Everyone personalizes everything.
Everyone personalizes everything. So spoke my new friend and founder of FuturesThrive, Wendy Ward. How right she is. We filter everything we see and hear through the lens of our personal experience.
So, what does this mean for you and your presentations? For starters, it means you must be building your presentations with your audience at the forefront of your mind. As I like to say (again and again and again) you must turn your focus 180 degrees. You must sit yourself in your audience’s seat and examine everything you’re thinking about saying through the eyes and ears of your audience.
For example, you’ll be careful not to tell a story that could take them down a rabbit hole of their own emotions – taking their attention away from you and your message.
You won’t throw out a factoid or statistic that’s questionable or controversial without clearly explaining and or authenticating it. Why? You’re smart; you don’t want gigantic question marks in their minds, causing doubt and uncertainty not just about that stat, but about everything you say after it.
You’ll make sure you’re not using jargon words or acronyms they may not understand. That will only piss them off; who wants to do that? (ahem, not you.)
If you’re giving a persuasive presentation, you’ll make sure the benefits to them are truly benefits they want and care about. And if you know it’s a big benefit to them, but it’s one they’re as yet unaware of, you’ll draw a clear compelling picture of why it matters to them so they can see the benefit as clearly as you do.
In short, every single part of your presentation is going to relate directly to them. Now they’re paying attention. Who wouldn’t?
Take a good look at your upcoming presentation through your audience’s eyes. How does it look? Is it connecting? Compelling? Convincing? To them? If not, tear it down to the studs if you have to. If it doesn’t speak to them, it’s not worth delivering.
Rebuild it with them in mind every step of the way (see above) and you’ll NAIL it.
Perfect is the enemy of great presentations.
It hit me today that I am not the only person who would benefit from a huge banner hung in my office, home and possibly car that read, “Let yourself off the hook.” Like a lot of people I know, I spend way too much time beating myself up for things I’m doing wrong, things I’m not doing enough, things I’m doing too much…My friend Marc Tannenbaum likes to tell me, “Perfect is the enemy of good.” a saying I have (frankly) hated for a long time. But I’m starting to see what he means. Wanting to be perfect may be a good goal, but it’s also an unattainable one, and, more likely, an unproductive one. I know this is true when it comes to presentations, and I think this is what gets many presenters hung up.
When we think we want our presentation to be perfect, we’re most likely thinking of it as a performance rather than a communication. Perfect to many misguided presenters means using the correct hand gestures, moving around the stage dramatically, modulating the voice. Taken a step further, the perfect performance-driven presenter thinks he needs someone to help him determine these gestures, stage moves and voice modulation. This is what’s known as acting, not presenting. These are all attributes of performance, not of communication. And a presentation is all about communicating, not performing. More important, communication is based on trust, and trust is based on believing what’s coming out of the speaker’s mouth which is based on believing in the speaker’s authenticity. Acting is the antithesis of authenticity; you’re trying to be something you’re not. Presenters treating their presentation as performance and therefore attempting to be a perfect performer will fail miserably in the true goal of their presentation, which is to communicate.
Even worse, performers focus on themselves, successful presenters focus on their audience. In a performance the focus is on the performer. In a presentation the focus is on the message. Success for performers? The standing ovation, love and accolades. Success for the presenter? Understanding and adoption of their idea.
Hey, you, perfectionist: get straight about presentation and your focus and goal. It is not a performance nor should you think of it that way. It will be a success if it’s built from the ground up with a focus on the audience. It will be a success if they understand and adopt it. You? You’re merely the vehicle through which it comes to them. You’re nothin’. (No offense.) So don’t get hung up on thoughts of performance. Let yourself off the hook; think communication; NOT perfection, and you’ll be heard.
There’s No “I” in Pitch
Well, not in a successful one anyway.
No kidding. To give a successful pitch presentation, one that gets heard and gets results, there should be as little as possible about you, your company, and even, believe it or not, your product or service – unless it’s tied directly to your prospect’s problem or goal.
How many times have you, as a prospect, been subjected to 45 minutes of jaw-dropping boredom hearing the presenter drone on and on about himself, his company, its history, their org chart, the dots on the map….As they talk endlessly, and enthusiastically,about themselves, the thought bubble over your head? “Who cares? What in the world does this have to do with solving my problem?” Uh, absolutely nothing.
Research shows that audience interest ramps up for the first few minutes a presenter is speaking, peaks at about minute four, stays elevated until about minute 25 and then steeply declines. Spend the first three, but no more than four minutes of your presentation briefly introducing yourself and your company. At the four minute mark you should be launching into the meat or your presentation – which must be all about them.
Begin by drawing a picture of what your prospect’s world currently looks like. Are they rolling out a new product? Is their competition eating their lunch? Have they grown too fast? Too slow? Is their industry dramatically changing? Does it need to change dramatically? Or maybe it’s just your prospect who is behind and needs to change. Whatever their current pressing situation is – that’s where you want to focus. Show them right from the start that you ‘get’ them, you understand their problems and/or goals. Better yet, not only do you understand their problem, you have the solution.
When you do talk about your solution, keep it focused around them, their particulars, their position, their problem. Prove to them that your solution has worked for others like them who had the same problem. Prove to them that your solution will produce their desired result. The more you use the words ‘you’ and ‘yours’ the more attentive they’ll be.
Save the org chart and dots on the map for, your mom, maybe. Your prospect really doesn’t care. Fill the pitch with what they do care about; their world, their desired state, their problems and goals. Fill the pitch with ‘you’s and ‘your’s’ – leave out the ‘I’. You’ll be heard – and win the pitch to boot.
