Who Cares What the Audience Wants? As a Presenter, You Should!

Who Cares What the Audience Wants? As a Presenter, You Should!
The next time you're tasked with giving a presentation,
forget getting it right! Think about it. You do your best
to prepare for a presentation you must deliver internally
or externally. You've created a myriad of Power Point
slides and have practiced each and every word over and
over. You get up in front of the group to present and your
become weak in the knees, you begin to sweat and your voice
seems to have dropped to a whisper. What happened? Public
speaking ranks as the number 1 fear of the human being. We
already know this. But, what else do we know? Every
presentation is made up of 3 components. We call them the
3V's.

1. Visual
2. Vocal
3. Verbal

These components together convey the total believability of
the message you are delivering. Let's define them. The
Visual component is everything you see or don't see. It
included movements that begin with the way you get out of
your chair and how you return to it. It included how you
are dressed, how you stand, walk, gesture and appear in
front of the audience. It included any visual aids you use
as well. The Vocal component includes not what you say but
HOW you say it. It compromises the tone of your voice, the
volume at which you speak, the rate at which you speak and
the pauses you include or don't include in your material.
The Verbal component is comprised of the actual words or
verbiage that you say. The words that you spent so much
time writing and preparing and that are probably on the
page you have in front of you to read.

Unless you are on the phone and have no visual appearance
to the audience, your presentation will have these 3
components. They are the tools you have to deliver 100%
impact and believability to your audience.

Now, we also know something else very important. Each of
these 3 components has a completely different weight in the
overall 100% believability of your message. They are
astonishing!

The weight of each component follows:

VISUAL 60%
VOCAL 30%
VERBAL 10%

Surprised? These numbers are absolutely critical to your
delivery of an exceptional presentation. It means that
your visual appearance and how you say what you say matter
9X more than simply the word you speak. No wonder
politicians with great poise, charisma and a convincing
tone get elected so often!

The problem remains that we invest our energy in getting
all the words and sentences right without paying attention
to our skills in the preparation and delivery. This simply
can and does not work based upon how we know human beings
take in and digest information. We must follow the rules of
the 3 V's to deliver a presentation that has impact. Yes,
it is work for us as a speaker, but there is a payoff.

An old, wise and very seasoned speaking coach once conveyed
one of the most important messages I have ever heard on
delivering presentations. This has been some of the most
valuable advice I have ever received on the topic. I will
share that advice with you now:

"The audience can never and will never be more excited
about the presentation than the presenter."

If you expect the folks sitting in front of you to stay
with you and take an interest in your material, then you
best heed the rules of thumb we are discussing here. I
didn't invent them. No one did! We just must deal with them
as a presenter to deliver excellence. Most presenters want
to go up in front of the audience and simply do what they
feel most comfortable doing and deliver their own way. The
audience pays with disinterest and boredom. You must
deliver an audience centered presentation. The presentation
is after all for them isn't it? If it doesn't work for the
audience, then you are wasting their time. And time is
something no one seems to have a lot of these days. You
can't change the rules. But, you can change the way you
deliver your material. Practice these skills by taking a
presentations skills course to drastically improve your
effectiveness. It will be one of the best things you have
done for yourself both personally and professionally!

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With more than 20 years experience in corporate turnaround
environments, John Males brings expertise to clients in the
areas of management, sales and negotiations. His customers
include some of the world's most successful firms and
recognized brands. John can be reached at
info@fathomtraining.com or http://www.fathomtraining.com