New Persuasive Presentations Blog
Thank you for following me on The Grab
My blog has now been incorporated into my website, you can view it here www.persuasivepresentations.com.au
I look forward to seeing you there!
Regards
Sharon Ferrier
Stand up, Speak up & Persuade. New Public Workshop – August 19th, 2015
Does the thought of delivering a presentation scare you?
Do you want to learn how to be confident in front of a group, think on your feet and deliver a persuasive and engaging presentation?
Then this course is for you!
I only do a few public workshops per year – my next one is at the end of July – Stand Up Speak Up and Persuade works and the lessons learnt stay with you for life.
“I was fortunate enough to attend the “Stand Up, Speak Up and Persuade” course at Scholle. Have attended many courses during my career, but this one has been a clear stand out, and has really stood the test of time. It has continued to resonate with me, and I continue to use the principles when preparing any presentation I do. I couldn’t recommend this course more highly to organisations and people who want really want to make an impact.” Randall Pearce – strategic Sales and Marketing Professional
Now is your time to shine – and I can help.
For more information or to discuss your in-house training needs, flick me an email:
Stand Up, Speak Up & Persuade 22nd July 2015
Does the thought of delivering a presentation scare you?
Do you want to learn how to be confident in front of a group, think on your feet and deliver a persuasive and engaging presentation?
Then this course is for you!
I only do a few public workshops per year – my next one is at the end of July – Stand Up Speak Up and Persuade works and the lessons learnt stay with you for life.
“I was fortunate enough to attend the “Stand Up, Speak Up and Persuade” course at Scholle. Have attended many courses during my career, but this one has been a clear stand out, and has really stood the test of time. It has continued to resonate with me, and I continue to use the principles when preparing any presentation I do. I couldn’t recommend this course more highly to organisations and people who want really want to make an impact.” Randall Pearce – strategic Sales and Marketing Professional
Now is your time to shine – and I can help.
For more information or to discuss your in-house training needs, flick me an email:
Is It Time To Ban PowerPoint?
Last month in the Australian Financial Review Westpac chief executive Brian Hartzer was quoted as saying “I think one of the dangers in large companies is that people start to think that their job is to create PowerPoints, [rather than] to make decisions and improve things for customers…. I am seriously considering turning PowerPoint off completely,”
He is not the first CEO to feel this way. In 1997 Scott McNealy, then president of Sun Microsystems, banned the use of PowerPoint throughout his company.
Should you be doing the same?
Or maybe you just need to get a big stick and empower your team and beat PowerPoint into submission
1. Look at your company communication culture
Often when I suggest to a client that they need to change the way deliver their PowerPoints they respond with “Oh, we can’t do that. Our manager supplies the templates and slide headings and we MUST do it this way!”
Forcing people to use PowerPoint is forcing them into ‘lecture mode’. People start telling rather than selling and presentations become predictable long winded and boring.
Your company communication culture starts at the top. Are your managers delivering great presentations or are they presenting with PowerPoint circa 1995?
2. Put PowerPoint last
Many people, when asked to deliver a presentation, open their laptops and start cranking out slides. Instead you should be:
- Setting an objective
- Tailoring your message to your audience
- Developing your topic
- Structure your presentation
- Making it persuasive
- Including a call to action
PowerPoint should be the last thing on your list before you start practicing and you may find that your presentation is better off without it!
3. ‘Flip’ your meetings
This idea comes from the flipped classroom model, where instead of teachers delivering lectures, information is sent out before for the students to read and class time is dedicated to discussion which the teacher facilitates.
How this would work for you
Instead of your team delivering a PowerPoint presentation they would instead email an executive summary of their recommendations and then facilitate discussion on the pros, cons and recommended improvements for the idea.
So there is no need to ban PowerPoint – you just need to learn how to use it to your advantage. If all this sounds a little scary, it’s okay, I’m here to help!
Stand Up, Speak Up & Persuade – March 26th 2015
Does the thought of delivering a presentation scare you?
Do you want to learn how to be confident in front of a group, think on your feet and deliver a persuasive and engaging presentation?
Then this course is for you!
I only do a few public workshops per year – my next one is at the end of March – Stand Up Speak Up and Persuade works and the lessons learnt stay with you for life.
“I was fortunate enough to attend the “Stand Up, Speak Up and Persuade” course at Scholle. Have attended many courses during my career, but this one has been a clear stand out, and has really stood the test of time. It has continued to resonate with me, and I continue to use the principles when preparing any presentation I do. I couldn’t recommend this course more highly to organisations and people who want really want to make an impact.” Randall Pearce – strategic Sales and Marketing Professional
Now is your time to shine – and I can help.
For more information or to discuss your in-house training needs, flick me an email:
Facts Tell, Stories Sell
There has been a lot written recently about the importance of corporate stories. And there is good reason for this. One of my favourite quotes is “People buy on emotion and justify their purchase with logic.”
Stories are sticky. By triggering emotion they light up the neural pathways in our brain and become memorable. Stories make meaning of what we hear: they link one dimensional data with our three dimensional experience.
Stories engage us, inspire us, motivate us and ultimately move us to action.
Here are three tips to help you be a better storyteller.
1. Collect
A study published last year in the Harvard Business Review showed that lecturers who told personal stories had greater credibility with their students than those who did not. In business it’s not just about your war stories. Weaving in your personal experiences as well can make you more approachable, increase your likeability and, as this study shows, increase your credibility.
Stories can come from anywhere. A client from an accounting firm was telling me recently how he and his family had just returned from a holiday in the Northern Territory. One of the highlights was feeding crocodiles.
It involved poking a dead chicken on a pole through a fence where the crocodile would jump up out of the water and snatch the food. He said all he could think about was the croc latching onto the pole, pulling down sharply and flinging his seven year old daughter over the fence and into the water.
FABULOUS! (The story that is, not the daughter as croc bait…)
I then explained to him how he could use this story in his presentation about mitigating risk. Feeding crocs is risky, you need to ensure you have barriers and procedures in place to protect you. The same with financial management in your business – you don’t want to have a client flung into the croc pit!
See the link? It makes your message stick.
2. Structure
Putting some structure around your story makes it easy to follow and easy for you to remember.
Here are two to try:
People, Place, Event
- Who are the main characters?
- Where did this happen?
- What happened and what was the outcome?
Ok, Bad, Better
- OK – this is where we are now
- Bad – But things are going to deteriorate if we don’t act soon
- Better – Here’s where we’ll end up
Keep your stories short and simple, it’s the message and meaning that counts.
3. Connect
A great story on its own will not make you an effective speaker. The story needs to be relevant to your objective and also address the audiences’ WIIFM (What’s In It For Me).
Remember:
Message + Relevance = Great Corporate Story
Want to know more? Give me a call to see how my ‘Facts Tell Stories Sell’ workshop can help you and your team engage and inspire, or you may want to attend my Stand up, Speak up & Persuade public workshop on March 26th
Speaking at a conference? Here’s what NOT to do!
I love speaking at conferences. It’s an opportunity to meet new people, challenge myself with new ideas and to travel.
Wherever possible I stay for the day so I can listen to the speakers before me. I love hearing and seeing other people present and understand how nerve wracking it can be to speak to a room full of strangers. But a keynote requires some special preparation and there are rules you need to adhere to.
Here are 5 things you should ever do in your keynote
1. Make it all about you
Let me tell you how faaaabulous I am!
Some speakers remind me of a bad first date – you know the ones when all they want to talk about is their house on the beach and the car they drive? I recently saw a keynote speaker show a rah rah company video and then proceed to talk about himself for a full 20 minutes. He did not start on his topic until 30 minutes into his presentation. The audience was not impressed.
Solution: Focus on the audience’s WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?) and your credibility will speak for itself.
2. Deliver a report instead of a presentation
This is a mistake I see a lot of novices make. They have done some research that has had some great outcomes and as a result they’ve been asked to present their findings at a national conference. They then proceed to deliver their research in its entirety and bore the audience until they are catatonic.
Solution: Deliver a ‘Persuasive Executive Summary’ and relate it to the audience. Those who want the detail can read the paper.
3. Let me show you the spreadsheet…
Keynotes and PowerPoint abuse seem to go hand in hand. Here’s a quick tip. Open your PowerPoint make the slides full screen and stand six feet away. If you can’t read the detail on your slide, neither can your audience. It’s time to escape PowerPoint purgatory.
Solution: Have a look at the blogs I have written on how to “Escape Powerpoint Purgatory”
4. You MUST do this!
There is a saying in sales: ‘Telling is not selling’. When I’m in an audience I take off my evaluator’s hat and enjoy the moment. But every now and then something will punch through that causes discomfort. I was listening to a speaker recently and I thought: “Maybe it’s just me…” but when I noticed the person on my left checking her emails and person on my right playing solitaire, I thought “Maybe not!”
I asked them after why they were disengaged and they said:
- “She came across as preachy and a know it all”
- “I don’t appreciate being told what to do”
Solution: Tell stories. Share your challenges and what you learnt from them. Use inclusive ‘we’ language rather than ‘you’. Pose questions to the audience and increase interaction.
5. Go over time
Several years ago I spoke at a conference where the two previous speakers went over by 20 minutes each. I was the last speaker before lunch and you could see the audience was getting testy. I checked with the conference organiser first and then I stood up and said:
“I’m going to tell you what you need to know about delivering a persuasive presentation and I’m going to do it in 20 minutes” I received my first standing ovation when we broke for lunch on time.
Solution: Franklin D Roosevelt’s advice to his son on public speaking was “Be sincere. Be brief. Be seated.” Conferences are planned down to the last minute – if you want to be invited back, you’d better be on time!
This year I have delivered keynotes across Australia and overseas on topics ranging from persuasion and making your message stick, through to presentation skills and “escaping PowerPoint Purgatory’.
My audiences have consisted of accountants, lawyers doctors, CEO’s, HR professionals, trainers and managers. If you have a conference coming up I’d love to have a chat to see if what I deliver can meet your needs.
Three tips for avoiding the meeting from hell!
Chairing a meeting is like running a three ring circus.
You have the elephants that want to slow everything down, the clowns’ intent on turning your meeting into a slapstick show and the lions in the wings waiting to bite your head off!
There is a way to be a proficient ringmaster… you just need to focus on task, time and keep the people happy.
Here are three tips to make your next meeting more effective.
1. Have an objective and an agenda
A meeting with out an agenda is like going on a trip without a map.
Do your meetings start like the hiking trip from hell?
Q: “Where are we going?”
A: “Oooo, ahhh, dunno haven’t thought about that!”
Q: “Ok then, how long will we be?”
A: “Around three hours, maybe?”
Q: “Well… what do we need to bring?”
A: “Oh, just yourselves… maybe a notepad…”
Does this sound like some of the meetings you have attended in the past? How is your anxiety level?
The solution is to have an objective and agenda. Even if it is an informal meeting a quick email like this will let people know what to expect:
Hi Team,
Re: Product launch
We need to catch up next week to finalise the product launch details:
Date: Next Tuesday the 28th in the board room
Time: 9.30 – 10.20
Objective: To finalise the roles and running sheet for the launch
Please Read: The marketing brief
Please Bring: Ideas on items for the running sheet
Clearly set out the expectations of the group and the preparation they need to do before the meeting. Many people feel uncomfortable coming up with ideas on the spot so let them know in advance that you will be asking for their input.
2. Include the team
You invited them to attend so include them in the conversation. Set some ground rules where people agree to get involved, listen to others and be respectful. Empower everyone to speak up when the meeting goes off task. Spread the meeting roles so everyone has a change to contribute. Don your ringmaster top hat and ensure people play fair.
3. Summarise frequently and agree on action items
People love to see progress. Summarise decisions made and items to be actioned. These action items (What, by whom and by when) need to be on the front page of the minutes so people can clearly see what they need to do before the next meeting.
Finish when you said you would and congratulate them for staying on task and on time. If there is unfinished business roll it over to the next meeting.
*********
Managing meetings is tricky, but by applying a bit of thought and working on your communication skills you can have the elephants dancing, the clowns performing and the lions jumping through hoops!
Why you NEVER want to read your speech!
I want you to try something for me next time you’re alone.
Stand up and hold a book at waist height and read it out loud. Listen to what happens to your voice. When you lower your head your voice gets squashed and vocal variety is reduced. It’s also harder for people to hear as you cannot project your voice as well. We also tend to fall into a ‘reading rhythm’ which can have the same effect as swinging a pendulum in front of the audience – “You are getting sleepy…”
Here are four ways to deliver your presentation – but only one of them will increase your persuasion quotient.
1. Read your speech
When we write a speech we tend to fall into report mode. The language and the tone becomes more formal and doesn’t roll off the tongue as easily.
On top of this, we lose all the things that make a presentation engaging: eye-contact, gestures and vocal variety.
2. Memorise your speech
We’ve all seen someone who as delivered a memorised speech. They stand as if super-glued to the spot, beads of sweat break out on their brow as they desperately try not to lose their way and they stare over your head, fearful that if they look anyone in the eye their brain will turn to mush.
Memorising a speech to the point where you can deliver a natural sounding presentation is possible – but do you really have the time for that?
3. Wing it!
Those of us that love to stand up and speak often fall into this trap. We know the topic, we know the audience, why do we need to prepare?
The challenge here is that we can talk too much, go off on wild tangents and before you know it 30 minutes have passed and we have not even touched on the first main point we wanted to talk about! Even if you know the topic well, a few notes with an introduction, some headings for the main body of the presentation and some thoughts about how you would like to conclude will be enough to keep you on task and on time.
4. Have a prepared plan
Hmmm… a prepared plan I hear you ask, what’s that?
A prepared plan provides you with the structure to stay on task and on time. Your presentation is not written out word-for-word, so you can deliver it in a conversational tone. Your notes are in large font, so it’s easy to see where you’re at if you forget the next point. Most importantly, you can focus on the stories and delivering your message with passion to ensure you are engaging and persuasive. I’ll share more tips and tricks on delivering a prepared plan next month.
Stand up, Speak up & Persuade – July 29th 2014
So you want to be a confident speaker? You want to be able to think on your feet? You want to be able to put together a persuasive presentation easily and quickly?
Great! I’ll see you at my Stand up, Speak up and Persuade workshop!
- Date: Tuesday July 29th 2014
- Venue: Education Development Centre, Milner St, Hindmarsh SA (Only 5 mins out of the city)
- Still only $550.00!
This workshop is limited to 10 participants only – so I can focus on your needs.
“Sharon is able to transform people into good presenters that thought they might not otherwise be”
Want more information? Email me for a flyer or call me as I’d love to have a chat.
THE GRAB - How to grab their attention and make your message stick! 