Effective Presentation: Boost Your Signal to Noise Ratio

It’s better when there’s no static on your radio, right? 

Same with presentations.  It’s better for the audience when you tell them right up front what you want them to do, or what your point is.

For instance, I saw a Seth Godin video on the web recently entitled, “Why Marketing Technical Products is too Important to Be Left to Marketing People,” (or something to that effect.)

When Seth was introduced, he displayed his good manners and then said, “Marketing technical products is too important to be left to marketing people.”

We all knew what the signal was.  There was very little noise.

Similarly, when clients of Sims Wyeth & Co. are presenting new drugs to the FDA for approval, they often begin in this way.

 “We intend to prove to your satisfaction the following points:

1. There is an unmet medical need for drug XYZ.
2. XYZ is active in disease ABC.
3. Its safety profile is tolerable and manageable.
4. The data support the use of the drug XYZ in disease ABC.”

The audience knows what to listen for, and knows the route to be taken.

Lots of signal.  Very little noise.

And then of course there’s your delivery.  If you look like you mean it and believe it, that’s another strong signal.

If you’re nervous and hemming and hawing, pacing back and forth, or twiddling your thumbs, that’s noise.  It’s distracting your listeners from what you want to say.

Boost your signal-to noise-ratio, verbally and non-verbally.  You’ll look good, make sense, and win the respect and loyalty of every audience you face.

Sims Wyeth is a private speech coach in Montclair, NJ specializing in executive speech coaching and public speaking training in order to give accomplished people the knowledge and skill they need to become accomplished speakers. Learn more public speaking tips at www.SimsWyeth.com.

Tags: audience, communication skills, effective presentation, listening, message delivery, nj effective presentation, ny technical presentations, pharmaceutical presentations, pharmaceutical presentations nj, presentation, presentation skills training, presentation skills training nj, seth godin, Sims Wyeth & Co., technical presentations

This entry was posted on Monday, October 12th, 2009 at 12:09 pmand is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.