I have a typical way of starting a presentation or talk, which is usually guaranteed to work.
I sum up the core of the offering, and put it in terms I hope the audience will find irresistible.
For example, if I’m covering how to pitch for customers or investors, I might say:
- Who wants to know the secrets of attracting business or investment in just an hour long slam?
If I’m teaching the art of writing blogs, it might be:
- Anyone interested in knowing everything you need for an attention grabbing, audience appealing, and customer captivating blog?
I carefully plan these openings in advance, because the start of a presentation is always the most important part.
Fail to hook your audience from the beginning and you risk not engaging them at all.
There is, however, one big caveat to how you start your talk.
Before you begin, invest a few seconds in reading the room.
Those moments when you’re being introduced are invaluable.
Take a quick check around.
The audience will know what's coming next.
So, how do they feel about it?
Are they paying attention, and looking interested?
Or starting to check their phones, and begin doodling.
If they’re engaged, you can go with the opening you had planned.
If not, then perhaps it’s time for some quick rethinking.
It can be a risk, but one which is well worth taking.
This comes to mind now, because this week I was giving a talk on business communication.
It was for a group of companies who are heading out to an international retail summit to pitch their offerings.
I was asked along to make sure their messages were striking, appealing, and hopefully effective.
However!
One of the problems with my area of work is that quite a few business people already think they know it all.
Messaging, communication, presentations…
Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.
You know the kind of thing.
And it was the sense I immediately got as I was introduced.
Plenty of the people in the audience started to zone out, think about their diary for later than the day, check their emails, adopt that vacant expression which tells you they're wandering away.
My introduction was perhaps 15 seconds long, but that was enough to rethink how I began the talk.
It was a risk.
It could’ve alienated the audience, but given that I may have already lost many of them before I began I thought it was a chance worth taking.
So, with a quick reappraisal of the position, I started like this:
- Many of you will think you already know what I’m about to cover, but in the next hour I’ll reveal three invaluable insights for your business messaging which you hadn’t previously thought about.
Guess what happened when I said those words?
You got it.
Faces lifted from phones.
Eyes focused back on me.
I even thought I heard a whisper of anticipation run through the room.
(Although that might be my ever hopeful imagination.)
By the way, no, I’m not telling you what the three insights were.
You’ll have to work with me to find out!
But the serious point being…
The session went very well after that gambit of an opening.
I bonded with the group, and a couple of the businesses even got in touch afterwards to ask about doing some more work with me and Creative Warehouse.
So, in summary, taking the chance paid off nicely.
You don’t get much time when you’re being introduced to give a talk or presentation.
Part of it you have to use to take a deep breath, gather your energy, and mentally ready yourself to perform.
But also it’s worth investing a few of those precious seconds in reading the room and and thinking twice about what hooks you want to hang out…
It's worth the time to ensure you have the audience engaged and hanging on your every word from the very outset.