Presenting ideas<\/strong> is largely about getting and keeping attention<\/strong>.\u00a0 Most of us are ambivalent about being the center of attention, but we have to be willing and able to focus many minds at once if we want to be convincing.<\/p>\n

Here are a few techniques to capture and hold attention.<\/p>\n

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1. Say something unexpected.\u00a0 Start with a bang, not a whimper.\u00a0 Smokers like matches that light with the first strike, and listeners like presentations that ignite interest with the first sentence<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
2. Start where they are, not where you are.\u00a0\u00a0Put the audience in the role of the hero, the person who must slay the dragon in order to save the fair maiden.\u00a0 For instance, speaking to pharmaceutical sales executives<\/strong> on the subject of Medicare Part D, you might say: “With the advent of Medicare Part D, many companies invested significantly in the potential of a large new market.\u00a0 You led the charge on this initiative, launching marketing and sales training programs way before your competitors.\u00a0 And yet you have not seen a return on your investment.\u00a0 Formulary adoptions have not led to greater market share, and messaging has not changed to meet the needs of the target audience.\u00a0 How did this happen, and what can you do to regain momentum?”\u00a0 This is better than saying, “I have done some research into the results of efforts to capitalize on Medicare Part D.\u00a0 Let me tell you how the research was conducted and then\u00a0I will tell you some of the results.”\u00a0 The first is dramatic, the second is boring, and you should strive to have carved into your tombstone the epitaph, “She bored them less!”<\/li>\n
3. Keep it concrete.\u00a0 In the old days, great speakers told stories, used analogies and metaphors to make the abstract more easy to grasp.\u00a0 They gave examples.\u00a0 For instance, Lincoln once made fun of an opponent’s argument by saying that his point of view had “as much substance as a soup made from the passing shadow of a starving crow.” Since most Americans at the time lived in the country on farms, and made soups, they knew just how insubstantial Lincoln’s opponent was.<\/li>\n
4. Keep it moving.\u00a0 Not just in terms of pace, but in terms of development.\u00a0 Make sure that every new bit of information you provide builds on what came before.\u00a0 We don’t like movies that stagnate,\u00a0or novels that stop while the author describes a bucolic setting for two pages.\u00a0 Your listeners are saying, “Okay, I got it.\u00a0 Now what?”\u00a0 Make sure there’s always something happening.<\/li>\n
5. Shift back and forth between ideas and\u00a0examples. Your listeners can’t survive in the thin atmosphere of abstraction and generalization.\u00a0 Bring them down to brass tacks.\u00a0 Physician speakers who are highly effective at influencing the prescribing habits of their peers are good at this.\u00a0 They report the data from clinical trials, but they also tell stories about individual patients.\u00a0 In other words, they use case studies to illustrate what the data means.<\/li>\n
6. Get to the point.\u00a0 Your audience is time-pressed, content-driven, and results-oriented.\u00a0 A business-like approach adds to your credibility, without which you are sunk.\u00a0\u00a0Credibility is the main currency of influence.\u00a0 If your audience trusts you, they will pay attention the best they can.<\/li>\n
7. Arouse emotion.\u00a0 Humor is inherently persuasive.\u00a0 It gives the speaker an unfair advantage.\u00a0 Or reveal something personal about yourself that enables the audience to identify with you.\u00a0\u00a0I had a client recently–a wonderful woman who works in the pharmaceutical industry–who said in a presentation that she had been an exotic dancer in order to pay for her college tuition.\u00a0 The audience was shocked because she is a highly respected senior person in her company, and you can bet she made her point that we can all achieve our objectives if we are willing to step out of our comfort zones.<\/li>\n
8. Finally, the voice of a person with intellectual conviction sparkles with change–changes of pitch, volume, and speed<\/strong>.\u00a0 Your voice should be animatedly alpine.\u00a0 And your body should be full of purpose.\u00a0 From the patterned tips of your fingers, to the furrows in your forehead,\u00a0 to the exquisite dance of your hands, you should say, with your words, voice, and body, that you are in love with the topic, and in love with the chance to engage the audience\u00a0on it.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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   Presenting ideas is largely about getting and keeping attention.\u00a0 Most of us are ambivalent about being the center of attention, but we have to be willing and able to focus many minds at once if we want to be convincing. Here are a few techniques to capture and hold attention. Say something unexpected.\u00a0 Start with… Read More »Presentation Techniques: 8 Tools for Getting and Keeping Attention<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","_ti_tpc_template_sync":false,"_ti_tpc_template_id":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[107,17,18,171,174,175],"yoast_head":"\n