10 Ways to Engage Your Audience in Your Presentation

Engage your audience in your presentations Torok
Engaging your Audience

Listeners who are actively engaged in your presentation will remember more and are more likely to act on what you say. You might engage them intellectually, emotionally, visually, and/or physically. You must decide what techniques will work with each audience. Be careful not to overdo any technique and not to embarrass your audience. There are many subtle and overt ways that you can engage your audience. Here are 10 ideas for you.

1. Ask a question that prompts them to raise their hand or nod their head. Tell them and/or show them how you want them to respond.
2. Select volunteers from the audience to help you with an exercise or role play.
3. Mention names of audience members – but always in a positive way.
4. Talk about people in the audience, their products, their challenges and their organization. (Do your research.)
5. Relate to them on the most common denominator – tell a story about your family.
6. Ask a question that you want them to answer.
7. Pose a rhetorical question.
8. Make them laugh.
9. Assign an activity to do in small groups, e.g. shake hands, discuss an issue, or practise their 30 second message.
10. Tell them to take notes or to write a point down.

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Public Speaking Blunders

Public speaking blunders on Executive Speech Coach blog
You will be a more successful public speaker if you avoid these presentation blunders. Most of the time, it's not about delivering a perfect presentation. Instead it's about making less mistakes than your competition.
• Talking too quickly

• Speaking in a monotone

• Using too high a vocal pitch

• Not smiling enough while talking

• Talking and not saying much

• Presenting without appropriate emotion or passion

• Using too many “big” words

• Using abstractions without giving concrete examples

• Not explaining the meaning of words and expressions

• Using unfamiliar technical jargon

• Not introducing the message and its relevance clearly

• Using poor grammar

• Talking so quietly that people cannot hear

• Using slang or profanity

• Talking without preparation or knowledge of the topic

• Disorganized and rambling performance

• Not making proper eye contact with listeners

• Fidgety behaviour that distracts the listeners

• Talking down to the audience

• Indirect communication i.e. beating around the bush

• Not summarizing and concluding the message clearly

• Failing to use visual aids to illustrate points

• Insulting the audience’s intelligence

• Not asking for action

Review that list and consider how your audience might perceive you and your message when you commit these public speaking blunders.


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Power Presentations Tip 56: Speak Slower

Speak slower when presenting
Speaking Fundamental: Speak Slower


This is an important public speaking fundamental yet I was reluctant to bring it to your attention. Why? Because it is so fundamental. But I've noticed that many of us need to be reminded of the fundamentals from time to time.


I watched an experienced and capable speaker at a conference. I stopped listening early in his presentation because it was too difficult to keep up with his rapid patter. I tuned out and missed most of his speech.


Naturally I was impressed that he asked me for constructive feedback after his presentation. He didn't say, "How was I?" Instead he asked, "How might I improve?" That's the sign of a concerned professional.

His biggest error was that he spoke too quickly. I suggested that he slow down - a lot. That would make it easier for the translator to translate his words (we were speaking at a foreign conference). It would also allow the audience to hear and digest his words while thinking about the ideas, and it would help listeners to identify the key learning points.


The next day he spoke much slower. His presentation was better received. He was fabulous. All it took was for him to speak slower.


I read about a trial lawyer who suffered a massive stroke. He had to totally relearn how to speak. His impossible goal was to return to the court room. He endured and he returned to presenting in the court room. One of his lessons was that he was more persuasive by speaking more slowly.


In the movie, The King's Speech, you might have noticed that when King George VI delivers his first radio speech he spoke slowly with dramatic pauses - because he had to. Yet, those two techniques made his speech more dramatic and thus more effective.


When you speak in public - speak slower than you normally would. You will sound more confident. You will be better heard. You will be better understood.

Got something worth saying? Slow down.


George Torok


Call George Torok to arrange:

Presentation Skills Training for your team
One-on-one Personal Speech Coaching for your executives
An Engaging Keynote Speaker for your corporate meeting or association conference
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Select Better Words for Your Presentation

Use Shorter Words and Phrases
The most powerful words in our language tend to be short. For example: love, war, sex, food, hate, fun, money, power. If a sentence is so lengthy that you have to stop to take a breath, it will be too long to be understood. Break long sentences and phrases into shorter ones. What words can you eliminate to clean up your speech? Do they cloud or clarify the message you are trying to convey? Work on this in your daily business correspondence and it will automatically rub off in your speech.

Action Verbs
In most cases verbs are better than nouns and action verbs are far better than passive verbs. Good action verbs are: build, climb, call, start, fight, promote and sell. Use these verbs when you tell your audience what to do. Be sure to use action verbs in your call to action. Use less passive verbs like “is” and “have”. If you delivered a speech using only one word – that word would be an action verb.

“You” versus “I”

Remember your audience wants to hear about them – not about you. That means that the word they want to here more than any other is “you”. For that reason remove your use of “I” and “me”. You and yours is better than we and ours which in turn is better than I, me and mine. Run your speech through the “you-I” test. There should be more use of “you” than of “I” in your speech.


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How to deliver superior presentations - public seminar notice

Discover how you can deliver a superior presentation – every time



Next Public Seminar in Toronto - March 28, 2012. More Details here.


When you speak:


You are competing with all the other thoughts, questions, and concerns in the minds of your audience.

Your message is competing with all the other presenters that have spoken before you and those who will speak after you.


Your intended message is competing with all the unintended messages that you might be sending.


In this intensive one-day seminar you will learn how to:


• Project more confidence
• Open with more pizzazz
• Close with finality
• Establish lightning fast rapport with your audience
• Prepare more effectively in less time
• Master the question and answer session
• Handle interruptions and failures with ease



Book now to claim the early bird discount.

The bottom line is that you will be a more effective presenter starting with your next presentation. That means that you will win more deals, lead more effectively and enjoy more success.

Presentation Skills training seminar in Toronto - Click now to reserve your seat!

Attend this presentation skills public seminar to work with "The Speech Coach for Executives" - George Torok - directly.


Questions? Call George Torok directly at 905-335-1997



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Six Words to Summarize Your Presentation

Can you summarize your presentation in six words? If you know your message, you can state it in a few words. If you need 30 minutes to explain it, then you really don’t know it. What would you do if the decision maker said, “You have six words – go.”

Enjoy these six word presentation summaries:

Buy low, sell high, discover how

Stop wasting money on expensive advertising

Join us for weekly breakfast networking

Think about it before you speak

Never, never give up. Call us

Don’t drink and drive. Arrive alive

Find the right mate for you

You can fight cancer. Donate today

Success is simple but not easy

Problems are opportunities but often overlooked

Love your customers. Attract them back

Buying insurance sucks. Being without devastates

Seatbelts saves lives, maybe yours

Help those who can’t help themselves.

Relax. Enjoy. You are getting older.

Don’t stop questioning. We need you.


Add your six word message below.



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Power Presentations Tip 55: Dance With Your PowerPoint

Dance with your PowerPoint
Dance with Your PowerPoint



Imagine that your PowerPoint is your ballroom dance partner. You each have differing roles to play. You support each other. It's always clear to the audience who the lead is, even when that changes during the dance. The dance would look silly without both of you there. The audience never questions why both of you are there.



Now, think about your next presentation. Do you plan to use PowerPoint? There's nothing wrong with using slides, but be clear on your purpose. Will your slides enhance your presentation or simply provide you with your presentation notes?



Will you and your PowerPoint be fighting for the lead? Might your audience wonder who to pay attention to? Will you appear as two clumsy dancers stepping on each others toes?



The strength of PowerPoint is in displaying visuals. Images, photos and charts are visual. Paragraphs and bullet points are not visuals. They are text.



You, as the speaker are there to deliver the words and context. If PowerPoint could do that well, we wouldn't need you. (Think about that.)



Technology is wonderful. But it doesn't mean that you let technology rule. It's up to you to recognize the strengths of your tools and use the right tool in the best way. Too many presenters use the tool only because they are following the herd.



I recently watched a speaker who danced with his slides. He set up the anticipation for each slide, then changed the slide and paused while the audience absorbed the visual portion of this message. As you might have guessed, his slides were real visuals. The only slides with words were the ones that marked his transitions.



He did not read the words on his slides. How liberating!



If you can't or won't learn to dance with your PowerPoint then at least one of you needs to sit out the next presentation.



George Torok

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Can We Really Trust Your Marketing Department With Your Sales Presentation

If you are in sales, you might occasionally wonder if your marketing people are really working in your (and the company’s) best interest.

Are your team members working for you or against you? Discovering the answer to that question might start with uncovering the root of their motivation.

How does your marketing department get rewarded?

  • Forecasting optimistic sales projections
  • Creating nice looking marketing materials
  • Winning marketing awards from marketing associations
  • Spending money on expensive advertising campaigns
  • Creating, and policing the sacred brand
  • Addressing politically correct and hot issues
  • Appearing to be green or following other popular fads and trends
  • Convincingly explaining why the last marketing campaign didn’t work

How does your sales department get rewarded?

  •  Sales

 Well that looks simple.
 
Often, your marketing department prepares or hires a marketing agency to prepare the standard sales PowerPoint presentation.

The PowerPoint slides were prepared in response to the expressed desire of senior executives to present a consistent message to prospects.

Because marketing is less concerned about selling and the needs of the prospects – the slideshow becomes a marketing feel-good show.

Because a marketing agency will charge several thousand dollars to produce this slideshow, the focus of their presentation is to appease the person signing the cheque – often the business owner.

So, the beginning of the slideshow will talk about the business, the business owner and his childhood trek across the desert. But, your prospects don’t care about this- at least not at the begging of the presentation.

Your prospects are still asking themselves important questions like:

  • Why did I agree to look at this presentation?
  • What’s in this for me?
  • How much money did they waste on this slideshow?
  • Why is this sales person wasting my time?

If the sales person blindly follows the marketing PowerPoint presentation, often the deal will fail. Marketing will blame the sales person. If the customer buys, it will most likely be because of the relationship between the prospect and the sales person. Yet, marketing will claim the success.

Sales can’t win and marketing never loses.

Can you really trust marketing to produce sales presentations that they never deliver? Can you really trust marketing to produce sales presentations that are not about selling?

This might sum it up.

The speaker at a small business conference stated, “I’m from marketing. I’m not here to sell you anything.” Either he was lying or he didn’t understand his real purpose.

Can we really trust your marketing department with your sales presentation?

I’m a marketing guy. But more importantly I'm a business owner so I know the importance of sales. If it doesn’t sell, it’s bad marketing.


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Power Presentations Tip 54: How to Open Your Speech

How to open your speech
How to Open Your Speech

The purpose of your opening is to grab the attention and establish rapport with your listeners.

Do not start your presentation with these tired phrases:

  • Thank you for inviting me here to speak
  • I don't know why I have been asked
  • I haven't really prepared anything
  • Today I'm going to talk about
  • A funny thing happened on the way


Those openings are boring at best and possibly annoying.


Instead use these techniques to open your presentation:

  • Pose a challenging question
  • Deliver a striking statement
  • Tell a story
  • Comment on a preceding speaker

Pose a challenging question
Questions immediately engage the minds of your audience. Ask a good question and your audience will be thinking, "That's a good question. What's the answer?"

This is a very effective opening technique.

Some possible opening questions:
How will you thrive in the turbulence of this market?
When you feel defeated, who can you turn to?
How can you sell when nobody is returning your calls?


Deliver a striking statement
A striking or controversial statement will grab attention. Your statement positions you on the issue and defines the starting point of your presentation.

Some ideas for opening statements:
The market isn't our greatest enemy. Our lack of innovation is.
Our business is more like a marathon than a sprint.
Houston, we have a problem.


Tell a story
A well crafted story can immediately engage your audience. But don't start with "I'm going to tell you a story". Just jump right into the story. The story could come from a personal experience, a customer's call or from a scene in a movie.


Comment on a preceding speaker
To use this technique you need to be there before you speak and listen to the other speakers. This technique is especially effective if the speaker before you was the CEO or industry leader. By associating with that authority speaker you leverage their credibility.

When you pick up on a thread of what they said and agree or expand on it, it appears to the audience that the two of you worked together or at least agree. That helps the audience to feel that there is a consistent theme to the meeting.

George Torok

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eSpeech Coaching is Here

eSpeech Coaching - expert presentation coaching when you need it


Good news for you if standing and speaking before a group is critical to your career or business success.

Contrary to some opinions, the best public speakers are not naturals. The best speakers learned how to develop their presentation skills.

The first step to becoming a better public speaker is to recognize that speaking is a skill not a talent.

The three steps to developing any set of skills are:

1. Learn the principles and techniques of the masters.
2. Practice those techniques extensively.
3. Get guidance from an expert teacher or coach.

The first step is relatively easy. There are lots of resources available to learn the principles and techniques of effective public speaking. This blog is one of those.

The second step requires for you to invest your time and effort. That holds some people back.

The third step requires you to invest time, effort and money. That combination can hold some people back.

Here’s the good news. The investment of money for speech coaching has suddenly shrunk to affordable size.

Now you can receive executive level speech coaching at an incredibly affordable rate while you remain in the comfort of your office or home.

If you are serious about transforming your presentation skills this year, this is your opportunity to get the success that you want from your presentations.

eSpeech Coaching is here and if you move quickly you can take advantage of the introductory special rate.

Here’s how it works.

Record your presentation on video.
Upload it to the secure website.
Review your video.
Clarify your goals and expectations.
Receive expert coaching on your presentation both in writing and by video.
Review your presentation and the feedback as often as you like.
Pose your questions and receive direct and specific answers promptly.


The regular fee for this virtual speech coaching is $500.00

If you hurry you can get in for only $300.00

Register here to reserve your spot.




E Speech Coaching
Add any special instructions




If you have more questions or prefer to register directly contact your eSpeech Coach, George Torok at 905-335-1997 or coach@Torok.com
PS: If you want to be a more successful public speaker you need to work with a reliable speech coach.
PPS: When was the last time that you saw a job ad that stated, “Poor communication skills needed.”


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Presentation Tip #53: Passion

Passion
Add passion to your presentation to be more effective.

Why?


1. Passion can help energize you to prepare and deliver your presentation - especially if you need to deliver your message repeatedly or to challenging audiences.


2. Passion as perceived by your audience can help engage and persuade them. You need to use emotion to persuade and passion can be a window to display your emotion.


3. Passion can be infectious. Your audience might ignite their own passion for your cause if you have connected in the right way. (We'll examine the connecting factors in the next tip.)


A client asked me to help her convey more passion in her business presentations. After meeting with her I realized that she was clearly passionate about her work and role. But she was not comfortable conveying that passion in her presentations. I believe that she was confusing loud passion with quiet passion.

There seems to be two diverse forms of conveyed passion. Loud passion and quiet passion. Neither is right nor wrong. And there are combinations and shades of gray.


Loud Passion

Loud passion is the most easily recognized form. Motivational speaker, Tony Robbins illustrates an extreme of this form. He bounds onto the stage only after a rising roar from the audience of "Tony! Tony!! Tony!!!" His voice bellows over the sound system. He goads the audience into repeating his mantras and bullies them into standing and performing jumping jacks.

Clearly a passionate speaker. And loud!


You can recognize loud passion in a speaker by a combination of these signs:

Loud voice
Big energetic body movements
Large hand gestures
Simple words repeated as mantras
Seeks and encourages verbal and physical responses from audience
Encourages laughter, cheers and audience participation


Quiet Passion

You might need to look closer for quite passion. When you see it you will recognize it and value it as well. Albert Einstein and Mother Teresa demonstrate quiet passion with their thoughtful words and dedication. Abe Lincoln's delivery of the Gettysburg address was memorable for the quiet passion.


You can identify quiet passion in a speaker by a combination of these signs:

Soft steady calm and firm voice
Long pauses
Bold and confident eye contact
Facial gestures instead of body movement
Thoughtful words, phrases and ideas
Compelling and colorful stories
Observes the non-verbal cues from the audience
Expresses confident well placed smiles


Loud or quiet? It depends on the individual, situation and audience. You might employ a variation of loud and quiet techniques to convey your passion. You might also change your style based on the situation.

Passion can persuade and inspire your audience. There is more than one way to express your passion. Express it.


George Torok
PS: Tell me how this tip helps you.

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