What if I’d opened instead witt . . . 'Today I’m going to talk about the population growth in India.'
If you were in the audience, your response would probably be . . . ho hum!
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There are many ways to open a presentation, but my personal favourite is to ask a provocative question relevant to the topic.
Four simple adjectives evoke a basic emotional response. Those four words are: weird – scary – hard – stupid. Put one of those words in a question, pause,
then state an amazing fact, and you’ve got an opening that’s dramatic and has impact.
For example:
"Do you know what’s really stupid about distributing our
product catalogue to letterboxes in December?
(pause)
16 million catalogues are distributed in the first two weeks
of December."
Here's the construction:
- question
- pause
- statement
For example:
"Do you know what’s really scary about Customer Service?
(pause)
The more you raise the bar, the more customers expect!"
This formula doesn't work with all of your material all of the time,
but it may work with some material, some of the time.
How to make it work
1. Avoid a single statement that both asks and answers the question.
For example:
"Did you know it’s scary our website attracts 3 million visitors every year
but only 3% make a transaction?"
That construction is weak.
Remember, it’s question – pause – statement.
Here's the same idea again, but using the construction
question - pause - statement:
"Do you know what’s really scary about our website?
(pause)
It attracts 3 million visitors a year, yet only 3% make a transaction."
2. Avoid drawing attention to itself with a lead-in statement such as,
"I’d like to ask you a question".
Go straight in; ask the question. Be dramatic.
3. Avoid the temptation to use a quality other than weird, scary, hard or stupid.
"Do you know what’s really amazing about…"
Isn’t as effective as,
"Do you know what’s really stupid about . . . "
These four words have attitude!
And once you’ve asked your question, paused, and answered it,
then relax, drop the dramatics and perhaps go straight into,
"Hi, my name is < name >, and today we’re going to explore …"
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Do you know what’s really weird about asking a question
using weird or scary or hard or stupid to open a presentation?
The more you take a risk with a provocative question,
the more impact you have with your audience!
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Copyright Nina Sunday 2011. All rights reserved. You have permission to reproduce this article or extract naming Nina Sunday as author and holder of copyright.
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For Presentation Skills training for your group of 10-16 staff in your organisation's training room or for a speaker at your conference, visit our Presentation Skills training web page
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