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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 www.8mmedia.com">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 www.8mmedia.blogspot.com">http://www.8mmedia.blogspot.com
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Create A Better Impresion With Your Emails How do you come across in your emails?As I receive more and more requests for assistance by email, I also get more and more poorly worded or badly formatted emails.When you ask someone for help, or approach them for the first time, you will get a much better response if you word your initial contact carefully. Audience Respect One of the biggest mistakes most presenters make is in not considering or respecting their audience when preparing their talks. Showing respect means not boring them to tears with a data dump of information which is meaningless to them. 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. After the Speech Usually the emphasis on making an effective speech is what you do in preparation before the presentation begins. But if you speak very much, what you do after the speech can help you become a more effective speaker. Writing The Query Letter The query letter is simply a business letter that serves a dual purpose. It is an introduction of you to an agent, and an inquiry as to whether the agent would be interested in seeing a particular piece of your work. Data Visualization Flash Charts: Information in a Flash Flash chart, flash map, flash graph may be mistaken for flashy visual aids. It is true that many data visualization tools are flashy and consequently overwhelming and counterproductive, but the market has produced data visualization capable of simplicity and speed-thus "flash" does not stand for flashy; it stands for information in a flash. 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. Move Key Audiences to Actions You Want How?Try a blueprint like this: people act on their own perception of the facts before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about which something can be done. When we create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-action the very people whose behaviors affect the organization the most, the public relations mission is accomplished. Facilitating Panel Discussions A client recently called to say she was going to facilitate a panel for the next business meeting. She had never done so before and asked if I could coach her. Media Training 101: Where To Look During A Television Interview Ever had that uncomfortable feeling of not knowing where to look when making a point, delivering a message or asking a question?Nervous furtive glances looking sideways, upwards or downwards? Anywhere but the gaze of the person you're trying to persuade and influence.Effective communication is about making an emtional connection with another human being. Powerpoint Sales Presentations Are Boring - Stop It! As the meeting began, the project manager of the buying committee told me that the key decision-maker would miss the first 20 minutes or so of my presentation. This was a very competitive sale that I was working on at the time. How To Run Your Greatest Conference Ever Like most good achievements, a magnificent meeting depends on planning and preparation. These are essential to a good conference and this article explains the basics of what you need to do. 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. Present for Success: Simple Strategies to Add Confidence and Credibility to Your Next Presentation Tomorrow's the day and you're dreading it. You're scheduled to give a presentation to the senior management team about the new program you're proposing. 1,000,001 Reasons To Connect With Your Audience Eye contact is mandatory when giving a public presentation.The goal of public speaking is to connect with your audience. Business Presentations - Use Power Pitching - Get the Personal Edge Whenever and whatever you're pitching, dozens of factors will figure in the final decision of your prospects. All else being equal, you have the edge if you can establish a personal connection. Choosing a Presentation Remote Control If you deliver electronic presentations using PowerPoint or other programs, you can manually move forward to the next slide with the keyboard or the mouse. One way, however, to deliver more effective presentations that improve your connection to your audience is to add a remote control to your presentation tools. Building a Trade Show Display If you are taking your newest products to a trade show then you will need to come up with some ideas on how to build a trade show display in order to adequately market your products. You might seem at a loss and cannot think of anything, however building a trade show display is not so difficult if you sit down and think about it. Projector Hire - Choosing the Right One for Your Presentation Calling a projector hire company will often get you confused as they ask: What lumens do you need? (Lumens is the brightness of the projector) What resolution do you need? (Resolution is the number of pixels at which the display device does not have to expand or compress the input signal) What type: install, desktop or portable? (Install projectors tend to be larger and heavier, desktop ones are small and light and portable are somewhere in between!) What you should ask yourself are the following simple questions: How many people will need to see the projected image?A 1000 lumens projector will usually be sufficient for a smaller meeting - up to 20 people. 2000 lumens is better. Guidelines for Rehearsal Criticism It is both good planning and considerate to provide auditors with a guide for their criticism. It would be quite difficult for them to note everything which needs attention without some reminder of what to look for.
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