| Current Category is: Presentation | Select Another Category | |
|
|
| Home | Search | Categories | Links | About Us | Contact Us |
|
|
 |
Winning The Big Pitch - The 7 Deadly Sins Of Business Presentations And How To Avoid Them!
Are poor presentations costing you business? The ability to deliver a presentation to potential investors or clients is an essential skill for any budding entrepreneur, sales professional or consultant. Whether it's a '15-second elevator pitch' or a more extensive presentation, winning over and persuading audiences is vital in today's competitive capital raising and sales environment. Learning the art of making powerful and persuasive presentations in any business situation and you will win more work. My premise is every start-up entrepreneur, seasoned business operator or consultant can win more business by being a better presenter. Here are the Seven Deadly Sins of Business Presentations and How to Avoid Them. 1. Not Having a Clear Goal. It is essential to know what the objective or end outcome of your presentation is. Is it to raise funds, educate and inform, build relationships, to sell or build credibility? 2. No Structure. This is an absolute must for any presenter - at the very least have a beginning, middle and end. You may be the best presenter in the world with outstanding delivery skills but poor structure will lead to a poor presentation. 3. Not Connecting with Your Audience. Building empathy and rapport with your audience is critical. Connect with them on three levels - head, heart and hip-pocket. 4. A Poor Beginning. First impressions always matter. If you have to raise $8 million in 8 minutes, make every word count. I learnt this tip from attending Patricia Fripp's speaking school recently and I think its brilliant. For business presentations she says avoid using 'Thanks, its great to be here' as your opener. She rightly points out you've just wasted 10 seconds. At a million dollars a minute that equates to nearly $167,000! 5. Too Much Content. The cardinal sin of all business and technical presenters. In my media career, I estimate I have attended more than 300 conferences, events and seminars. That's 1500 hours worth of presentations I've had to sit through and the most common mistake I've seen is presenters rush and overload the audience with too much content. Remember, presentations rely on the spoken word and the visual - use the written word and a handout to provide more detail. 6. The Presenter's 'I's' Are Too Close Together. We all like to talk about ourselves. As a radio manager, I spent hours listening to and providing feedback to broadcasters. Those that really connected with their audience talked with them rather than at them. I observed they used the word 'you' a lot more than the word 'I'. This led to the saying that with some presenters their 'I's' were too close together! Here's another great tip I learnt from Fripp. Record your presentation and have it transcribed. Every time you see the word 'I', cross it out and replace it with 'you'. She calls this working on your 'I-You Ratio'. 7. Poor Closer. Again it is beginning and the end that is the most important part of any presentation. With your closer - what is the key message or action you want the audience to take away with them as they walk out the door? In business presentations the closer is often the 'call to action'. When I heard Bill Clinton speak at a Fundraising event for sick children, his closer was 'I want you to help'. Simple, direct and effective. Here's another tip I learnt from Fripp. If you want to take questions, take them before your closer, because ending on question time is a poor and weak way to end a presentation. Worse still, you are unlikely to be able to control the last question. Take questions for a set period before the end, wrap that section up and then end with a strong closer. I've already tried this on several audiences and it works a treat! Thomas Murrell MBA CSP is an international business speaker, consultant and award-winning broadcaster. Media Motivators is his regular electronic magazine read by 7,000 professionals in 15 different countries.You can subscribe by visiting http://www.8mmedia.com Thomas can be contacted directly at +6189388 6888 and is available to speak to your conference, seminar or event. Visit Tom's blog at http://www.8mmedia.blogspot.com
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
If You Want Business - Throw a Seminar! Why is throwing a seminar good for business?If you want to clean your house, you should throw a garage sale, and if you want to increase business, throw a seminar. A seminar is a way for you to contact many people all at once. How to Make Good Use of Your Web Conference Session Preperation is vital when conducting a successful videoconference session. Thus there are a number of steps to remember prior to the videoconference session itself:Always test the equipment before hand. How to Teach: Lecture vs. Discussion WHEN ONLY A LECTURE WILL DO: Under certain circumstances, of course, the lecture is the only workable format. For instance, when it is necessary to reach a large audience in a short time frame, or when the attendees have no knowledge of the subject whatsoever, there is really no choice. Dump that Overhead Projector! What is it about overhead projectors that causes us to become lousy communicators? Why do our speeches or presentations lose much of their steam when we use overheads?Well, for starters, we often give more attention to the overheads than the audience. It can't be helped. Top Ten Tips For Better Business Presentations To Asian Audiences Audiences around the world are all different. Cultural, social and religious differences impact on how people learn, take in information and interact with presenters. Dump Your Speeches For Leadership Talks The CEO of a worldwide business asked me to help him develop a talk he planned to give to several hundred of his top executives. He said, "I feel as if I'm Daniel going into the lion's den. The Seven Deadly Sins of Presentations Every day, so many tens of thousands of innocent clients and employees are bored to tears by presentations that it ought to be considered a crime against humanity.Are your presentations guilty of the following sins?Illegibility. The Secret Language of Money At a number of business seminars and presentations, I passed out an index card and asked each person in the audience to write anonymously a single answer to each of three questions. The three questions are:1. Six Marketing Tips for Trade Show Success A trade show is an ideal way of showcasing your products and services to a large number of prospects all at the one location and at the same time. Thoroughly planned marketing is the key to success at your next industry related exhibition. Ten Fun Ways to Liven up Any Presentation Most of us would agree that having humor in our lives increases rapport, strengthens our relationships and overcomes communication barriers. People who work in a positive, often playful environment are more likely to stay. Chairing A Meeting The Most Effective Way How many times have you attended a meeting where the only thing that gets decided is the date of the next meeting? Or where one person dominates the meeting? Or the meeting is swamped with trivia or unrelated information?It is a commonly held assumption that chairing a meeting is simply a matter of reading out the agenda - that is assuming there is an agenda and that the addenda actually covers the topics which are most pertinent to the matter in hand.Chairing an effective meeting is a skill. Preparation for Your Presentations (Excerpted From the Jim Rohn Millennium Weekend Event)Persistence in your presentations, this is one secret to success. After my first presentation, I got up and did it again. Clear Communication: The Benefits and How to Achieve Them Communication is a complex and often difficult process for both the receiver and sender. Barriers on both sides of the process often deflect the real meaning of the message and inhibit clear, open, and rewarding communication. Using Your Audience to Your Advantage Regardless of what response technique may be convenient in a given situation, one thing is certain for the aware trainer: different techniques will drive you deeper and deeper into the realm of subtlety, which is precisely where the art of using response points belongs. For most trainers, these direct questions will be the best method to determine how well the idea presentation is progressing. How Storytelling Can Grow Your Business People love stories. We love to hear about other people, and stories help us to learn, remember and put to use new concepts. Public Speaking Training Tips For Better Business Presentations To Culturally Diverse Audiences Audiences around the world are all different. Cultural, social and religiousdifferences impact on how people learn, take in information and interactwith presenters. Tips to Temper Speaking Anxiety People take it for granted that leaders have achieved some skill in public speaking. Yet anxiety persists because leaders face very challenging situations and have a great risk of embarrassment. Don't Give Presentations Or Speeches - Give Leadership Talks Instead The CEO of a worldwide business asked me to help him develop a talk he planned to give to several hundred of his top executives. He said, 'I feel as if I'm Daniel going into the lion's den. Special Delivery! Tips for Improving Your Humor Delivering humorous speeches involves a lot more than simply having good material. Take some time to incorporate these tips into your presentations and watch the fun and laughter factors rise. Four Different Ways People Process Your Information There are four different ways that audience members assimilate information. They are: visual, auditory, auditory digital, and kinesthetic.
|
| Home
| Sitemap
| Disclaimer
| Privacy
| Contact
Us © COPYRIGHT 2011 BRAINBELLY.COM |
