Let’s look at the designing the closes.  Notice this is plural, not singular. There are two closes required when we are speaking.  Usually there will be Q&A at the end and we have to account for that.  We design our first close to wrap up our talk.  We open for Q&A and then we have lost control of proceedings.  Make no mistake.  Question time can become a street fight with no rules. Anyone can ask anything they like, no matter how tangential, irrelevant and obtuse it may be. We cannot control it, so we just have to deal with it. 

The problem is the final question may concern something absolutely unrelated to what we talked about.  The result is the audience walk out of the room with that information forefront in their minds, rather than our carefully crafted, especially tailored key message.  We cannot allow that to happen.  We need to design a second close so that our message dominates the final impression of our speech.  The audience must walk out of that presentation with our key message ringing in their minds or we will have failed in our fundamental task. We can give slightly different versions of the same information for each close.  The key is to prepare two closes at the very start

In the delivery of our talk, we need to end on a crescendo in this last close.  Many speakers let their voice trail off and then just peter out to nothing.  This is a very consistent problem and speakers do not seem to be aware they are allowing this to happen. We know that final impression is key and the point is we determine what that will be.  Let’s have a rousing message at the end and let’s hit that message hard.  Here are some closes we can use:

To Convince or Impress

1. We repeat the major benefit. We will have a number of take aways for our audience and a good plan is to select only the most memorable and most powerful and repeat that benefit to the audience.  Always focus on the highest priority messages, rather than diluting the key message with a host of other lesser messages, all competing for the listener’s attention.
2. Use a quotation. We may be very smart and have lots of great things to say.  That is just using ourselves though as the reference point.  Sometimes we will employ the credibility of an established expert or powerful influencer and draw on a quotation from their words.  These are usually very famous phrasings so the audience will recognise the quote immediately.  We can curate pithy sayings and have them ready to go when we need them.  We all run across these at different times so the trick is to keep track of some which we can use in our presentations and have them handy to draw upon.

To Inform

1. Repeat your key point. In the inform talk we will have been passing along a lot of information, much of it very detailed.  It can be confusing for an audience to know which information to focus on.  We select the one piece of information we believe will be the most important and we repeat it again.  We don’t want to make the audience work hard to follow what we are sayings.  By determining the key points, we do the work for them so all they have to do is absorb what we are saying, rather than having to analyse it for themselves.
2. Recap the steps of a process or plan. In the inform talk we are often providing so much information that we have to group it into brackets for the audience to understand.  We may outline “the nine steps” or “the four key data points” etc.  This numbered packaging up of information makes it much easier for the audience to navigate through our talk and keep up with what we are saying.  At the end, we select one of the key information pieces and then remind the audience about it.

To Persuade

1. Present the action and benefit. We won’t be keen to take a recommended action unless we think there is something in it for ourselves.  By combining the action needed with the benefit, it is clear to the audience the value of taking our advice.
2. Final Recommendation. We select the key course of action we have been talking about.  We restate it at the very end and this makes it very clear what we hope the audience will do from now.

The final impression is in our hands, to mould and shape in the way we want it. We must dominate the final message and jettison any distractions which may have arisen during the question time.  The key is to design the close very carefully and deliver it with power and conviction.  If we do that, then our messages will resonate with our audiences and that is why we are doing this in the first place, isn’t it.

We flagged this point last episode and today we are going to look at the use of evidence when giving presentations.  I often mention the two modern dilemmas of being a presenter.  We now live in the Age of Distraction where audiences will rapidly escape from us to the internet, if we haven’t sufficiently captured their attention.  Sometimes, even when they are interested, they are still multi-tasking.  They are listening to us and scrolling through their social media at the same time.  This habit has solidified and it is a nightmare today to get our message across.  The other dilemma is we are in the Era of Cynicism.  Fake news is now a thing and our audience’s sensitivity to the validity of information has become more acute. 

Both of these drivers make our job even harder than in the past.  If we fill our presentations with “editorial” or “opinion” we are likely to lose the attention of the listeners.  They are there to gain some benefit from giving us their attention and as riveting as our opinion may be to us, it may not ignite much interest in the audience.  If we don’t bring some concrete insights, backed up with proof and evidence then the hands will be reaching for their phones immediately.  The Era of Cynicism means the evidence had better be highly credible and employing numerous sources.  Talking about findings from your own research is good, but could be greeted with doubt, if you don’t mention the detail on how the findings were assembled.

When we are designing our talk, we have access to some useful tools. DEFEATS is a handy acronym for remembering the different types of evidence we can draw upon to convince or impress our audience that what we say is true.

D-Demonstration. This might be something that can be shown physically during the presentation or something that we can show on screen, using software, audio or video.  It has to be congruent with the point we are making and provide a visual reinforcement of our key point.

E-Example.  The best examples are those which are most relevant to the members of the audience.  We should try and know who is in our audience and think what would be an example that will resonate with as many people as possible.  If the example is from the same industry and a similarly sized organisation then it becomes more meaningful for the audience.  I attended a talk given by a senior executive from a major organisation, who used examples within that context.  The problem was that the audience were all small to medium sized companies and there was nothing to relate to.

F-Facts.  Facts are provable and can be verified independently.  A claim is not a fact.  We need to be able to cite where the fact can be checked, if we are asked.  When we show graphs, for example, we should have the source of the data prominently displayed.  Most people won’t bother to check the data, but they feel better knowing they can do so if they wish.

E-Exhibits. This is usually something physical we can show to the audience.  In some cases, it may also be shown as an image.  In both cases we have to make sure the audience can see it easily.  If it is a physical object, hold it up around shoulder height, rather down around the waist.  Also, don’t wave it around – hold it still, so it easy for the audience to see.

A-Analogies.  We referred to Analogies in Openings Part One in Episode #264.  We are trying to simplify something complex for our audience. We compare two things which have no natural connection to make the point clearer.  For examples, we compare flying a passenger aircraft and speech making.  There is no natural connection between them.  Now we connect them.  “Flying a passenger plane is like giving a speech.  The take off and landing for aircraft are the most dangerous periods of the flight.  In the same way for speeches, openings and closing determine our impression with our audience”.  This connects two ideas and makes them more accessible for the listeners.

T-Testimonials.  Social proof has become extremely powerful today.  Testimonials are not our primary form of evidence, but they lend credibility to what we are saying.  A recognized expert supporting what we are saying gives our point more power.  In our case, the most famous investor in the world Warren Buffett is a huge fan of Dale Carnegie and often mentions the impact the training had on his career.  We could never afford to pay him to do that, but he does it anyway, because he is a true believer and that make it even more powerful.

S-Statistics.  The best statistics are third-party numbers.  If we quote our own research, that is okay, but it is not as convincing as also having an independent organisation’s statistics.

When we are designing our main argument, as we get to the key points, we should be trying to match them with hard evidence to prove the point.  If we do that, then we will have a much better chance of keeping the audience with us right through to the end of our presentation.  If we can do that in today’s distracted and cynical environment, we will  have been highly successful.

In some recent episodes we looked at how to open the presentation. Today we are going to look at designing the main body of our talk. The design process of our talks is counterintuitive.  We always start with the end, then do the main body and then the opening last. The close defines the key message we want to impart to the audience.  The opening breaks through all the competition for our audience’s attention. The main body is made up of the chapters of the talk.  In a thirty minute to forty minute speech, we can probably get through three to five key points, to back up our key assertion.  This is where we make our case, so it has to be well planned.

In the main body we need a lot of evidence.  We will deal with evidence in much more detail next week.  The key is to focus on the strongest supporting arguments to back up our key message.  There will be many choices about how to make the main argument, but we have limited time, so only choose the strongest possible content.  I support the Japan Market Expansion Competition (JMEC) here in Japan.  I advise teams on how to write and present their business plans, in order to win the competition.  Often, I notice that there are real gems, actual diamonds in their main body, but they are being trampled into the mud and you have trouble noticing or appreciating them.  We have to identify our strongest points supporting our contention and then give that evidence pride of place, so that the listener gets the point immediately.  We should never make the audience work hard to understand what we are saying.  Audiences have decreasing levels of concentration, so we need to get the gems up the front, to hook the listener’s interest. This keeps them with us for the rest of the talk.

Like a good novel, the chapters need to logically flow one into each other.  We have to make sure the audience can follow our line of reasoning.  The way we navigate the story for the listeners is critical. Using stories to illustrate our points is a must.  Dry statistics and facts are not enough.  People won’t remember them, but they will remember a gripping story.  Try to get people, places and seasons into the story, preferably those already known to the audience. Our objective is that the audience can picture the scene in their minds.

Remember, we are all being fed a steady diet of videos, films and novels where the power of the story is taken to the greatest heights.  In the visual media, writers for these works are often crafting away in high powered teams and getting paid a lot of money to find ways of drawing us into the story and keeping us in their grip throughout. Then we occasional speakers turn up to give our little talk.  We have to understand we are competing with the professionals and the audience is expecting us to be professional as well.  If we cannot match their expectations, then our personal and professional brands are damaged.

The unveiling of the main body has to be well thought through.  Each chapter needs a change of pace.  It might be raising our energy or going the other direction and lowering the tension.  It doesn't matter which way we go, but we cannot keep going at the same pace throughout the whole talk.  We need variation to keep people with us.  In sales, we talk about designing hooks to jag the interest of the buyer.  Presenting is the same.  We need hooks that will jag the interest of the audience and they will be wanting to know what comes next.  This doesn’t happen by chance.  We need to carefully design these hooks.

For example, we might start a chapter of the main body with a statement, “Losing ten million dollars was the best education I ever received in business”. Everyone hearing that wants to hear the rest of the story.  What happened to you?  Why did you lose the ten million?  Why was it such a great education?  What happened next? This is an example of a power hook.  We need a series of these scattered throughout our chapters. If we can do that, then the main body will never be a drag on the attention of the audience. If we do it well, they will be on the edge of their seats, eager to find out what we are going to say next.  If we don’t, the audience will be reaching for their phones, to escape to the siren call of the internet.

The main body does all of the heavy lifting to make our case.  It is also the segment which occupies the majority of the time for the talk, so it must be crafted extremely well.  Break it down into segments or chapters and pile on the evidence. Don’t just read out a bunch of dry data points.  Get the data assembled into stories which will resonate with the audience.  I once had to read the Australian Ambassador Ashton Calvert’s speech in Japanese, when I was Consul General in Osaka, as he couldn’t make the event.  These types of speeches are prepared by Embassy staff for the Ambassador.  It was a classic tale of trade statistics and no stories.  I was giving this speech, thinking to myself, we could have done a lot more with this content to make it more engaging and grab the emotions of the audience.  Departing from the script in that type of case would get you fired, so you have to do it word perfect.  An opportunity gone begging, was my conclusion and a good lesson for me when preparing my own talks.

The main body has the advantage of following your grabber opening, so you have everyone’s attention.  Don’t blow it.  Keep the hooks coming in the chapters of the main body and keep the audience with you right through to the end.

This speaker has it all.  You are sitting down the back of the room, yet you can sense their inner energy, confidence, surety of what they are saying.  You feel they have charisma, that compelling attractiveness as a presenter.  You want to be like that too, but how?  Let’s see how you can increase your presence and appeal as a speaker. 

What the audience won’t see you doing is rehearsing on them.  This sounds infinitely logical, yet so many speakers deliver their talk once. They are practicing on their live audience.  Is this what professionals do?  Of course not.  Professionals walk on stage after they have given their talk many, many times in rehearsal.  They have worked out the correct length, the high points, the cadence, the humour and every small detail needed to make the talk a success.  For feedback, they never ask, “what do you think?”.  Instead, they ask “what was good?” and “how could I make it better?”.  They use video and audio review to improve.  If they are travelling to make the talk, they know that with the lights out, a hotel room’s windows become mirrors, so that they can check their delivery.

Fully Prepared

When you get to the venue, the speaker is already there and in fact has been there an hour earlier checking everything is ready.  They get a sense of the room.  They sit in the cheap seats and see how they will appear up on stage.  They make sure their slide deck is loaded and working correctly.  They know how to work the slide advancer correctly and have worked out the sound levels for the microphone.  You never see them bashing the microphone and asking “can you hear me down the back”.  They have told the venue crew to leave the lights up and not dim them down to suit the screen.  While waiting for people to arrive, they have diplomatically instructed the MC to read their introduction exactly as it has been crafted to project their personal brand.

They are standing near the door as people arrive, introducing themselves and asking what attracted them to today’s topic. They are working the room before the event kicks off. They give each person they engage with 100% of their attention, listening quietly, never interrupting them, finishing their sentences nor jumping in with their own clever comment.  They are building tremendous good will with as many people in the audience as possible before they get anywhere near the stage.  They remember your name and the main details of what you said.  They are genuinely interested to meet you and find out what you are doing.  They have demolished that invisible barrier between speaker and audience.

They are perfectly dressed for the occasion.  They look the part of success.  Every detail has been thought through.  They don’t allow bright ties, puffy pocket chiefs or big scarves to compete with their face.  They know their face is a million watt power source and they make it the main reference point for the audience, rather than being dominated by the slides.

Dominate The Space

The MC calls them on to the stage, after reciting their turbo charged credibility resume, exactly as requested.  They walk to the center of the stage and start immediately, spending no time switching computers and loading their files.  They have arranged for such pedestrian logistics to be handled by their support crew. They have purposely freed themselves up to absolutely nail the first two seconds impression window.  They know that we live in the Age of Distraction and the Era of Cynicism and all we have is two seconds for the audience to decide their first impression of us.  They don’t waste that opportunity.  Their opening is a real grabber that cuts through all the competition for audience mind space. They reference a couple of the people they were speaking with earlier in the audience.  “Mary made a good point about….”, “Bill had a wonderful insight on today’s topic….”.  They are broadcasting to everyone that we are all one unit today and there is no longer any space separating speaker and listener.

They are projecting their ki bouncing it off the rear walls, pumping out high energy to their audience. What they say is clear, concise, well structured, supported by slides which are on point and Zen like in their clarity.  The key message is crystal clear and their evidence is unassailable.  They are engaging each individual audience member in six seconds of eye contact creating the feeling that the speaker is talking directly to them and no one else.  What they say and how they say it is totally congruent.

Control The Final impression

They finish the talk with their first close and smoothly transition to Q&A stating how many minutes for questions. They paraphrase the questions, so that everyone in the audience can hear what was asked.  As they answer, they give the questioner six seconds of eye contact and then work the room with six seconds of eye contact each for the other members of the audience. They don’t try and duck difficult questions.  They mention, “I don’t know, but I will find out and get back to you. Who has the next question?”.

At the end of question time, they seize back the initiative to focus on their key message.  They don’t allow the talk to finish with a question which may be totally off topic.  They use their second close to repeat their key point and have that ringing in the ears of the audience as everyone departs the venue.  They determine their final impression with the audience. They have organised their schedule to be able to invite audience members to swap business cards and chat after the talk. They are gracious and charming with everyone and cement their fan base for the next talk.  They have it all, they are charismatic.