The most engaging presenters are those who are both knowledgeable and passionate about their content. We can tell that they are passionate because of things like their animation, energy, vocal variety, eye contact and enthusiasm.

But what about when you have to present information that you are not passionate about?    Well in an ideal world I would be tempted to say don’t present it at all.   Of course this may be  unrealistic, especially the presentation is part of your job.

The secret in these situations is to become passionate about the content. I know it may sound like an impossibility but it isn’t.

Start by asking yourself  ”Why you are presenting this information? and “What do you want people to do as a result of hearing it?”

The next step is to familiarise yourself with the material and ask yourself some more questions like:

• What’s important about this information?
• What is it telling us?
• What is it really telling us?
• How can understanding this information help us?
• What would happen if my audience really bought into the messages I am going  to present?

The third step is visualise someone who was really passionate about this material.  How would they present it?

• How would they stand?
• How would they sound?
• How would they move?

And finally the last step is to imagine that you could step into their body and deliver the material in the same way as them.

Start by  seeing  yourself giving the presentation, sounding and looking enthusiastic, passionate and engaged.   Then imagine being in your body as you give the presentation, hearing your own voice, feeling the confidence and energy and enthusiasm coursing through your veins.

Imagine the impact that you could have if you could learn to control your energy and deliver with passion whenever you wanted to.  What would that ability do for your career?   How much more influential would you be?  How much more fulfilled could you be?

Gavin Meikle

The Presentation Doctor

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It’s my experience, from networking with hundreds of businesses here in Hampshire, that most people rely on telephone and 1:1 face to face selling to close new business.

Now that’s fine and dandy but 1:1 selling can be expensive, specially in terms of time. You have the time to get to the client, then you have the meeting time, then the travel time back and then the time to write a proposal.

Imagine the benefits of being able to reduce all these costs and sell to more people at the same time. If you could get 10, 20, or even 200 interested people in the room at the same time wouldn’t you have a much greater chance of generating at least 10 times more business for the same initial time outlay.

That’s what we call seminar selling. Putting on an event and inviting your warm leads to attend.
What better way to demonstrate your expertise than in front of the group? If you are a coaching you could do a demonstration of a coaching session. If you are a financial planner you could showcase examples of how you have helped your existing clients. If you are a web expert you could present a few of your top tips for web design or search engine optimisation.

In short seminar presentations are a very time efficient way to demonstrate your expertise in your specialist area.

So why don’t more people put on events?
Here are the most common excuses!

• I don’t have time to organise them
• My product or service isn’t interesting enough
• People are too busy to attend
• I can’t afford it
• I am afraid of making a fool of myself
• I don’t know what to say

Do any of this reasons resonate with you?

Yes?

I thought so. That’s why I am planning a series of no-nonsense weekly articles to answer each of these specific questions and show you how and why you can’t afford to ignore this important new business channel. If you haven’t already done so, subscribe to this blog to receive these valuable reports automatically.

Gavin Meikle
The sales presentation doctor

The vast majority of the presentations I listen to are essentially passive, at least from the audience’s perspective.    All I am expected to do is sit and listen.   I am not asked to move either physically or mentally and the result is usually the rapid onset of  boredom.

I was at a 4Networking meeting today in Fareham where our speaker did challenge us. She had us moving around, thinking , discussing and challenging our approaches.

Now you may be saying  that’s all well and good for a small audience but I speak to groups of 50, 100 or even 1000. Well I can tell you that it is possible to get audience participation and movement even in large groups. You do have to work within the physical constraints of the room size and layout but you’d be surprised what you can get an audience to do if you just ask them!

I actually think that the real constraint lies in our head not in the room. If you believe it’s impossible then you will not even try to get movement and that is a shame for you and your audience.

For example I once got an audience of 2000 people standing, stretching, chatting with their neighbours just by asking them to and believing myself that they would.   It made my presentation much more memorable and I changed the energy of the group who, up until that moment, had been sitting down for more than an two hours listening to a succession of lectures and slowly losing the will to live.

So my challenge to you is to find ways to get your audience moving, physically as well as mentally.

What would be even better is if you would share your thoughts and experiences with me and the rest of the hundreds of readers of this blog.   Go on, remember none of us is as smart as all of us.   Add your comment and lets get a discussion going.

Gavin Meikle

The Presentation  Doctor

I attend quite a few networking groups and as a result I hear a lot of  elevator pitches.  Some are hot and some are not but recently I heard one which really grabbed my attention.

Picture the situation, It’s 8:45  in the morning and  20 keen networkers are  seated at a horseshoe of tables in near Romsey in The Potters Heron Hotel in Romsey Hampshire having just  had a delicious full English breakfast

At one end our speaker rises,    An impassioned cry erupts from his lips quoting the immortal lines  “Romeo, Romeo, where for art thou Romeo?”

As we sit stunned, our speaker scuttles across the room and starts typing on the keyboard of a laptop he had previously set up. “Sorry Jules!   I can’t come out tonight, my PC has a virus!” Laughter erupts from the group as he scuttles back to take on the persona of Juliet again.

“Romeo! Why haven’t you signed up for a maintainance contract with Zuumedia?” “For only £10 a month they can take care of all that” – More laughter and another dash across the room and more typing on the laptop.

“Good idea Jules, I’m signing up with them now online.” The typing stops and there  is a pause.    “Look out Jules,  here I come!”

A final scuttle back across the room.  Our intrepid presenter turns his back on the audience, puts his hands on his shoulders and mimics a passionate embrace.    The laughter transforms into warm applause.

Now that’s what I call an elevator pitch with a difference.

The presenter was Brian Skeggs, ex-teacher and now internet and computer guru at zuumedia.com

For me Brian hit all the right points in this 30 second commercial.

• It was attention grabbing and different
• It was memorable
• It was funny
• it was relevant
• It was clear
• It was concise

There is no one right way to do an elevator pitch however I feel that Brian’s one was brilliant in the context of a regular networking group with a fairly light hearted approach but wouldn’t work everywhere.   My take home message  is this:

Take a leaf out of Brian’s book and dare to be different. Don’t be scared of experimenting and  making a few mistakes.  Don’t trot out the same old tired cliches every time.  I know that Brian rehearsed, refined and practiced this particular pitch several times before  he went public on it .

Now I can’t wait for his next one!

Gavin Meikle, The Presentation Doctor