Presentations in Action - Jerry Weissman [4]
Such connections are rare in today’s presentations. Pressed by the demands of business, most presenters pirate their colleagues’ slides, do minimal preparation, and then dump a load of generic data on their audiences, who, to all intents and purposes, would have been better off accessing a canned webinar.
Finding relevant facts that can customize any presentation doesn’t require manipulative glances, the covert services of a private investigator, or an army of academic researchers. You can use seven simple techniques to build powerful connections with any audience.
Direct References. Schmooze. Just before your presentation, mingle with your audience. Chat with several different individuals. Talk with strangers and people you know. Ask them questions. Listen to their conversations. Gather information, names, and data points. Then when you step up to the front of the room, weave the names and information you’ve collected into your presentation.
Mutual References. Before your presentation, learn as much as you can about your audience. Visit their home pages. Cross-reference with a web search. Find links to persons, companies, or organizations that are in some way related to both you and your audience. Then at appropriate moments during your presentation, speak about those connections. Think of this as a tasteful, appropriate form of name-dropping.
Ask Questions. During your presentation, ask your audience questions; seek their opinions instead of answers to factual or true/false questions. Invite them to share their ideas, reactions, or stories.
Contemporize. On the day of your presentation, scour the Web, read the newspapers, listen to the radio, or watch television and find events or items that are relevant to your subject and your audience.
Localize. Prepare specific references to the venue of your presentation. Some information about a locale is common knowledge; some is available on the Web. In addition, you can go to the web site www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/flash/F1.2, where you can access that day’s front pages of local daily newspapers around the country and around the world by city. Make your presentations fresh with up-to-the-minute references.
Data. Find specific information that links to and supports your message. The more closely linked your data is to your audience, the better. If the information you cite is new to your audience, they will be impressed by the depth and currency of your knowledge. If your audience is already aware of the data, they will be pleased that you made the effort to relate to them.
Customized First Slide. Begin your presentation with a slide that includes the location, date, and logo of your audience or event.
You don’t have to pose as a Professor Marvel, but you can make your audience marvel at your efforts to connect and personalize.
2. Obama and You: The Most Persuasive Word
In 2006, Time magazine picked “You” as the Person of the Year and published that issue with a Mylar patch on the cover that served as a mirror for readers to see themselves.F2.1 The main theme of that issue was the personal power enabled by the World Wide Web, but it also drew attention to the power of the word you. If you search the Internet, you’ll find tens of thousands of references to a Yale University study (unsubstantiated by Yale) ranking the 12 most persuasive words in the English language. You leads the list. (The others, in descending order, are Easy, Money, Save, Love, New, Discovery, Results, Proven, and Guarantee.)F2.2 Unsubstantiated or not, President Barack Obama, an excellent speaker by any standard, fully understands and leverages the power of you.
Early in his campaign for the presidency, the New Yorker magazine ran a story about his campaign strategy:
Obama now tries to make a more personal connection with voters. In the past, he has been accused of making his campaign more about himself than about those who come to his rallies. Now the word you is mentioned as much as the word I. “You’re not heard. They’re not listening to what you need,” he told a crowd assembled