkward pattern in which you repeat the same things over and over as you search for a bridge to the next part of your comments.
If you have properly revised your PowerPoint to make it works more effectively on Zoom, then you absolutely need to rehearse to coordinate with the various animations you inserted into the slides.
Don’t assume because you know the topic that you know the speech.
Prepare and rehearse every time.
Video Your Presentation Rehearsals
Much of the work that goes into presentation skill training has to do with very basic techniques – volume, eye contact, posture, smiling, enunciation, etc. These techniques are so basic that one client, a lawyer, questioned whether he should spend time working on them because he thought he had command of these things whenever he spoke.
But then, after he saw himself on video tape, he realized he didn’t do any of them. In fact, he scowled and mumbled. His only eye contact was with the ceiling.
“Watching myself on tape changed my presentation style dramatically. It was amazing.”
You’ll become a better, more powerful speaker fast when your training includes videotaping every exercise, and using the Zoom record system.
5 Body Language Techniques to Focus on in a Zoom Presentation
-Eye contact. Look at the lens of the camera as you speak, not the screen.
-Smile. It’s still an easy way to connect with the audience.
-Get Stoked. Look like you want to be there.
-Volume. The audio is crucial in a Zoom presentation. Use a microphone and headset.
-Postures/Gesture. Don’t sit slumped over when you present. We encourage hand and gesture use, but keep your hands close to your body and don’t flail. It makes you look wild on the screen.
How to Rehearse a Team Presentation
Everyone needs to rehearse. And everyone hates rehearsing. But you got to. If you are presenting with others, they should also be at the rehearsal. Pay particular attention to how each person opens and closes their segment and how each person hands over to the next person. If possible, rehearse without notes so you get to know the material and not memorize the script.
Rehearse the Whole Pitch, Not Just Words
Try to rehearse your entire presentation, not just the words. Rehearse how you will stand, gestures, pauses, theatrical embellishments. Rehearse how you will work the room with your eyes. If you will be presenting seated, rehearse seated. Duplicate as much of the real situation as possible.
And always rehearse in front of others.
Presentations Require Preparation
The will to succeed is important, but what’s more important is the will to prepare.
Bobby Knight, Basketball coach
Behind every great presentation are lots of hours of preparation. Lots and lots.
If you are helping someone rehearse a presentation, follow Alex Haley’s advice: Find the good and praise it.
It’s more important to make the speaker confident than to nitpick a word or two.
I’ve found it’s best to learn a speech point by point, not word for word.
–George Plimpton
Weeks of Prep, Minutes of Rehearsal
When I was in advertising, I saw that most teams spent weeks putting a campaign together and minutes thinking about how to present it to the client.
If you create brilliant work but have a dull presentation, it isn’t the client’s fault if they don’t buy it.
If it sounds like a speech, rewrite it.
Your presentation should sound like you, not like a formal, structured thesis. You are best when you are you. As you rehearse the text out loud if it doesn’t sound like the you we all know and love…start over.
Rehearsal Etiquette
When helping a colleague rehearse a presentation, the more positive the discussion, the more positive the outcome. The closer the rehearsal is to the actual presentation; the less critique and the more praise usually makes for a happier outcome.
Rehearsals are valuable. The last rehearsal, the dress rehearsal, is particularly important.
Here is how to make that dress rehearsal more productive:
-Once you start the rehearsal, it’s game conditions. You don’t stop until the end.
-If someone flubs, they must keep going. In a real presentation you can’t start over.
-The time for comments and fine tuning is over. Be careful of changing any speakers content or role too close to the actual pitch.
-If you are presenting as a team, rehearse as a team.
-Rehearse in similar physical conditions to the real location. Sit and stand as you would in the real pitch. Ditto handovers.
-If using PowerPoint and other presentation visuals, who, on the pitch team, will control the remote and set-up.
-Everyone says their entire part, no shortcuts.
-Have people sit on the other side of the table to present to. If you are going to have a Q&A session, have those people ask questions.
-Check your timing when finished. Allowing for the Q&A period, your total time should never exceed the time allotted.
Finish the rehearsal positive and charged. Avoid laundry lists of criticism. If you are the pitch leader, smile, be positive and everyone will join you and think good thoughts.
The legendary cellist Pablo Casals was asked why he continued to practice at age 90. “Because, I think I’m making progress,” he replied.
You want to make a great presentation?
Practice. Practice, Practice, Practice.
Practice.
Presentation Tip: Rehearsals are Fail-proof, PowerPoint is not.
A former student wrote recently that during a presentation he was giving, the computer crashed. No PowerPoint! Luckily, he’d been taught how important rehearsing is. Not only did he nail his presentation, but afterward a number of colleagues congratulated him on one of his ‘best presentations yet’. This is an important lesson about presenting: Tech will always fail us; rehearsing never will.
If this is a Zoom presentation, go on the Zoom site a few minutes early and start chatting with people as they sign on. Just that chat will calm you down. This is like stretching before exercising.
If someone asks you what you’re going to be talking about, tell them an abbreviated version of the opening. It will make you much more comfortable and confident about the presentation, and you’ll have friendly faces in the audience who will encourage you.
Don’t jump into the PowerPoint immediately. When you are ready to begin, give a casual opening about what they will see and why, then bring up the PowerPoint. This allows you to connect with the audience further.
How to Be Less Nervous When Presenting
Here is a crazy tip for controlling your fears when presenting. This technique will sound nuts, but it works.
When I wear a suit jacket or sport jacket, I’m less nervous. The jacket makes me feel grown-up and smart and protected. When I’m confident, I’m less nervous.
Before you speak, have a drink
When we get up to speak it’s not unusual to become dry-mouthed from the anxiety of being in front of a group. Take a glass or bottle of water with you, or have a long sip before you speak. When your mouth is dry it sets off a chain reaction of negative vibes. Having water with you is also a good way to take a pause without looking like you’re lost.
Use a Conversational Open to Relax Yourself
We all get stage fright when making a presentation. Fortunately, for most of us that nervousness can be controlled.
One trick to relax yourself is to use a conversational anecdote as a opening. For example, perhaps you are at a conference and you’re the next speaker. In your open you can talk about the general chatter that you’re hearing, or some famous celebrity you bumped into. It’s not long open, perhaps 3 or 4 sentences, but it is enough to relax you so that when you launch into your real opening you are less nervous.
The nice thing about the conversational open is that it is usually of interest to the audience. As long as it doesn’t go on and on.
Any kind of talking prior to going up to the podium will also be a big help in relaxing you. Just chatting with people in the audience, particularly about what you will be presenting, will make you calmer. And don’t forget to smile and use good posture. These are physical signs from your body to your brain that you are feeling confident.
A System for Controlling Your Nerves
Calm your sense of fear with slow, deliberate breaths. Slower rhythm is better than deep breathing. If you practice that every time you feel anxious (whether making a presentation or not) it will become a great tool to calm you down when you need to.
The Stage Fright Domino Effect
Everyone experiences anxiety when speaking in front of others. Sometimes that anxiety can snowball. We speak faster when nervous, which signals a heightened level of anxiety to the brain which makes us forget points to cover which makes us more uneasy.
When you feel the events starting to slip away, technique can help. Slow down. Stand up straight. Look at everyone and smile. This tells your system you are back in control and to relax.
The best advice to combat stage fright is to know the opening of your presentation better than you know your own name. Know the opening like you know the Pledge of Allegiance, for example. It will give you incredible confidence and a lot less anxiety.
But that’s only part of the story.
Three Crazy Ways to Control Presentation Jitters
1) Got presentation jitters? Blow on your thumb. “The vagus nerve, which governs heart rate, can be controlled through breathing,” says Ben Abo, an emergency medical-services specialist at the University of Pittsburgh. “It’ll get your heart rate back to normal. “From Men’s Health Magazine
2) Chew gum. The activity seems to calm you down. Just be sure to spit it out prior to show time.
3) Curl your toes. You read this correctly. It switches you attention from that which is making you nervous. I’ve heard back from my students it really works.
Stage Fright Starts the Night Before
For many people, stage fright starts the night before your presentation as you conjure up horror stories of what could go wrong.
When you realize you’re doing that, stop yourself. Don’t let your nerves undermine your presentation and confidence. Visualize success instead. See yourself wowing the audience.
Science-based Way To Handle Nerves in a Presentation
Feeling nervous? Don’t bother calming down. You’re better off getting excited, according to a new study from Harvard Business School.
Participants in several anxiety-inducing experiments consistently performed better when prompted to get excited rather than to relax, the study found. For example, people told to say “I am excited” before delivering a public speech gave longer, more competent presentations and appeared more relaxed than speakers told to say “I am calm.” The shift from anxiety to excitement may be eased by the fact that both are highly aroused states, suggested the author of the study, published in The Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
When you speak with passion, it’s likely that you’ll feel less nervous.
Take whatever you are presenting and start with the part that you are most passionate about. You’ll be less nervous, and the audience will be more attuned.
This Is Not Acting
When you are acting, it is important to remember your lines and know your partners lines so you know when to step in. In giving a presentation, don’t memorize your lines. It’s a conversation. If you say the wrong things most people won’t even notice.
PowerPoint for Zoom
-Animate the bullets. Discuss one bullet line at a time before you move on.
-Cover less material, but cover it deeper and more repetitively.
-Follow rules for a strong open and close format (see my Opening tips).
If you are presenting a deck on Zoom, there are a few things you should consider:
-Build in redundancy. Show slides with progress information.
Progress Slides Help the Audience Follow Along
Progress slides are usually redundant slides that have a graphic indication communicating where in the process we are. It’s usually numbered or lettered A,B,C. It connects the dots for the audience, an important feature when presenting on Zoom.
Friends Don’t Let Friends Use PowerPoint
Actually, PowerPoint has its virtues. It’s a useful process to help the speaker assemble and organize comments, and to talk without notes. Check out Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery (Voices That Matter) by Garr Reynolds for great ways to prepare slides.
PowerPoint and the 10/20/30 Rule*
A good rule for making a presentation is to follow the 10/20/30 guideline:
-Use no more than 10 PowerPoint slides,
-Speak no longer than 20 minutes,
-Set your type in the slides to no smaller than 30-point font.
*I stole this tip directly from Guy Kawasaki, one of the early and brightest stars at Apple and now a venture capitalist and columnist.
The next zombie movie Hollywood will shoot is based on an auditorium of people who had to watch a PowerPoint presentation.
PowerPoint Presentations are always too long, with too many words on too many slides.
Keep going through the slides and eliminate words, bullets, pages, graphics and anything else you find. The goal is to have a few key words set in 30 point font or larger. Try to keep it to 10 slides.
Edit ferociously.
Visuals in PowerPoint is Tricky
In some presentations, Steve Jobs had a total of seven words in 10 slides. He allowed visuals do the work.
Try hard to express yourself more visually in your PowerPoint slides without using gratuitous photos and illustrations. Avoid bullets. This is easier said than done. Steve Jobs had a huge team of graphic designers to help him create the perfect visual. If you don’t have such a team working for you, it might be better to just have simple type slides with powerful colors.
A researcher who studies PowerPoint reports that people were better able to recall the main message of slides when presented with a full-sentence headline written as an assertion rather than a word or phrase headline.
“Strong eye contact persuades the audience you are confident” is a more powerful message than “strong eye contact = confidence” for example.
You Don’t Always Need PowerPoint
When my friend was leaving the ad agency where we both worked, he threw a party and gave a slide show about his experiences at the firm. With each slide he described vivid scenes in detail. But, the screen was blank. He never went to the trouble of actually making slides.
To this day when any of us get together to reminisce, we talk about that slide show. No one recalls that the slides were blank. We each remember the colorful story that was painted.
PowerPoint is a crutch. You can create memorable pictures with words.
The dilemma that many presenters bring upon themselves is that they want their presentation slides to double as their leave-behind material.
An effective PowerPoint uses sparse language and powerful pictures to dramatize what the speaker is discussing.
A good leave-behind has pages of detail.
Never the twain shall meet.
PowerPoint in a Business Pitch
PowerPoint may have its place in a business pitch, but not necessarily in the open and close. Especially if using Zoom, start your pitch with all the faces on the screen, then, after you present your thesis, go to the PowerPoint.
Whenever you use PowerPoint, the audiences’ eyes are staring at the screen. But, often in the open and close, you want the audience to look at you because you want to connect with them.
In the opening, you want to explain why what you are about to say is important to them. In the close, you want them to feel confident with you and agree to whatever you propose.
Don’t look at the screen when presenting
Your audience is much more likely to hear what you have to say, understand what you just said and like you, if you make eye contact with them as you speak. Even using Zoom, that means looking at the lens and not the PowerPoint.
A lawyer told me that last year was his best year ever because he stopped using PowerPoint to make pitches and just started talking face to face with prospects. How retro.
When speaking face to face with people, they are more likely to hear and understand you. They are more likely to trust you. Not every occasion requires PowerPoint.
Make PowerPoint Headings More Active
The title on a PowerPoint slide is the very top line. It’s often used as a description of that page, such as “Agenda”, “Our Team” or “Summary”.
Make that heading more active. Instead of “Agenda”, have it read “7 Steps to Reach the goal”, for example.
Put a lot more energy and time into your message and words than in creating PowerPoint slides.
You are the presentation. The slides are just a tool.
The more slides in your deck, the less your personality shines in the presentation.
Any hope for passion, impromptu comments, and insight goes out the window because your focus is clicking through slides, not talking to the audience.
Try to keep the slides to about one for each minute you speak.
PowerPoint Can Make You Look more Powerful
The less time you spend reading your own slides, and the more time you connect with the audience, the stronger and more confident you appear. That means you need to rehearse more for a presentation that uses slides, than for one that doesn’t.
One small yet powerful tool you should have is a wireless slide changer for PowerPoint if you are presenting live. If you are Zoom, ask the host to give you control of the slides.
Now you can walk the stage, hold on to something to calm nerves, and, appear more confident because you’re not constantly breaking the flow of the presentation to ask for the “next slide, please”.
Don’t Close with your PowerPoint slides
In the Zoom world, it is difficult to get attention, so you need to refresh the audience frequently. You can refresh with a break in the way you are presenting, showing a video refreshes, asking questions and having a conversation is a good way to refresh. We need to do these things because the audience’s attention is straying, no matter how good their intentions.
One of the most important segments in a presentation is the close. It could contain a Q&A session as well. If only to refresh the audience, when you get to the close and don’t need your slides anymore, close the PowerPoint which then allows all of the participants to fill the screen and see each other. Now let’s talk. Have a Q&A, then make your close, which might include a call to action of some sort.
A close is much better done connecting with the audience (to the extent you can) and not a more limited view because the PowerPoint is blocking everyone.
Rehearse your exit line before you start
Here’s a really easy tip that will give you more confidence when you speak.
Before you start your comments at a meeting or in a presentation, have a very clear idea of how you want to end your remarks. There’s nothing worse than watching a good speaker searching for some line or story to close his/her talk. And, knowing your exit line is a great lifesaver if you get in trouble and need to bail out early. You’ll have the close ready to go and get you off the stage with elegance!
1) Identify the one thing you want the audience to remember in terms that are a benefit to them. Build that into the very opening of the presentation.
2) Demonstrate that benefit in the middle of the presentation
3) The close is an echo of the open.
The #1 reason people give to charities is because someone asked them directly to make a donation. Without the ask, there is a lot less giving.
Don’t forget that in your pitch you must ask the prospect to do something: Hire us. Use our services. Adopt our point of view. Whatever it is, don’t assume the prospect knows what you want them to do. Ask them directly and specifically.
The logical place to do that is after the Q&A section and in your close. Summarize the key points you discussed and then look the prospect square in the eyes and ask for the business.
There are two times in a presentation that the audience is probably listening to you; at the very beginning and the very end. A lot of people run out of steam at the end and don’t put enough punch into the last thing they say. They don’t have the same volume and energy that they had in the beginning of the presentation. The end of a pitch is a great opportunity to suggest an action step, get a buy-in, or, receive a nod of approval. But, you won’t get it if you don’t ask. And you need to ask with energy and a smile.