In the sales world, it is well known that as buyers the first purchase we make is the salesperson serving us. We decide we like and trust this person and therefore allow them to extract our money in return for a service or product. It is the same in the world of presenting. We buy the presenter first and then we absorb their message. Given this is fairly obvious, why aren’t all presenters doing their best to sell themselves to their audiences?
In some cases, this leads to failed attempts at straight up humour or self-depreciating remarks faintly disguised as humour. Interestingly, recently I was asked about humour when I was giving a talk on how to be persuasive when delivering presentations. It was actually an ambush question. The questioner had in fact taken lessons on doing standup comedy and was testing me on what I knew about the subject and what I might be recommending. I didn’t know his background of course, so I just made my standard point that we should leave humour to the professionals, unless you are remarkably naturally gifted. He told me later how hard he found it to try and be a comic, which was in fact a reinforcement of my advice – leave it to the pros.
So if we remove failed attempts at humour as a way of ingratiating ourselves with our audience what else is left for us? One thing to make sure of is consolidating your existing fan or potential fan base before the talk. Make sure to let your business contacts know that you are giving this talk and when and where it will be held and encourage them to attend. There is nothing more relaxing for a speaker than to look into an audience and see a lot of positive, friendly faces who the speaker already knows. Magically, their supportive vibe surreptitiously spreads to others in the room.
Another ploy is to get there early and go through the guest list or check the name badges for people you know, but whose name and face combination may be a challenge for you to put together. Seeing a familiar name makes it easier for you greet them as they arrive by using their name and it gives the impression that they are an important person for you. It is flattering and it creates a bond of familiarity which again helps with the speaker’s connect vibe with the audience before you even start.
Starting strong is important and the start kicks off from the time you arrive at the venue. Get there early and check the tech is working, because that allows you to have peace of mind and remain cool, calm and collected about giving this talk. If there are issues with the computer or the monitor or the projector, this can take years off your life if it occurs just before you are due to go on. We don’t want that.
When you are called to the stage to give your talk, don’t fuss around with the slide deck and getting things up on screen. These first few seconds are critical to creating a positive first impression and we need to really work on getting it right. Go straight into your well designed opening, which will immediately deliver the audience into the palm of your hand and have them eager for more. Only after that, introduce yourself and thank the organisers and all of that standard, good stuff. If possible, have someone assist you to get the slides up on screen, so you can skip that distraction and remain fully focused on your audience.
Don’t imagine you have to recite your resume to have credibility with the audience, because that should have been done for you by the MC. Trying to sell the audience on how great we are isn’t going to be a winner. It is a tightrope, but we have to be confident yet humble. Our job is to make sure we supply the MC with what we want them to say about us. We may need to stiff arm them about delivering it exactly as we have written it. Some unprofessional MCs imagine that they are soaring eagles, unbound by the earthly laws and can do a better job than we can. They will decide to wing it, by coming up with their own version of our introduction, which invariably in my experience is a pale shadow of what we have written. We have to maintain 100% editorial control of our brand and insist they follow the script. If they resist that idea, then we should take that task off them and do it ourselves – it is definitely not ideal, but it is better than someone else butchering our introduction, first impression and brand.
The first words out of our mouth have to evoke massive levels of inner confidence, because audiences buy confidence. They reject doubt, insecurity, gratuitous pleading and weakness, so don’t start with an apology or an excuse. No one cares about your problems anyway, because they are totally preoccupied with their own.
Get your most valuable insight, data, statistics, narrative right up the front. Don’t imagine you can warm this audience up by slowly releasing all the gold in dribs and drabs, as you move through the talk. Give them the best you have from the start and they will stick with you to the end. If you start slow and average, trying to gradually warm them up, they will immediately be on their phones, plugging into the internet, before you can say “trainwreck”.
The key is to plan the start meticulously. If we get this right, then we will carry the audience with us and be in a position to deliver our key messages, thereby enhancing our personal and professional brands.