How do you get better results from presentations to any audience? Practical tips on planning, delivering & following up on presentations www.tenandahalf.co.uk
When it comes to presenting, do any of these situations apply to you? You get very anxious before you give your talk You would like to generate a better return from the time and effort you invest in preparing your seminars and presentations You need help to find more efficient and effective ways to follow up after you give your presentation You are searching for creative alternatives to the traditional text heavy death by PowerPoint approach If one or more of the above scenarios does apply to you or anyone else in your firm Tenandahalf can help so please read on to discover: 5 facts that will help you get better results from your presentations immediately Why it s essential that you invest in improving presentation skills across your firm Why do you need to read this report? How to plan more successful presentations How you can make sure you always present with impact and influence How to follow up and get instructions after you ve given your talk The most effective and efficient ways to win new business
1. Success hinges on your ability to engage an audience, not on your ability to provide technical information 2. Your audience will forget most of the information you share (however well it s delivered) but they won t forget you so you need to be likeable 3. Know what you want to happen after your talk (and remember, building profile is not the correct answer, it is far too woolly) then add a clear call to action to make it as likely as possible that what you want to happen, happens 4. Preparation is key. There are 3 aspects to this: 1. Planning 2. Delivery 3. Follow Up 5. Don t benchmark yourself against others in your firm or profession they are not very good! 5 facts that will help you get better results from your presentations immediately
Improved presentations skills will deliver 3 significant (and immediate) benefits to your business and your team: 1. You will win work more easily and reduce your cost of sales How much time do you spend attending events and being disappointed with the financial return? Typically when you attend an event of 50 people you will only talk to 5. The conversation rarely gets beyond small talk before the other person you re talking to moves on. This means the impression you re able to make on them is a little limited. When you are presenting to an entire audience the dynamics are very different; you have the opportunity to make a bigger impact which means better results but why? You are able to broadcast your message to everyone in the room As you re on the podium, everyone in the audience will assume you are an expert You have the opportunity to deliver your talk in a way that will form an emotional connection You can make it easier to follow up by planting clear calls to action 2. You will mark yourself out as the person and personality your audience wants to instruct When it comes to the professional services, people buy people. Having a platform to showcase your personality, engage with prospective clients and demonstrate your expertise will give you the edge over less personal (and more traditional) marketing approaches like advertising, sponsorship and brochures. 3. You and your fee earners will be more confident when it comes to presenting According to research public speaking is feared worse than death. That sounds a little extreme but there is no doubt giving presentations causes the majority of people huge anxiety. Why is it essential you invest in improving presentation skills across your firm? The good news is there are practical things one can do to reduce that anxiety and help people to present with more confidence. This is vital as confidence is critical in getting results. Training in a closed environment will help you and your colleagues build that confidence and this special report is designed to provide a taster of what experts in training lawyers, barristers, accountants and attorneys will do to increase your confidence.
The trap many fall into is rushing to produce their slides rather than them planning thoroughly before they begin putting them together. If you invest more time in the preparation of your slides, considering the needs of your audience and clarifying both their and your objectives, you will get better results. When it comes to planning here are the aspects you need to consider and a few practical tips to help you with each: 1. What action do you want people to take after your talk? All too often I hear people say my talk is just for information or it s just a profile builder. No it isn t. You want to make people to do something specific afterwards; that may mean they behave differently back at work but, in order for you to follow up meaningfully, it s much better that they want to invite you to have a coffee or sign up for a free audit or special report. What you want is to continue the conversation in some form. This is how you build trust and edge yourself closer to an instruction or a referral. plan more successful presentations? If you do not make clear what you want people to do next, the chance is nothing will happen. You must be explicit and give people options to make follow up easier and more comfortable; for example you could say: I am visiting (x) region on (y) date, if you d like to arrange to meet up you can book an appointment today by signing up at the back of the room Or I will be staying on for coffee/lunch afterwards and you can find me at (x) where I will be happy to discuss specific issues you re facing in more detail
2. What is the profile of your audience? The saying that springs to mind here is control the controllable. Some key questions to find out in advance of your talk are: Who is attending? How many will be attending? What approach (formal or informal, progressive or conservative, creative or technical) will people expect? What will the demographics (age, nationality, job title) of the audience be? 3. What is your audience s current level of understanding when it comes to your topic? Do you pitch your talk for beginners or is there already a high level of familiarity with your topic? Sometimes it s better to give two or more talks on the same subject but adapt the approach to different groups at different levels. 4. What can you find out about the venue you ll be presenting in? plan more successful presentations? Know your venue. If at all possible, visit the room where you will be presenting in advance to get a feel for the place. Some of the key things you should be looking to find out are: Are there projection facilities? Will you need to bring your own laptop on the day or send slides in advance? What will the room lay out be? Cabaret is best for big groups, horse shoe best for small. Will there be technical support on the day? What are the acoustics like? Will you need amplification equipment?
5. What is your host s preferred delivery format? Don t make any assumptions. Ask your host, client or audience how they like their speakers to communicate. PowerPoint is one possibility but there are many others. Here are some alternatives: 1. Talk without slides This is a great way to build a closer emotional connection with the audience but it requires confidence. Get it right and you will win (i.e. David Cameron in the Conservative leadership election); get it wrong and you will lose (i.e. Ed Miliband in the recent General Election). 2. Use props to engage This works well for more complex technological explanations and for specific product launches. 3. Experiment with alternative visual presentation tools like Prezi These are all great software packages but require you to know how to use them. Also, check they are compatible with the available IT with your host first. 4. Always mail your presentation electronically in PDF format This tiny tweak will better protect your intellectual property, make your slides look more professional (resolution is sharper in PDF) and avoid potential formatting issues if your hosts have different versions of PowerPoint. plan more successful presentations? 6. Do you know your audience already or do you need to establish your credentials? Ask yourself is it really necessary to share my professional biography at the start of the talk? Often these intros can be quite dull so should be avoided, especially if the audience knows the presenter already or the information is simply not relevant to the talk. If the answer is yes, your credentials should be relevant, interesting and presented in a memorable way that grabs the audience s attention.
7. positively engage your audience before your talk? Getting buy-in is half the battle. You can make this easier by getting in touch with your audience before the day of the talk. How do you do this? Ask the audience what their key challenges or needs are in advance by using a simple questionnaire Ask for key stakeholders input via coffee meetings before you start designing your talk On the day ask the audience what they want you to talk about before you start (this is more for the ultra-confident!) plan more successful presentations?
I ll let you in to a secret: It s not what you say; it s the way that you say it. 1. How strong is your start? First impressions count for everything. People will form a view in the first 30 seconds and rarely budge from that position. 2. Do you sound enthusiastic? People are more likely to believe what you say if you look like you believe what you are saying. 3. Does the way you present yourself fit with your message and what you re selling? If you are selling high value services do you dress well? If you re selling to a public sector audience, do you dress too well? 4. Does your style of dress, grooming and appearance match your audience? If in doubt look smarter and more conservative than you think you need to. 5. How interesting do you sound? Work on varying your pitch and intonation and try to use a few pauses for dramatic effect too. make sure you always present with impact and influence? 6. How is your posture? Stand tall with shoulders back. 7. Do you use your whole body to communicate? Use your hands for amplification. Express yourself fully.
8. Are you adding value to your slides or just reading them? Your slides should support your message, they should not be a substitute for you. If all you are doing is reading material you don t need to be there! 9. What are the 3 key messages that you want people to take away from your talk? Peoples ability to retain information from talks is very poor. Keep it simple and make sure that people remember three important points. You can provide more detail or technical information separately via a follow up email or a hard-copy hand-out after the event. 10. How engaging are your slides? Bin the bullet points and use words in windows instead. Use images, schematics, charts and diagrams in preference to words. Keep sentences short. 10½. Make your font big. 11. How will you keep people attentive for the duration of your talk? People have poor concentration spans. After 18 minutes there is a dramatic drop in your audience s attention. There are however some things that you can do to help them keep their attention: make sure you always present with impact and influence? Use a variety of media, e.g. props and video Use different ways to communicate, e.g. visual, aural, kinaesthetic and numerate Have breaks Involve the audience via questions and exercises Tell stories
12. Why do you tell stories? Stories are an opportunity for the presenter to show the personality behind the suit. This is important as you want your audience to feel a personal connection with you and see reason to continue the conversation your talk. On a more physical note, because when you tell stories you are effectively rewinding a tape in your brain, you can recall the detail without having to look at the screen behind you. This makes it much easier for you to strengthen your connection with your audience. Also people can relate to stories because people like stories and they are significantly more interesting than bullet points! 13. Do I really need to rehearse my talk? I am very busy you know... Yes" is the simple answer. Rehearsal removes glitches and will improve how confidently you present on the day of your talk. No buts! 14. What is the best way to manage hand-outs? Always after your talk, never before. If you provide hand-outs before don t share the actual presentation, just offer some pertinent background information that ll put your talk into context. Why is this approach preferable? make sure you always present with impact and influence? You want people to listen to you Sharing materials afterwards makes it easier to keep the dialogue going Your slides should have little text so they won t be particularly helpful! You should have two sets of material: one for the slides that is visually rich and one for emailing or handing out at the end that is more detailed and text heavy.
15. Invest in a mobile clicker (& actually use it) Have you ever been to a talk and seen someone bending down to click the mouse on their lap top? Doesn t look great does it? This is easily rectified and you will not get a stiff back again either, just buy a remote clicker from Maplin or PC World. 16. Don t hold your notes Your primary objective is to engage your audience. Holding notes presents a number of issues that get in the way of establishing that engagement. Here are 2 big reasons why you should never hold notes: i. If you are nervous you will shake your documents and this will unsettle your audience. They will start to doubt your messages as they can t have confidence in you if it looks like you re unsure of what you are saying ii. Looking at your notes will stop you from making eye-contact with your audience and you need that eye contact if you re going to build trust and form any sort of connection 17. Chop the lectern up for fire wood Standing at a lectern presents a barrier between you and your audience. Again this makes it harder for you to engage people. Have the confidence to step away from the lectern and speak to people in a more natural conversational tone of voice. make sure you always present with impact and influence?
18. Coping with fear Recognise fear and don t feel embarrassed. Some anxiety is both expected (it shows you are human) and good - some stress will actually motivate you to do better and will help you to energise yourself and focus your attention. Here are some practical coping mechanisms: Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse Arrive at the venue early and get familiar with the environment and equipment Adopt some perspective ask yourself if I were in the audience would I remember today in 12 months time? Dress confidently in comfortable clothes Have a lighter touch in your delivery Keep the structure of your talk simple make sure you always present with impact and influence?
Many people are disappointed by the results their talks, seminars and workshops generate. While there are many explanations for poor outcomes, by far the most common is inadequate or, dare I say, poor - follow up. So, how do you follow up to maximise the value of the time that you have invested in your talk? Your success hinges on two key areas: calls to action and marketing touch points ; let s handle each in turn. 1. Calls to action Many presentations - no most presentations - finish abruptly with a thank you slide or a quick here are my contact details. This isn t enough. Instead you need to: Spell out exactly what you want to happen Make it as easy as possible for your audience to make that happen So what is it that you want to happen? Before every talk you ever give you should set very clear objectives or measures of success. Simply to win business will rarely be the right objective as most talks are a singular part of the business development process. Similarly, an objective to build profile is not accurate either. It is woolly and nebulous. How to follow up and get instructions after you ve given your talk?
There are two aspects to objective setting: Firstly be SMAC: Your objectives should be specific, measurable, achievable and compatible with your wider business objectives. Secondly have ODEs: O is your optimum result; e.g. your target clients coming up to you voluntarily and enthusiastically after your talk to say that they want you to visit them at their office D is your desired outcome; e.g. great audience feedback and easy and clearly laid out ways in which to follow up with the prospects in attendance E is essential; e.g. you don t freeze on the day. How do you make it all a little easier? The key thing is don t make assumptions. Suggest small, easy baby steps rather than forcing big commitments. Provide as many options as possible and make all your suggestions or instructions clear. 2. Marketing touch points Business development success does not necessarily come from your talks per se. Success comes from the sum of the parts it s the combination of all your activities that will make you more visible in your chosen markets. Again, there are several factors to consider: Bringing people with you slowly makes it easier for you to build trust and easier for your audiences to manage perceived risk How to follow up and get instructions after you ve given your talk? Communicating across different channels (e.g. print, social media, email and face-to-face) allows you to provide a more rounded impression. More importantly, everyone prefers different ways of communicating so using a variety of channels is essential Buying professional services is largely about timing. Follow up based on ongoing touches keeps you on your prospective clients radars so that when the time is right they think of you, not a competitor Prospects might want to see other people in your organisation before making a decision
Stop Selling, drink Coffee with key clients, referrers and business targets (in that order of priority). When it comes to drinking coffee employ a structured approach like the Tenandahalf Coffee Plan tool to ensure you stay visible Go to the right networking events (the ones your competitors don t go to but those your clients and prospective clients do go to) Don t just attend, participate then follow up within 48 hrs no excuses! Find speaking platforms, deliver engaging talks and follow up using the ideas in this report Build relationships with journalists to get thought leadership style articles published in titles your clients and prospects read and never pay for the privilege Use LinkedIn effectively (we have another special report for that at www.tenandahalf.co.uk, please help yourself) Use Google Alerts to automatically send relevant new stories into your email in box and then share them intelligently. At Tenandahalf we call this Saw This & Thought Of You Collect case studies and client testimonials and use them liberally; they show prospective clients that you have all the necessary credentials What are the most effective and efficient ways to win new business?
How do Tenandahalf approach presentation skills training? We always use a very straightforward 5 step process. 1. You identify the people who will benefit most from Presentation Skills 2. Email info@tenandahalf.co.uk to arrange an initial coffee consultation to explore best way forward 3. We ll then scope out a training programme designed specifically to meet your commercial, business development and personal development goals 4. We deliver that programme via workshops, 1on1 coaching or a combination of both 5. 3 months after the training we will meet up with you to check on you and your team s presentation progress What do you need to do next? If you can recognise how improving Presentation Skills will benefit you, your department or your firm, please choose 1 of the following 3 options: call Claire on 0115 969 9817 to arrange your free 45 minute coffee consultancy email douglas@tenandahalf.co.uk to find out more about exactly how we help clients get better results Phone Bernard on 07771 897772 to discuss how Tenandahalf might be able to help you How do Tenandahalf approach presentation skills training and what do you need to do next? www.tenandahalf.co.uk info@tenandahalf.co.uk