Effective Presentation Skill – Energy

Using your own personal energy to share your passion and enthusiasm with the group is an effective presentation skill. Here are some ways you can energize your presentation and create a positive atmosphere.

Tips to Energize Your Presentations

by: Sandra Schrift

“There can be no knowledge without emotion. We may be aware of a truth, yet until we have felt its force, it is not ours. To the cognition of the brain must be added the experience of the soul.”
– Arnold Bennett (1867-1931)

Ask yourself, “What is the audience feeling?” and “How would I like him/her to feel?” You need to be aware of:

How frequently you use positive emotional words.

How you moderate the use of negative emotional words.

Here are some ways that you can help your audience interact with each other.

Room set-up. Be sure people face each other so they can talk to each other. Use round tables, rather than theatre or classroom style.

Don’t permit cliques. Get your participants to sit with new people. Be innovative in your approach to seat people differently. Some examples: Use a colorful post it, group by hair color, or place cards.

Use icebreakers. You can ask your audience to say a word that describes their week. Give them something else to talk about other than business when the meeting breaks.

Setup small groups or dyads to discuss issues. This technique will get your participants to brainstorm with their partner or group.
Coaching point: Forced interaction engages people. What can be more fun?

Register for a free teleclass on “How To Be a Better Public Speaker Immediately”; Thursday, August 26, 2004 from 7-8 p.m. EST. Register by sending an email to: freeteleclass@schrift.com

Publishing Guidelines: You are welcome to publish this article in its entirety, electronically, or in print fre*e of charge, as long as you include my full signature file for ezines, and my Web site address(http://www.schrift.com) in hyperlink for other sites. Please send a courtesy link or email where you publish to sandra@schrift.com. Thank you.

COPYRIGHT: ©2004 by Sandra Schrift. All rights reserved

Article URL: http://www.schrift.com/article_37.htm

Article Autoresponder: article-037@schrift.com

This article on Effective Presentation Skills is presented to you by:

Sandra Schrift 13 year speaker bureau owner and now career coach to emerging and veteran public speakers who want to “grow” a profitable speaking business. I also work with business professionals and organizations who want to master their presentations.

Get more speaking skills at our “Summer Sizzle” webpage: http://www.schrift.com/summer_sizzle.htm

Join my free bi-weekly Monday Morning Mindfulness ezine http://www.schrift.com/monday.htm

Don’t forget that you can always make your presentation skills more effective.

Other related Effective Presentation Skills Articles:

Platform Presentation Skills

Sales Presentation Skills

No matter what stage you are at in your business there is always a need to access your sales presentation skills and get creative about how to increase your sales.

Polishing Your Sales Presentation

by: Dan Collins

Summer is here! It’s time to bring out your summer attire, take a vacation and reflect upon your achievements thus far this year. Look back at the past few months of your sales production . . . are you on target for all your sales goals for 2005? Are you making the sales from all your sales presentations?

You may be far ahead in some areas or behind in others. No matter what your sales production is today you certainly should have another look at what targets and goals you have developed in your game plan for 2005.

Are you using your strengths to their fullest potential? To improve your sales results, determine what has been working or not working. Then define where to concentrate your productive energies for the next two quarters in 2005 or the remainder of your compensation period.

The statistics say that 90% of the sale is made in the presentation. Many sales professionals need to be more innovative and prepare for every presentation. When planned and executed well, your presentation is the most effective method of winning more customers. The most important point of a presentation is that the objective of communication is not the transmission, but the reception. The whole preparation and content of presentation must therefore be geared to the customer with a clear objective that will specify actions or commitments you desire from the customer. Be creative and original to tailor the presentation to catch their attention and respect. Differentiate yourself from your competition.

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of careful preparation. Five minutes face to face with senior management could decide the acceptance or rejection of a proposal. With so much potentially at stake, the presenter must concentrate not only upon the facts being given, but also upon the style, pace, tone and tactics that should be used to best relate to the audience.

· Explain at the beginning of the presentation what will be covered and how long it will take so they know what to expect.

· Plan exactly how you wish to appear to them; dress appropriately for the audience.

· Rehearse your presentation. There is no substitute for practicing.

· Accentuate your gestures and vocal projection; always have great eye contact.

· A smooth presentation is the key for your customer to sense your sincerity and confidence.

· Don’t try to answer every question. They will respect you more if you get back to them with the correct answer.

There are three primary ways people learn:

Visually – people learn through reading, seeing and mental images.

Auditorily – people learn through listening and hearing.

Kinesthetically – people learn through touching and doing.

Try to find out how your customers prefer to learn. Pay attention during conversations, if they read a lot and use phrases like, “I see it,” and then they probably learn best visually, so use plenty of excellent visuals. If they use words like, “I haven’t heard that, but that sounds good to me,” they learn best auditorily, so keep the speaking dialog going at a pace and tone that they are comfortable with. If you see them holding your collateral and product they might learn best kinesthetically. Deliver your presentation primarily that way and create a well-rounded presentation that encompasses all the learning styles. For example, include visuals, have a good speaking voice, and bring samples of the product for every customer. But primarily tailor your presentation to their preferred learning style.

Although they will be trying very hard to concentrate on your presentation, your audience’s minds will inevitably stray. Your job is to do something, anything that captures their attention and makes a lasting impression upon them. You don’t necessarily have to use repeated phrases, but simply make the point again and again with different explanations and in different ways. Include the audience in the presentation; ask them questions to get them involved and keep them involved. Once your presentation is over, you should try to honestly evaluate your performance. Either alone, or with the help of someone involved, decide what were the least and most successful aspects of your presentation and concentrate on those areas for your next presentation. If there’s a problem with the preparation or execution, then work on it. Practice is only productive when you make a positive effort to improve your presentations. Be committed to self-improvement to further develop your career. Be coached, or coach yourself, to constantly improve your presentations. Analyzing your strengths and building upon them is an effective method of self-coaching.

“A presentation is an interactive conversation with the customer.” – Dan Collins

We believe that for any investment of sales improvement to generate a positive return, whether it is field training, classroom training, online learning, computer based, audiobooks, etc., predefined outcomes need to be articulated and then executed. So clearly define what you want to accomplish for the remainder of 2005, focusing on being more innovative and preparing for every presentation and of course, follow through and support your game plan for 2005 with sales training tools like our Sound Selling Audiobook™. Good luck goal setting, presenting and selling!

This Sales Presentation Skills article was brought to you by:

By Dan Collins, Author & Speaker

Where people go to grow. http://www.collinseducational.com

Copyright © by Collins Educational, LLC.

I hope you found this skills for sales presentations article useful and use it to improve your sales process.

Other related Sales Presentation Skills Articles:

Platform Presentation Skills

Sales and Marketing

How To Give an Effective Presentation

Being able to hold a powerful presentation will allow you to present yourself as a true professional. Here are ten great coaching tips on how to give an effective and powerful presentation.

Coaching Tips for Powerful Presentations

by: Sandra Schrift

Tip #1 The purpose of your speech is to get results; to help people make changes and think or act differently. So start with the end in mind. What do you want people to do as a result of your speech? What do they need to know to do this? What do they need to feel to do this?

Tip #2 Show your audience that coaching is a process. It is different from consulting. Do some coaching (role playing) during your presentation. Let audience members see what it would be like to have you as their coach.

Tip #3 Determine what kind of coaching the client wants and needs. Interview a few people before you give your program to find out what challenges they are experiencing. The program chair can provide you with a few names to contact. Then use this information in your speech content.

Tip #4 People learn in three ways: Visual (what they can see), Auditory (what they can hear), and Kinesthetic (what they can touch). Try to include all three ways in your speech. Most of your audience will be visual and need to “see” what they “hear” from you. So tell your personal stories to support your points. When the audience hears your story(ies) they will feel connected to you.

Tip #5 People have short attention spans. Review your main points before you end your speech. Don’t give them too much information. Most people only remember one or two concepts – so provide your best one or two ideas that will have the most significance to that particular audience.

Tip #6 Be conversational by engaging the audience. Don’t lecture the audience. Adults love to learn but don’t like to think they are in school. Be interactive. Remember, the audience that gets involved with your material will learn something they can use immediately. A great speaker wants the audience to “own” his/her material.

Tip #7 Use humor. This keeps the audience interested and they learn better. I don’t mean telling jokes. Use deprecating humor or make comments on common every day events, you know, the human condition. Bill Cosby is great at this. Think of others who do this well and emulate their style.

Tip #8 Use strong openings. Examples: a story, a significant statement, a quotation, a challenging question. You really only have 60 seconds to connect with your audience. Then you must provide a speech that engages them. Using personal stories and sprinkling your remarks with humor will keep them interested

Tip #9 Use Strong Closings. Examples: Provide a summary. (Tell ‘em what you told them) Review the main points, make a statement, tell an anecdote. Finally challenge them to take some action . . . immediately, in the next 48 hours, in one week, by the end of the year.

Tip #10 Use an evaluation form. This will provide you with feedback to grow and make course corrections as needed. Keep it short and always ask, “Who else would benefit from this program?” “May I call you to get this information?” Then follow up! For more tips: www.speaklikeaproforprofit.com

This How To Give an Effective Presentation Article was brought to you by:

Sandra Schrift 13 year speaker bureau owner and now career coach to emerging and veteran public speakers who want to “grow” a profitable speaking business. I also work with business professionals and organizations who want to master their presentations. To find out How to Become a Highly Paid Professional Speaker, go to http://www.schrift.com/ProfessionalSpeaker/ Join my free bi-weekly Monday Morning Mindfulness ezine http://www.schrift.com/monday.htm

If you’ve found these ten tips on how to give a presentation that’s effective useful, then make sure to put them to good use.

Other related How To Give an Effective Presentation Articles:

Platform Presentation Skills

How To Give a Presentation

How To Give a Presentation

If you don’t know how to give a presentation remember this; it’s not as hard as you think. Here are 27 tips to help you give an effective presentation.

27 Tips For An Effective Presentation

by: Jacki Rose

So you’re not a professional speaker. That’s no excuse for NOT giving a professional presentation.

You have a great product or service! You’ve put together an awesome presentation with great content!

You really know your stuff! You’re an expert! None of this matters if you don’t have public speaking skills.

If you don’t speak like a pro, you won’t get the results you want.

1. Introduction Bring a typed introduction and ask your introducer to read it verbatim. This will give you credibility and give the audience a reason to listen to you.

2. Audience Speak in front of an audience that can benefit from your service and can hire you.

3. Opening You only have 30 seconds to grab your audience’s attention otherwise you may lose them forever. Open with a story, a question, a song, etc. that is relative to your speech or at least to the audience.

4. Body Give enough information that they will remember and want more. A common mistake for many is that they give way too much information. Leave your audience feeling good not overwhelmed.

5. Closing A good movie with a bad or disappointing ending will ruin the impact of the movie. Same with your presentation. Be sure to have a strong close in order to have impact on your audience.

6. Stories Tell personal stories in order to make your points. People remember stories more than anything else. 7. Humor Make your audience smile, chuckle, or laugh. When people have fun they remember more and will stay attentive to you.

8. Attention There are many ways to keep your audience’s attention. Many are mentioned in this article. The more attention you have, the more results you will get.

9. Authenticity Be yourself. When you are sincere and show the audience who you really are, you will have more of an impact.

10. Confidence So you’re nervous sometimes. So what. You don’t have to let others know. Act confident and you will appear and feel confident.

11. Preparation The more you’re prepared, the more confidence you will have, and the better job you will do. Know your material!

12. Pausing This is a great attention getter. After saying something that you want your audience to remember, pause, be silent, and give it time to sink in. Pause instead of using ah or um. Pause when you forget what you were going to say next. It’s o.k. to pause and re-collect your thoughts. 13. Vocal Variety Have your voice match what you are saying. Be expressive and show it in your voice.

14. Body Language Have your body match what you are saying. If you are telling a story about someone talking on the phone, use your hand as a fake phone and pretend you are talking into it.

15. Nervous Fidgeting Pacing back and forth, hands in your pockets, and rocking are all distractions. Be aware of your own nervous habits and stop doing them.

16. Eye Contact Look at your audience. Move your eyes from one side of the audience, to the middle to the other side in a smooth motion.

17. Time Stick to your allotted time and be prepared for your time to be cut short.

18. Connect with the audience. Find something that they can relate to you with.

19. Control You are in command of the room. Do not talk over people if others are talking among themselves.

20. Stay on Track If someone asks a question that is not relevant, tell them you will be happy to answer that question after the session. 21. Notes It’s o.k. to use notes. Have them be your handouts, your flipcharts, your power point, etc.

22. Visualization Imagine yourself the way you would like to be perceived when presenting, then act that way.

23. Hand Outs Try to always have hand outs and be sure they have your contact information on them. This way you have given people a way to get in touch with you.

24. Dress Wear something that makes you feel like a million bucks and you will act and appear like a million bucks.

25. Record and/or video tape your presentations. You will learn a great deal from them.

26. Give A Ways If you have a product for sale, give a few away as prizes. This lets the audience know you’ve got stuff without having to give a sales pitch.

27. Listen Get your audience to open up and listen carefully. You may gather valuable information for your next presentation.

This How To Give a Presentation Article was brought to you by:

Jacki Rose is a Professional Speaker and Training Consultant who teaches business professionals how to be more dynamic, engaging, and successful presenters.
jackirose.com
jacki@jackirose.com

I hope you found this article on how to give a presentation useful.

Other related Giving a Presentation Articles:

Platform Presentation Skills

« Previous Page