Being able to give a good presentation or communicate well with clients is one of the keys to being successful in business.
One thing that can change an okay presentation to a great presentation is simply this – be in the moment.
Generally there are two types of people speaking in business.
Firstly, there are those who are just bored and disinterested – why bother being there?
But there is a third, rarer, animal. The individual who stands head and shoulders above the rest, someone not perfect, but who clearly knows their craft.
The second type is most other people i.e. those who are scared!
There is in the act of preparing, the moment you start caring
Sir Winston Churchill
To be one of those few people my first suggestion is to be in the moment, turn up in mind as well as body!
Think about the last few presentations that you’ve attended. Which of the three categories did the speakers fall into? Most of us remember the bad ones and the great ones. Everything in between disappears in the mists of time.
What is the point of spending your time sitting and listening if you didn’t get anything from it? Use every opportunity not only to learn from a speaker’s knowledge, but to learn from their performance. What do they do that works? What doesn’t? Never underestimate what you can learn from seeing how NOT to do something!
Know your audience: To ensure you are in the moment you must be conscious not only of your own presentation, but of the audience and their expectations. When you arrive at the place where you will be speaking, you must have prepared, and that includes knowing your audience.
Ask yourself:
• Who are they?
• What do they already know?
• What are their expectations?
• Who have they heard before?
• Did they like them?
Put yourself in their shoes. If you don’t know your audience you can miss the mark by a mile. As soon as you have a presentation to give, research the audience. It might be as simple as ringing someone up and asking them for a brief.
This is certainly true if you’re giving a client presentation. Never assume you know the things that they want to know –, it’s safer and easier to ask.
Many make the mistake of thinking that, if they ask, the client will ‘mark them down’ for not knowing what they should be doing. I believe that the opposite is true. If there is no clear brief (and sometimes, even if there is) it often wins you lots of ‘brownie points’ if you take the time to call the client.
You don’t have to speak to the head honcho, but find someone who you can chat to about what they are trying to achieve, what they’ve done in the past that they’ve felt worked, what has changed, what they didn’t like and so on.
Many of your competitors will not have bothered to do this. Plus, you have an insight into your audience that will make your presentation right on target.
With a bigger audience it’s a different challenge. The more people, the more diverse their needs are likely to be. However, if it’s a group there is usually some reason for them to come together for this particular event. Ask why are they a group?
If you ask the right questions of the organisers or a few of the people who will be in the audience, you’ll find it so much easier to be ‘on target’. This will help you to be ‘in the moment’ because you’ll be talking to a specific set of needs of the people sat right there in front of you, so you’ll be focused on them.
