Five Important Questions to Ask About Your Audience

Every presentation should be built with the audience in mind. In order to do that, you need to be armed with some important information about them.  Here are five key questions so ask of whoever invited you to speak. 

1)    Who are they?  Are they prospects? Clients?  Peers? Management? A Board of Directors? One size does not fit all when it comes to presentations.  Begin with the simple knowledge of whom you’ll be speaking to.

2)    Why are they coming to hear your presentation? Are they coming voluntarily or are they required to be there?  Are they coming eagerly or under duress?  Understanding their attitude about your message will go a long way towards helping you design it.

3)    How much do they know about your topic? Are they well-versed in your subject matter or are they clueless?  Are there a variety of knowledge levels among the audience members? Is there one know-it-all amidst a group of novices? If their knowledge levels are mixed (which is often the case) you’ll want to create your message very thoughtfully. Your best approach is to aim for middle ground. DO NOT speak to appeal to the most knowledgeable person in the room at the expense of everyone else.  Instead, acknowledge Mr. or Mrs. Expert before you begin.  I say something like, “Ben here knows at least as much as I do about this topic. If I should drop dead in the middle of this presentation, he can take over.” That gives Ben a shout out for his knowledge without sacrificing the group’s understanding of the message. 

4)    Do they have preconceived notions about your topic? This is critical to know.  Better to walk into the room having a good idea of how your audience feels about your topic than to be blindsided three sentences in.  If they’re fans of what you’ll be speaking about, that’s great.  You won’t have to spend lots of time winning them over.  If, on the other hand, they have negative views and/or feelings about your message (or your product or service) you’ll have to begin with a very convincing argument to win them over.  Sometimes simply acknowledging their feelings – getting it out in the open - is the best way to begin.  Tell them you know they are skeptical about  “X”. If you can, get specific. List a few of their reasons, and then debunk each one.  Now you’ll have them ready and willing to hear what you have to say.

5)     What is their attention span? Find out what it is and then do not exceed it! If they’re over-the-top interested they’ll ask questions and keep the conversation going. In fact, the more concise and compelling you can be, the more likely it is that they’ll be eager to continue the conversation. 

These and other questions are part of our bespeak audience assessment tool, included in our recently released book: Nail it. Create and deliver presentations that connect, compel, andconvince. (Available on amazon.com) Have suggestions for others?  Email, tweet or comment on LinkedIn or Facebook – we’d love to hear your ideas!

Why your presentation isn't coming out the way you thought it would

If you’re reading this, my guess is this has happened to you.  You’re about a minute and a half into your presentation when things start going wrong.  Maybe just slightly, uncomfortably wrong or maybe horribly this-can’t-be-really-happening wrong. Either way, you end the presentation feeling somewhere between a little let down and completely wrung out.  “How did that just happen?” you think to yourself, “It sounded so good in my mind.” Want to avoid this kind of unwelcome surprise in the future? Next time, make sure you are not doing the following:

1.  Running through the presentation ‘in your head’: Things sound great in your head. You’re the keynote speaker of your dreams, the smartest guy or gal in the room.  You’re uttering the pithiest, most hilarious, most insightful stuff ever said.  Except that you’re not hearing yourself saying it, you’re hearing it in your head. Nothing ever sounds the same in your head as it does coming out of your mouth.  In fact, you don’t really even know how it sounds at all until you hear it OUT LOUD.  OUT LOUD you’ll hear where you’re missing transitions, where you’re spending too much time on one point and not enough on another.  OUT LOUD you’ll find the right words to say. Oh, and OUT LOUD you’ll see how saying those words feels. Saying stuff in your head and saying stuff OUT LOUD are two completely different experiences. First of all, OUT LOUD you have to push air through your vocal chords and out of your mouth – which has to form different shapes depending on the words you’re saying. That requires energy, effort and skill.  Remember “Sally sells sea shells by the sea shore”?  How easily can you say it in your head?  How easily can you say it out loud? See? Lastly, let’s face it, when you’re running through your presentation in your head you can be easily distracted.  Something else (anything else) can easily take precedent and poof!, your presentation is replaced by thoughts of lunch, a meeting, a Facebook photo… This is why you must practice OUT LOUD.  In your head does not count.  Period.

2.  Reading from a script: I know, I know.  You want to be sure you don’t forget anything.  You don’t want to digress or get a fact or figure wrong.  Plus, (according to you) you’re not so eloquent.  Writing it down ensures you’ll be well-spoken, right?  Wrong.  Writing it down and reading from it ensures you’ll sound like you’re reading.  And unless you’re a playwright or script writer you’ll be delivering something that sounds like reading material, not like conversation. Even worse, it’s virtually impossible to be lively, dynamic and – most important – connecting when you’re reading.  Who cares if you repeat a word, or search for a word or even back track to a previous point to tag on something you forgot to say? As long as you’re looking at your audience and not reading from a script, they won’t care about any stumbles. And if you’ve practiced OUT LOUD there will only be minor stumbles anyway.  You’ll be speaking in real, everyday language, just as you would in conversation with friends or colleagues.  You’ll be communicating living ideas, not reciting from a dry (and most likely deadly) script. Instead of scripting every word, give yourself notes with keywords or at the most, short phrases.  These will keep you on track and focused, while not sacrificing the connection between you and the audience or the natural pace and vocabulary of your regular, lively unscripted speech.

3.  Relying on text heavy PowerPoint slides: This, combined with not practicing out loud, is probably the biggest detriment to presentations.  Frankly, if you practiced your presentation OUT LOUD odds are good you’d end up deleting just about all of the text.  You’d see that having all of those words up on the screen only caused distraction (and not only for you, for the audience as well).  Once you practice your presentation OUT LOUD you’ll find that you don’t need all of those words, you can remember what you want to say without them.  Bravo!  And thank heavens, because those slides were never ever meant to be your notes. Lots and lots of text on a slide does nothing but create a barrier between you and the lively connecting delivery of your message.

Don’t let any of these bad habits get in the way of your next presentation.  Use notes with simple key words or short phrases, remember that PowerPoint slides are there to aid the audience, not hold your copious notes.  And for goodness sake, practice OUT LOUD. You’ll be giving presentations that feel even better than you imagined in your head!  And you’ll be heard.

The Three Things Every Human Being Loves to Hear

The other night I was speaking about presenting oneself in different venues - informal (a cocktail party), intentional (a networking event) and formal (an interview).  Somehow I mentioned two of the three things human beings love to hear, and I watched as the audience's faces showed signs of deep connection and agreement. As receivers, we know how much these simple phrases mean to us.  As deliverers - why aren't we saying them more? 
 

1. Thank you

We all love to feel appreciated.  Even when we think we don't really need the thank you, it's always, always great to hear it. (Or read it in a note, email, or even text). Thanking people for things small and large can make their day. A sincere thank you, delivered with eye contact is priceless.

2. I'm sorry

This one is way way tougher for folks to say, and equally important for the potential recipient to hear.  I'm not advocating apologizing all over the place for, like, breathing.  Those kind of apologies don't show remorse or sorrow, they show tremendous insecurity and need for attention on the part of the apologist. I'm also not talking about presenters apologizing to audiences for things otherwise invisible to them, like slides being in the wrong order.  Apologies like those only distract audiences from your message - never a good thing. I'm talking about really apologizing for something you did wrong; deliberately or inadvertently.  And the best part about saying "I'm sorry" is that it makes the deliverer feel as good - or better - than the recipient!

3. Their name

When we call someone by name we immediately personalize whatever comes after.  We remind them we know exactly to whom we are speaking.  Especially these days, when all of us are so constantly distracted by cell phones, computers, radio and TV, it's important to let the person to whom you're speaking know that you know their name!

Do you have other suggestions for things humans love to hear?  Weigh in!

5 Ways to Screw up Your Next Presentation

1.) Copy and paste stuff from other people's slide decks
 I know, I know, you're a very busy person.  You don't have time to reinvent the wheel (or in this case, the visuals for your presentation). It's easier and faster just to go into your colleague's presentations and copy and paste stuff.  And that's exactly why it's so detrimental.  It requires hardly any effort, or any thought. It's kind of like shopping in a grocery store (even a really good grocery store) without any idea of what you want to cook.  You come away with some interesting ingredients, but no way to make it a meal.

A good presentation, like a good meal, requires thought, and a lot of it.  If someone has a slide that shows exactly what you want to say, copy and paste away.  But please don't put your brain on auto-pilot and go shopping in other people's slide decks. 
 
2.) Click through your slides a few times and decide you're good to go.
Clicking through your slides may help you become familiar with them, their order, etc., but it is not the same as PRACTICING OUT LOUD.You must PRACTICE OUT LOUD in order to work through the inevitable kinks.  You want to be sure you can talk through transition points, talk to what the audience is looking at, determine if in fact they should be looking at that particular thing at all.  There is no way to know how the presentation will go, what it will sound like, how long it will take, if you've got things in the right order, if there's too much of one thing and not enough of another until you PRACTICE OUT LOUD.  Oh, and once you get everything the way you want it you'll want to PRACTICE OUT LOUD a few more times for familiarities sake. 

3.) Put EVERYTHING you're going to want them to 'know' on the slide.
If you've put together a PowerPoint deck that says everything you're going to say in the presentation, do your audience a favor.  Email the deck to them and let them read it in the comfort of their own offices or homes.  Don't drag them out and into a boardroom or ballroom to watch and listen as you tell them what they can read on the screen.  Remember, we read and listen with the same side of our brains.  We cannot do both at the same time.  Plus, putting something on a slide - particularly text, does nothing to insure that our audience will 'know' it.  Want them to remember a key point in your presentation?  Tie it to a story. People remember stories, and they'll remember the point that went with it. 

4.) Apologize to the audience right at the start, and repeatedly throughout.
Unless you're two hours late or the air conditioning or heat isn't functioning in the room there's no reason to be apologizing.  Audiences don't care if you're nervous, they won't like to hear you "just whipped this together last night", nor will they realize your slides are out of order - unless you tell them.  Audiences are there for themselves.  Apologizing for your nerves or your slides only draws attention to things they wouldn't have noticed or cared about otherwise.  Don't do it.

5.) Wing it.
Every once in a while I run into someone who brags to me that when giving a presentation they "wing it". Like this is something to be proud of. Any time you gather people together to hear what you have to say it behooves you to know what is going to come out of your mouth. If you are a nervous speaker, hate public speaking, or think you stink at it, try PRACTICING OUT LOUD. I guarantee you will have a happier, more confident, all around better result.  Be kind to your audience and to yourself.  Quit winging it.

See yourself in any (or all) of these five?  If you do, turn things around.  you'll be on your way to creating and delivering great, successful presentations.  In short, you'll be heard.

Trombone or presentation; we must practice practice practice

When my friend and loyal newsletter reader, Isaiah Cooper, read my August issue he wrote me with the following insight.  With his permission I share this with you.  What's good for the trumpet player is equally good for the presenter!

"When I read the part(s) about practicing out loud it reminded me of things I learned about practicing the trombone when I was a professional trombonist. 

When I was preparing for a concert or for an audition I would record my practicing (in those days a decent “Walkman” would provide a reasonable recording).  I would then listen to it three times: 

(1) once to get out (and get rid of) my super self-critical chatter (which is meaningless, really),

(2) once to focus on what was wrong in the recording, and

(3) once to focus on what was right in the recording. 

I learned that if I had a clear mental (or aural) image of how I wanted to sound and if I just noticed where my performance was not matching up with that mental image, when I played it next I would correct many things automatically.

A speaker has to have a clear idea of what they want to communicate and let that guide their practice.

Given time constraints, it is easier to use this system with short segments (phrases, not whole movements) of a musical piece (or of a presentation). 

A speaker or presenter could use this approach to practice their presentation with respect to each slide or each group of slides."

I could not agree more - even with the listening to the recording three times.  We must practice OUT LOUD in order to make what we want to say match up with what actually comes out of our mouths.  (or in Isaiah's case, his trombone).

Put some meat on those bones!

I know, I know; you want to give your audience their money's worth. You want them to feel their time is well spent.  SO you pack your presentation full of references, statistics, lists from a to g.  You've got five main points to your presentation and about 7 sub-points under each one of those. Those audience members are going to leave your presentation with lots of really important stuff in their heads if it's the last thing you do. Well, my well intentioned reader, it may not be the last thing you do, but it may be the last time you or your "stuff" are thought about.  

Tons of stuff; main points and sub points and statistics and expert references don't put meat on the bones of your message.  They're just more noise.  At some point, none of it sticking - the audience tunes out.  almost worse, there's nothing they can take away.  So how to put meat on those bones?  How to make it stick?  

First, think of your main points more completely.  WHY is this point important?  If you're suggesting a change in thinking or acting, HOW does this change come about?  WHAT great things will happen if this change is adopted?  These are the questions you must answer in order for the audience to hear, digest and internalize your message. 

For example, I tell audiences that one of the most important things they can do to become a more confident more compelling speaker is to practice out loud.  If I left the point there and went on to the next thing, how likely do you think they'd be to remember this advice, let alone adopt it?  Exactly.

Instead, once I tell them to practice I tell them why; "Your presentation never comes out of your mouth the way it sounds in your head and there is nothing scarier than hearing words come out of your mouth for the very first time in front of  a real live audience."  Now I've got their attention because chances are good they've had this experience.  Next I tell them how.  "Shower and car.  We all take a shower, at least every other day.  Showers are great places to practice.  The distractions are few and the acoustics are great.  The car is another great place to practice.  years ago you'd have looked like an idiot riding down the highway talking to yourself; now everyone's doing it!" Lastly, I tell them what they can expect from practicing out loud.  They'll be exponentially more confident, more compelling because they will have heard what they're saying.  They'll know it's organized properly, they'll know they're using the right words and stories.  Knowing these things instills confidence, composure and conviction. 

See ?  It's not rocket science; it's plain old common sense.  take the time to really think about the important points in your next presentation.  Develop the why, how and what.  Don't stuff your presentation with stuff; lists and author references and complicated charts.  Put real meat on the bones instead.  That'll stick, and you'll be heard.

Want the audience's undivided attention? Earn it.

 Yesterday morning I was asked a great question by an audience member at my presentation to the New England Professional Products Association, "What do you do about audience members - particularly in a small sales meeting - looking at their smart phones instead of paying attention to you?"  My immediate answer, email the client ahead of time and request their full attention so that they can make a well informed decision, was a bad one.

If we want the audience's attention, be it one person, eight people or eight hundred, we must earn it.  How?  First, we must do the hard work to make sure we are speaking directly to their needs and interests.  In a sales meeting this is a matter of asking the right questions, asking thoughtful follow up questions, listening carefully to the answers and then coming up with solutions.

We must work tirelessly to insure that our meetings are so completely customer focused that they can't help but give us their undivided attention.  I always say every audience member is like every 15 year old you've ever known in your whole entire life; they only care about themselves.  In a sales meeting it's their job to care about themselves.  (As an audience member at a conference or other event it's their natural point of reference.) It's our job to focus on them.  The more diligently and accurately we do that the more they'll reward us with their attention.