3 Simple Ways to Add Impact to Your Presentations.

Welcome to QuickBites, public speaking tips and techniques you can digest in five minutes or less. In this episode, we're going to talk about three simple ways that you can add impact to your presentations. How many times have you delivered a presentation and known that people just weren't engaged? It's demoralizing, isn't it? There are numerous elements you can add, delete, or change to make your presentations more compelling. Today, we're covering three of them: Benefit Statement, Transitions, and Q&A.

The Benefit Statement

The Benefit Statement is delivered directly after your attention-grabbing opening — and truthfully, it's my favorite part of a presentation. It's simple to develop, easy to deliver, and extremely powerful. It consists of three parts: the length of the presentation, what the audience is going to learn, and how they'll benefit from that information.

Here's an example: Over the next 20 minutes, you're going to learn how to incorporate more effective SEO into your website, so you can be seen in a greater number of search results, get more leads, and ultimately make more sales.

People often make two mistakes here. One is saying "I'm going to talk about." The other is highlighting the content without including the benefit to the audience. Instead, say "you'll discover" or "you'll learn" — and always add that benefit. Now your audience knows it's about them, that they're going to learn something, and what they're going to get out of it.

Transitions

Because speakers know where their presentations are going and how the various segments connect, they often forget to include transitions. Consequently, the listeners get confused.

Transitions are easy to include. They can be simple — first, second, third, next — or they can be the more sophisticated and advantageous flashback transition. A flashback transition highlights the benefit of what you just said and previews the benefit of what you're about to say. For example: Now that you understand how effective SEO increases exposure to your top prospects, you're going to see how it helps you increase sales. See how naturally that moves the audience from one idea to the next?

Q&A

Most people handle Q&A in a way that undermines an otherwise strong presentation. The intent of a Q&A session is to help listeners clarify a point or get information on something that may not have been covered. But when Q&A is placed at the very end, you lose control of your closing.

For greater effectiveness, move your Q&A from the end of your presentation to just before your conclusion. You want to end on your terms — and you'll have that opportunity when you sandwich Q&A between your content and your closing. How you set it up also matters. Instead of saying "Does anybody have any questions?", try: Let's take up to 10 minutes for Q&A. Based on the information you just heard, what questions do you have?

Once the Q&A session is over, briefly summarize your presentation and conclude as you had rehearsed. A few additional tips: be enthusiastic about each question, repeat questions the audience may not have heard, and take time to formulate your answers. Also think ahead about how you'll handle off-topic questions, the person who wants their point heard rather than answered, or the one who hogs the mic. And if you're going to say "that's a great question" to one person, say something like it to all of them — just vary the words and phrases you use.

Q&A sessions can be extremely effective. They just need to be in the right place. By including these easy-to-implement ideas, you'll be well on your way to delivering presentations that resonate with your listeners and make a difference in their lives or careers. And isn't that precisely what you want to do?

Thank you for listening to this episode of Public Speaking with Peter George. Are you ready to be calm, confident, and credible every time you speak in public? Then visit petergeorgepublicspeaking.com and let's make it happen. I'll see you next time.