Archive for the ‘presentation skills’ Category

The Strength Of Your Stance

October 29th, 2015 |no comments

The way you hold yourself signals to the world how confident you are in your ability to influence.

When speaking, in leading, and while influencing, there is a saying, “The strength of your stance shows the strength of your message.” A great example of this is, the person who is under pressure, they start squirming in their seat. You know the pressure is getting to them because you can see them squirm, and react in a physical way.

Controlling the way that you sit, stand, walk, and carry yourself will show to others, and yourself, the strength that you have within your message.

Movement plays a large part in nervousness. It’s the twitching of the hands, it’s the rubbing of the nose, and the scratching of the neck. When you display these characteristics of nervousness, it telegraphs a subconscious message of, “I’m not comfortable, I’m nervous, and I don’t have the authority that I wish I had.”

To control your stance, practice being still. You can still move, to pick up pens, to look people in the eye. But when you’re speaking, remain solid. If you’re going to move, have movement with purpose. When you move with purpose, you have strength in yourself, and you have strength in your message. People will pick up on this – they may not know that they’re picking up on it, but it will come through. There are a couple of ways in which you can practice this.

Firstly, reflect on how you felt. For example, after you’ve been in a meeting, after you’ve spoken to someone, reflect on what it is that you did, how you held yourself. Ask yourself, can I be stronger in the way that I stand, the way that I sit, and the way that I carry myself.

The second is to look at world leaders you see on the TV or on the news. People you trust and respect – it could be business leaders, CEOs of large companies that you admire – look at the way that they hold themselves, look at the way they speak, and the way they stand when addressing and delivering their point with influence. Copy what they do.

The strength of your stance shows the strength of your message. Have a strong stance and people will see you as someone with a strong message.

I’d love your thoughts on this, please leave a comment below in the comment section.


This Is Why Your Audience Is Present

October 25th, 2015 |no comments

There are three reasons why your audience is present when you speak. Your audience are there because they either want to gain, comply or avoid.

  1. Those who are there looking to gain, are the customers who have asked you to sell to them. It might be your manager who has asked you to report or staff looking for direction.
  2. Those who are complying are present because it causes less grief to be present than to stay away. These are the people who have been told to attend.
  3. Those looking to avoid are present so they don’t have to be somewhere else. They want to avoid work and you are the perfect excuse.

This is how they will interact:

  • The ‘gaining’ audience will ask questions and interact for clarity.
  • The ‘avoiding’ audience will interact to prolong the experience.
  • It’s the ‘complying’ audience who does not want to be there who are the hardest to work with, and sell too.

By understanding what type of audience you have, will help you clarify how you pitch your message to them.

As always, I’d love your thoughts on this, please leave a comment in the comment section below.


The Eye Of The Tiger

October 22nd, 2015 |no comments

The way that we create, hold and break eye contact, says a lot about our ability to influence.

In western cultures, the ability to hold eye contact is interpreted as a sign of strength. If you can’t look someone in the eye, you are perceived as someone who is weak. Alternatively, if you hold someone’s eye contact for too long, you are seen as being aggressive. When people challenge each other, they often stare at each other to show a sign of strength. They stare at each other to see who will break first.

When you make eye contact, the length of time that you hold that eye contact can determine how powerful you intend to be, in coming across. If you’ve ever looked into the eyes of a person you have strong feelings for, and held eye contact, you will find that the longer the eye contact is held, the more feelings are aroused. It’s the same in the workplace.

There are two exercises you can use to strengthen this.

The first is the length of time that you hold eye contact. Practice holding eye contact just a bit longer than is comfortable. If you look your boss in the eye maybe you would break that normally after two to three seconds. Try holding it for four. Maybe you hold eye contact for four or five; hold it for six. And gradually, over the next few days, extend the length of the time that you hold eye contact. This will give you greater strength and ability to stare at someone, and hold eye contact in a position of power when you need it.

The second exercise is to be conscious of where your eyes go once you break eye contact. If you’re looking at someone in the eye and you break your eye contact and your eyes go down to look at nothing in particular, it’s seen as being weak. It’s almost cowering, “I shouldn’t have been looking”. If you’re making eye contact with somebody and then your eyes move up just to look above their head or out the window or off in the distance, that gives the feeling of “I’m above you, I’m above this, I’m looking elsewhere”.

When your eyes break and move off at the same level. This gives a feeling and perception of equality, “I’m with you; I’m equal”. It’s not as threatening, nor is it seen as “I’m cowering”.

Today you have two exercises to do:

  1. Hold eye contact just a little bit longer than is normally comfortable
  2. Pay attention to the way in which you break eye contact

Go through Dynamic Reflection on this – that is, once you’ve had a conversation and you’ve moved on elsewhere, think about how your eyes have been making contact, holding contact and breaking contact.

Eye contact is a powerful way to establish authority and influence.


The Spot Light of Your Message

October 22nd, 2015 |no comments

Where you focus your message, lets people know how aware you are of other their perspective.

When most people stand up to speak, they speak from their own perspective, and they sell their message in terms of what it means to them. The audience though, only care about themselves. They will only take action in a way that’s going to improve their lives. If you want to be seen as an influential person, you need to structure your message in terms of what is of benefit for your audience. In the world of sales, it’s known as the WIFM – “What’s In It For Me?”

Next time you are speaking, assess your message to see what perspective it comes from.

  • For whom are you framing it?
  • Are you framing it in terms of “what I want to do; what I want to achieve?” (e.g. I’m just calling you to see if you have done….”?)
  • Or, are you framing your message for your audience so it is all about them?

After you have spoken, you will do some dynamic reflection. You will reflect on how you conducted yourself during your encounters with others (e.g. meetings, phone calls, presentations etc).

Was your conversation focused on you, or was it focused on the person you were having a conversation with? This is a powerful technique that, once you get control of and understand, you can apply this technique, and you can structure your message so it fits with your audience’s world very quickly. This is how you will increase your influence.


Why Would They Listen?

October 19th, 2015 |no comments

Just because you’re the boss, the supplier or the paid consultant, it doesn’t mean your audience will listen to you. You have to give them a reason to listen.

My friend and Thought Leader Matt Church speaks about the three questions all audiences have at the start of any presentation. If you don’t answer these questions, the audience won’t listen.

  1. Why this? Why should I stop what I am focused on and pay attention to what you have to say?
  2. Why now? Why do I have to listen to this today? Can’t you come back next week?
  3. Why you? Why are you the person to be speaking to me about this?

Unfortunately, most people start with question number three; Why you? This is wrong, as most audiences don’t even know why they should be listening to you at all. As a result, they won’t hear the reason you give for being so awesome.

You see this a lot in sales situations where sales reps will tell you how good their company is before telling you why you would want to know that.

If you have any sales reps who call on you and tell you why they are awesome before explaining why you should care, please send me their details. If you have staff who do this, give me a call.

As always, would love your thoughts on this, please leave a comment in the comment section below.


The Spot Light of Your Message

October 15th, 2015 |no comments

Where you focus your message, you let people know how aware you are of other people’s perspectives.

When most people stand to speak, they speak from their own perspective, and they sell their message in terms of ‘what it means to them’, the person speaking. However, the audience only care about themselves. They will only take action in a way that’s going to improve their lives. If you want to be seen as an influential person, you need to structure your message in terms of what the benefit will be for your audience. In the world of sales, it’s known as the WIFM – what’s in it for me?

Next time you are speaking, assess your message to see what perspective it comes from:

  • For whom are you framing it?
  • Are you framing it in terms of “what I want to do, what I want to achieve?” (e.g. I’m just calling you to see if you have done….”).
  • Or, are you framing your message for your audience so it is all about them.

This is going to require some dynamic reflection. You will reflect on how you conducted yourself during your encounters with others (e.g. meetings, phone calls, presentations etc) after you have finished the conversation.

Ask yourself, was your conversation focused on you or was it focused on the person you were having a conversation with? This is a powerful technique that once you get control of it, and understand, you can apply it and structure your message so it fits your audience’s world very quickly. This will increase your influence.


Depth of Understanding

October 11th, 2015 |no comments

When speaking to an audience you need to understand them on three levels.

Level 1 – Logistical – Who are they and what do they do?
Level 2 – Motivational – what do they want?
Level 3 – Behavioural – what will they most likely do before, during and after your presentation.

Level 1 determines what you could sell to your audience, but it’s levels 2 & 3 that are important for influencing.

Level 2 tells you why they will listen, and buy from you. It will help you identify their trigger points so you can hone in on them.

Level 3 will guide their actions. What they will do once you’ve spoken to them?

If you are presenting to sell your services, it is important to know what your audience will do, after you have finished speaking to them. Are they likely to give an order number on the spot or will you have to wait a week? If you have to wait a week, how will you stop that blowing out to two weeks, then three, then six…?

Having a strategy in place to understand all three levels will make your job of speaking to sell easier.

As always, would love your thoughts on this. Please leave a comment below in the comment section.


Superannuation: Why Alan Kohler has the story right

October 8th, 2015 |no comments

Each night on the ABC News, finance reporter Alan Kohler gives a small insight. It might be how a drop in the Yen against the US $ is directly related to increasing the value of the Nikkei.

These small tidbits of information are visual, not readily available to the average viewer and show a level of insight. When we see them, they explain a small piece of the economy. In, and of themselves they are not very useful, they are memorable, and they show his insight. He can see what I can’t. He sees this because he has access to the data and the understanding of how to interpret it.

Most of this information is trivia to the viewers watching at home. They won’t be able to apply it to any meaningful money making venture, but it is an important and a regular part of his 2-minute segment. So why does he include it?

He includes it to position himself as the person who knows. Every time he can show us a small bit of insight, we see him as ‘the man who knows’.

There is one further element that makes these bits of information stand out. We can take them and share it at a BBQ on the weekend, and feel informed. We repeat the information without acknowledging its source, we use it, and we own it as our own. This is Social Object Theory, and it is at the heart of ideas that go viral.

  1. As an expert in superannuation, you want your workplace presentations to have high Social Object value. You want your members to share what it is you present in your workplace presentations, and pass it off as their own. When they do this, three things happen:
  2. It’s proof to your members that your presentations are interesting and memorable. This will make them want to come back to your next presentation and even bring a friend.
  3. It gets them mentally engaging with their super via the memory of your message. (McDonalds repeats their ads to us all the time. This is your version of the happy meal jingle.)

It positions you as the expert who knows. When they take your message and repeat it as their own, they secretly acknowledge you as the source of the message. This builds your credibility in their eyes.

Superannuation is an important part of every Australians life. Making your message more memorable will enable your members to engage mentally with their super and have the retirement they are after.


Currencies That Convert

October 5th, 2015 |no comments

There are only five currencies that people care about and they are:

  1. Time
  2. Money
  3. Happiness
  4. Health
  5. Legacy

Everything you sell needs to address one of these currencies. Every time you speak, you need to address how your audience will benefit from these currencies. If you cannot address these currencies, you’ll find it difficult to get your message across.

While there is no hierarchy to the currencies, most people default to money as it is the most tangible. This is wrong.

The most powerful one to sell on is time. It is the only currency you cannot get more of.

Would love your thoughts on this, leave a comment below in the comment section.


Superannuation: What members want to know about this weeks bloodbath.

September 30th, 2015 |no comments

With over $55 Billion wiped from the markets this week, what is the one thing that your members are thinking as they go into workplace presentations regarding Superannuation?

Are your planners equipped to explain what has happened and why it happened? Will they be able to offer insight into the likely knock-on effect of the fall, and what it means for the wider economy?

Or will they continue to run the same presentation they ran on Monday – explaining the returns achieved over the last 12 months, and asking for appointments for financial planning sessions?

If your planners are not focused on discussing, and explaining this week’s news, then you know why your members are not engaged with their super. Members are more engaged with what has happened this week, over what it will mean for three decades down the track.

To have the ability to ditch the standard presentation, and speak on the current movements, your planners need three things:

  1. Insight from your investment team. Not just data, but insight – what will all this mean for today, and my retirement savings.
  2. Ability to explain. Your planners need the ability to ditch the slides, and explain what has happened. If all your planners can do is read slides, they are just a talking brochure. They need to be leaders within their field of expertise.
  3. Reassurance. Showing that your fund understands the machinations of this massive movement. They need to relay how your fund is set up to handle these shocks, and how they are prepared to make even better returns off the back of it.

At the base of this, is your planners ability to share their message without a powerpoint slide deck. If they cannot, they will never be relevant to the member and what is engaging them today. This entrenches member disengagement and their connection to your fund and their Super.

I show financial planners how to get an extra 2-10 financial planning appointments per week to generate an additional $5,000 to $15,000 per month in fees.


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