How Do You Reach Everyone in the Room?

Presentations or speeches can be a wonderful experience for the person talking at the front of the audience and for the audience as wee. This is a technique usually used to get information to people and also to entertain people in some circumstances. There are many ways to do this such as Powerpoint, hand outs, or using writing on boards which are the visual aspects of presentations. But let's face it, most of the time it is talking and the audience listening to many words.

Because any group is composed of different types of people with some who listen well, others that are visual learners, some that talking puts to sleep, and others that just want to talk, different ways may be used to attempt to reach everyone.

If at all possible to not get behind a podium. This separates the speaker from the audience and gives a feel that the speaker is unreachable. In this scenario it is unspoken that the audience role is to listen only. It may be untrue but it is an unconscious feeling and interpretation.

Walk around a little. This makes the audience follow you and keeps there attention. At the same time eye contact with different members of the audience shows that you are engaged with them. Don't linger too long on one person though but it is OK to see if you can get a nod or a smile.

Bodies make a lot of expression so to use your hands is great. A cordless, hands free mike would be best for this. There are many places using these now and is a good investment. A good one even picks up a whisper.

The voice when speaking should change in tone and emphasis at time but there is no need to shout. It is much like a conversation though one sided mostly but people listen to conversational tone better than feeling it is simply orders. It is also terrific to smile and tell some related stories. Stories people remember and this gives a reference for the information given.

Presentations are meant to help people so give it in a manner that says exactly that.

Liz Cosline- Life Ownership Coach - Speaker
Author of:
Transcendental Sojourn - Arrival to One Journal (xlibris.com)
One Voice (publishamerica.com)
Unexpected Knowing (publishamerica.com)
Notice for Arrival (publishamerica.com)

In business management for over 23 years.

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The Two-Hour Sales Presentation Vs. A Seven-Minute Attention Span

The average decision-maker has an attention span of just a little over seven minutes. I’m convinced that adult attention spans have been carefully programmed by network television, by the seven to eight minute time segments of entertainment, wedged between commercial breaks. On the other hand, the average sales presentation in the United States runs from one and a half to two hours in length. As a sales manager, you should easily figure out what’s wrong with this picture.

Those of you with complex products or services, or with large product lines may be saying to yourself, that it takes at least an hour to demonstrate all of the features and benefits of what it is you sell and another 20 to 30 minutes for questions and answers, right? Well, if you want more sales, help your staff to cut the length of their presentations down appreciably.

The $elling Edge®, Inc.’s Sales Success Strategies workshop, teaches a six-step selling process that can be completed, no matter how complex the product or service, in 30 minutes or less. We speed up the selling process, not only because of a decision-maker’s lack of attention , but more important, so that a sales professional can make more presentations in a given time period. And, the more presentations made over time, the more sales that are consummated.

You do the math. If a sales representative averages one and a half to two hours for each presentation as compared to an average of 30 to 40 minutes, how many more presentations can your staff make each year? How many more sales?

The six-step selling process, taught in the Sales Success Strategies workshops, is outlined in detail in a self-directed learning manual of the same name. You can learn more about it at: http://www.TheSellingEdge.com/manual1.htm

VIRDEN THORNTON is the founder and President of The $elling Edge®, Inc. an Ohio consulting firm specializing in sales and sales management training, personal coaching, advisory services and publishing. Clients have included Sears Optical, Eastman Kodak, IBM, Service Linen Supply, Bank One, Jefferson Wells International, and Wal-Mart to name a few. Virden is the author of the “best selling” Building & Closing the Sale, Prospecting: The Key To Sales Success and Close That Sale, a video/audio tape series published by Crisp Publications a division of Thompson Learning. He has also authored a client acclaimed Self-Directed Learning series of sales, coaching, telemarketing, and personal productivity manuals. To obtain a substantial discount on two of Virden's latest books, 101 Sales Myths or Organizing For Sales Success, go to: http://www.TheSellingEdge.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Virden_Thornton

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Presentation Planning - 5 Easy Ways to Streamline the Process

Practicing for presentations can waste more of your key personnel time then almost any other business activity. The possible exception being useless meetings! To maximize your planning efforts just follow these 5 easy steps. You will find that you can streamline the process and make Presentation Practice much more productive.

- There must be One Person in Charge. This person has responsibility for scheduling, coordinating and, perhaps most importantly, communicating with all of the presentation team members. Preferably this is a staff position working in Business Development who can be assigned the job. Never put a busy executive in charge of the day to day process.

- Select the Presentation Team Early. Be sure to determine who is required to be a presenter. Almost always the client wants to meet and hear from the people working directly on the project, not just the sales group.

- A detailed presentation schedule is mandatory. Everyone must understand what the plan is. At a minimum the schedule needs to show the following: Presentation date and time. Team practices and who needs to be present along with where and when practices will be held. A block of time needs to be allocated for preparing visual aids. They can be power point slides, presentation boards, handouts, leave behinds, or anything else that may need to be created for the presentation. The schedule needs to be distributed to all team members as quickly as possible to allow maximum time for individuals block out times in their personal schedules.

- When practices are scheduled everyone must be prepared to practice. This sounds redundant but I can't tell you how often I have heard people complain over what a waste of time a practice session was. Having a room full of people waiting for someone to finish the power point presentation slides is not where you want to be.

- Communicate everything pertaining to schedule with everyone as quickly as possible. Again, numerous times I have seen practice sessions rescheduled without letting everyone know. The result is always a conference room of senior staff with nothing to do! They didn't know the practice had been rescheduled.

Try these steps and you will be surprise at how much more productive your Presentation Planning will become.

Allen Jossim is a retired executive and freelance writer with much presentation and public speaking experience. Please go to his blog Public Speaking - You Can Do It! Where helpful information is always available.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Allen_Jossim

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