Becoming a Professional Presenter
As a salesperson, you are responsible for representing your company well. Often times, this will mean that you need to develop the skills of a professional presenter in order to properly represent your company.
Many times, the number of sales you are able to make is dependent on how well you can present. The number one cause for failed presentations is fear.
Fear can affect your behavior tremendously. It is quite common for people to be afraid or nervous when they are asked to present in a public situation.
In fact, public speaking has been rated as the number one fear that people have for decades. Even death, is second to this fear despite the fact that most people would choose a public speech over death.
There is even an official name for fear of public speaking. It is Laliophobia.
However, if you are a salesperson you must overcome any laliophobia that you may have. Many salespeople do not have this fear at all, but they must still hone the skills of a professional presenter.
The first thing you will need to do when you are asked to speak in front of an audience is prepare. As you prepare you should make sure that you know who your audience will be and what your topic is.
You will also need to clearly define what you want your audience to know. When it comes to knowing your audience, it does not mean that you need to know that so and so will be there from this corporation.
While this knowledge can be helpful, you need to know what the demographics of your audience will be. This means you need to know the general profession, their standards of dress, and their education level.
It is important to know this so that you can meet the needs that they have. For example, if English is the group’s second language, you will want to keep the terms you use in your presentation fairly simple.
The second thing you will need to remember is that most people will only remember three or four points from the best presentations. Do not be offended if your best friend cannot remember what you talked about right after the presentation.
However, with this knowledge you will need to be careful to limit your presentation to a few points that you can clearly convey. Think about what the most important things are that your audience picks up.
Often, this means that you need to say these three or four points in three different ways to emphasize their importance. Make sure you eliminate anything that is not directly relevant to the points you are trying to convey so that they will not be a distraction.
However, you do want to make the presentation interesting. One of the best things you can include in a presentation to capture your audience is humor.
Jokes make the audience laugh, take in more oxygen, and wake up. You do want to be careful not to use inappropriate jokes or to take the jokes too far.
In a business setting, the jokes should be clean and non-offensive. In addition, the joke should not be randomly thrown in, but should have some relevance to the topic you are talking about so that it helps emphasize that point.
It is a good rule to remember that if you are going to make fun of someone, make fun of yourself. Anyone else that you make fun of may make the audience feel uncomfortable or insulted.
Another common mistake when it comes to presentations is apologies. Many poor presenters will start with an apology about how they have a cold and their voice is not up to par.
Most likely, the cold will go away right after the presentation because the cold is actually nerves. If you really do have a cold, it will be apparent by your actions.
Apologizing to your audience does not give you leniency, but makes them fall asleep sooner because they know you think your presentation is not worth listening to. Instead, do something that will get the attention of the audience.
By capturing their attention at the beginning they will feel like they are in for a treat and they will stay awake much longer, even if the rest of your presentation is dry and dull. It is also a good idea to think about incorporating all the different types of learning into your presentation so that you will be able to reach all members of your audience.
Jack R. Landry has worked in the field of business management for 20 years. He recommends using Lead Management Software for sales management software.
Contact Info:
Jack R. Landry
JackRLandry@gmail.com
http://www.insidesales.com/lead_management.php
