Giving a Presentation is a Great Way to Market IF You Know What You're Doing

Have your topic mastered so you can pay attention to these important things which will make your presentations memorable, get you clients, and get you invited back. Use your IQ and your EQ. Here are the top 10 things to be thinking aboutand feeling when you're giving a presentation.

1. What's unique about this group of people?

Shape your presentation to meet the needs and interests of this particular group. See http://www.topten.org/public/AU/
AU74.htm to do your homework before the speech.

2. How am I feeling?

Check in with your body for stress and anxiety. It will transfer to your audience like horses in a burning stable. Build Resilience (an EQ competency) which is the proactive way of dealing with stress.

3. Is the group still with me or have I lost them?

Use your empathy and intuition. Tune in with the group at the feelings level. Don't ignore obvious signals such as glazed eyes. Your job is not to deliver words, but to teach the audience something and to do this you have to reach them.

4. Is there anxiety coming from the audience?

Don't ignore things like twitching, legs shuffling, and other body movements. Address whatever's causing the anxiety and soothe your audience down so they can hear you. If in doubt,
and your intuition doesn't help you, just ask them.

5. Am I controlling my nonverbals?

Control things like patting your hair, stroking your tie and other self-soothing motions. Observe good speakers carefully, work with a coach and get feedback. Practice, practice until
you look completely natural up there.

6. Am I using my knowledge about these people as individuals in this presentation?

(See AU74 again.) Before the meeting, you should've learned a number of things you can work into your presentation, i.e., "Anne asked specifically about intuition so I'm going to address that now," or "Bill, here are some pointers on optimism."

7. What time is it?

Professionals don't abuse their audience's time. They begin
and end on time and pace themselves so they have time to finish the whole presentation without rushing and still leave time for Q&A.

8. Am I speaking on what I said I would?

Believe it or not, this is the number 1 complaint I hear from people - "They didn't talk about what they said they were going to."

9. Am I using "you" ten times more than "I"?

Your personal experience is interesting to you, and their personal experience is interesting to them. Any time you use the word "I" the audience will tend to tune out. That's just the way it is.

10. Am I using images, myth, fable and metaphor?

These techniques reach your audience in a way logical, rational, and analytic speaking cannot. 'A picture says a thousand words'
-- use images and paint word pictures.