How many times have we heard presentations that have put us to sleep within minutes, presentations that have bored us to death? All of us have surely had atleast one experience of that sort. How many times have we tried to avoid the same loopholes while making presentations ourselves? Award winning writer and director and world’s best known and respected scriptwriting lecturer Robert Mckee says if we want to engage listeners, we need to toss the PPT slides and tell a good story instead. Between appealing to the head with loads of statistics and slides and appealing to the heart with a crisp, interesting and ‘direct from the heart’ speech, how do we strike a balance ?
Start differently – when most people expect you to speak on ‘X’ topic and you start with something totally different, you have their complete attention. So do you have a story about how your product idea came about? Is there some historical event that you can associate your topic with? Is there a joke or some sporting incident that relates to your topic of presentation? If none of the above applies, is there any children’s story or nursery rhyme that gives out the message you are trying to convey? It may probably sound bizzare but its one of the best attention getters.
Connect your starting anecdote to the topic – Most people would be curious to know how you are going to connect your anecdote to the topic on hand. When you do that well, you have won listeners, who want more. The entire process of starting with the story and connecting it to the topic shouldn’t exceed 40 to 50 seconds, if it has to be effective.
Get on with the topic – Now that you have full attention get on to the main points of what you wish to present and start with your strongest points first so they are well registered. The worst mistake one can do is to explain a point to death. One can always take questions later so its better to leave it for later. Attention spans are reducing by the day, so its better to field you strongest points as soon as you can. One formula here that has always worked in getting a favourable response to presentations is “never give your audience time to think, else you lose them”. So bring on the next point as soon as you finish the previous one.
Keep it short and sweet – Concentrate on saying what is important rather than saying everything that is possible. So select your strong points or USP’s carefully. Its more difficult to express oneself in fewer words, though, a lot can be said with fewer words.
Speak from the heart – You cannot convince someone when you are not convinced about something yourself. Every company or its working or product or service is not completely perfect. Your organization is probably in news for a host of issues, yet you need to go out and present your product or service and sell. Its difficult to speak from the heart, in such cases. However there are some things that do work well with every organization, focus on that, be convinced about it. Probably its time to tell your listener what is actually right with your organization, to give an insider’s perspective on many positives that they might not know.
Ending differently – Novelty in ending a presentation, leaves an impact on your listener. One could end by taking over from the same story they started with. Alternately end with a joke or an anecdote.
Using statistics – Never overuse statistics, unless your aim is to confuse and kill. Its very tempting to make the whole slide look like ‘out of space mumbo jumbo’ however we run the risk of leaving behind our listeners on Earth. Coming to the point directly and explaining the data in simple words will earn you loads of blessings from statistics abhorring listeners.
Using PPT slides – It always helps to remember that in a presentation, its ‘you’ the speaker who is most important. Slides just help you make your point. So avoid filling slides with matter that you are going to speak anyway. Why does one need a speaker if he can understand things by reading the slides? Keep matter on slides limited to bullet points. Too many slides do not necessarily mean a great presentation and they definitely do not stand for loads of hard work.
So, Happy speaking!
