Sales Presentation Skills

Presentation Skills

All preparations on the ‘structure‘ and ‘strategy‘ of your presentation will have limited impact on your customers or audience if you don’t have the right presentation skills. For example, it is very important that you should be able to have control on yourself. The moment you rise to speak you convey some signals to yourself, which might decide ultimately the success or failure of your presentation.

 

Personal Aspects

A logical step in preparing a presentation is to analyze yourself. You are an integral part of the message. You should seek following characteristics:

• • Sincerity is vital. Project an image of sincerity by being sincere to yourself, to your subject and to your audiences.
  • Thoroughness – giving the listeners all they need.
  • Confidence in yourself is important so as to gain your audience’s confidence. You must earn the confidence of your audiences. Project the right image, and talk in a strong, clear voice.
  • Friendliness – help your communication effort by creating the right environment.

Although these four points appear as four different things. But they do relate to each other. For example, if you are ‘sincere‘ you would do a ‘thorough‘ preparation for your presentation. If you are ‘thorough‘ you would feel confident. And if you are confident, you would be more open and friendly with your prospects or audiences. Therefore, these personal aspects should be well taken care.

 

Non-Verbal Behavior

In any presentation non-verbal also plays a major role to supplement your message. Let us take up some typical examples to identify the variables elements of non-verbal communication.

Although, it is not all that easy to suggest a definite set of Do’s about your body language during presentations, however, one can easily identify some Don’ts. If you carefully notice the six body language, you may realize that, typically, most speakers make some of these mistakes. Let us analyze each of the six situations in some detail, for better clarity about them.

1- Reader is a person who does not make eye contact with the audience and only concerned about his material. Such speakers fail to establish any wave-length with the audience.

2- Weakling is a speaker who does not know the utility of Lactorn, which is fact, is the support for the speaker’s materials and not the speaker himself.

3- Gripper is a speaker who does not make any attempt to supplement the message; rather he/she is only bothered about the verbal part of the message.

4- Musician is a speaker who does not adapt the gestures to the contents of the presentation but continuously relaying these, which does not relate. The suggestion is that one should-bring some variation is the gestures.

5- Bon-Voyager is a speaker who is overdoing the gestures; as a result the presentation becomes more theatric. The suggestion is that in a typical business presentation the hands should not go above the shoulder level.

6- Pacer is a speaker who is, although relaxed but still not too sure about movements, postures and gestures. The suggestion is that think before hand, about how to stand, where stand, where to move to, how often to move, etc.

The above illustrations must have given you some idea about the importance of non verbal forms, including body language. Let us now examine each element of the non-verbal communication in the context of a presentation.

Posture

Sagging shoulders, dropped head forward and sloppy casualness are indicative of depression, while standing upright with square shoulders and head held high are indicative of the confidence. Your outward appearance mirrors your inner mood.

Posture may also be adopted to the size of the audience. An informative talk to a group of 50+ size would demand more formality, postural variety, particularly during transitions, to suggest a change in topic. An address to a group of 10-12 managers working under you, could be given while sitting in the edge of the chair. However, all formal presentations in advertising industry or I.T. industry are typically given while standing.

To avoid side-to-side rock some women even prefer low heals for longer duration presentations. Choice of a comfortable pair of shoes helps avoiding conveying a negative, all at-ease impressions because your shoes are bothering you. Giving thought to such minor details can help you in making a winning presentation.

Movements

While presenting a topic, your physical movements can help you in the following ways:

• • To Hold Attention: Lectern restricts movement. Rather than moving back and forth it is suggested to move left to right to gain attention of the audience, sitting on both sides. However, don’t move continuously, like a caged lion.
• • To Get Rid Of Nervousness: Movement helps decreasing stage fright in the beginning of your talk and the way you walk up to lectern or podium, tells something about you non-verbally to the audiences. Do you move with assurance, determination and enthusiasm? However, over-enthusiasm is also not productive.
• • To Suggest Transitions: In writing, the cues for transition are headings, words, numerical hints. In speaking, the cues are physical moving yourself, a directional shift in the posture helps, the audience to follow the transition.
• • To Increase Emphasis: In writing we underline, we use italics, capitals, exclamation etc. While in speaking a movement towards the audience, accompanied by a gesture, can imply your stressing a point.

The above discussion clearly suggests that plan your movements and don’t just walk around when you make a presentation.

Gesture

Gestures relate to movements of fingers, palm, wrist, arm, elbow and shoulder. Here are some examples of situations where gestures can help you.

• • To Emphasize: Clenched fist of one hand hitting the palm of the other hand emphasizes the point you want to make.
  • To Point: The index finger calls attention of the audience.
  • To Reject: Hand may go on a side in an act of rejection.
  • To Describe: You may communicate and describe everything through hands. Even an approximation of the verbal message through gestures is worthwhile than non.

From the last three illustrations, in figure lit can be inferred that planning of gestures, apart from postures, movements, are all important. If gestures are important, as you do not want to look like the ‘gripper‘ or the ‘weakling‘ there are some suggestions.

The first suggestion is that start involving only one hand but with variations. Each gestures have specific meaning to convey. For example ‘the air pulse‘ can be used when you are about to open the various issues relating to a problem, ‘the raised forefinger‘ can be used to emphasize, ‘the air grasp‘ can be used for summarization, etc.

The second suggestion is to use both the hand to supplement your message. For example, ‘the hand scissors‘ can be used when you are rejecting a point, ‘the palm side‘ can be used to suggest the magnitude of the problem, ‘the palm in front‘ can be used to explain, ‘the palm up‘ for opening of the discussions and ‘the palm down‘ for closing.

Eye Contact

It is suggested that you should have eye contact with your audience. Although, it is not possible to have eye contact with each and every person sitting amongst the audience but it is suggested that you may identify, select persons sitting spread across amongst the audience and establish eye contact with them. Don’t look at one person all the time. Eye contact helps you in gaining confidence in yourself and it also conveys to the audience that whatever you are saying, you are very sure of it.

Facial Expressions

It is said that rather having a “cheese” smile all the time, your facial expressions should be natural. It is also said that the smile which comes on your face actually originates in your brain on recollecting something pleasant. You can easily build rapport with your audience using good, natural pleasant facial expressions.

You must have experience yourself, if you are nervous, the gestures don’t flow out of you and you try to bring control to yourself. Here the facial expression also reflect seriousness.

If you are confident your facial expressions correspond with the contents, gestures are natural and illustrative and you maintain a definite eye contact with your audience.

You might have also seen in a presentation that people respond differently to questions. There are some who reflect dominant attitude through their facial expressions, position of hands while others, with the same non-verbal communicate openness, and enthusiasm to respond.

With the help of these illustrations we have tried to explain to you that in any presentations, your body-language is an integral part of your presentation. We have also seen that how one can plan the body-language for the presentation. If you are able to incorporate only 20 percent of the above, you would still notice a marked improvement in your presentation skills. Therefore, each speaker must give due attention to his or her non-verbal, the way they give to the verbal contents.

 

Oral Delivery

How confident, you appear through your voice, how effective you become through the use of your voice, how successful you emerge, by speaking clearly and holding the attention of your audience are the issues related to the oral delivery. Every aspect of the oral delivery, i.e., rate, pitch, volume, vocal quality, etc., all are important.

1. 1. Pitch: It is highness or lowness of your voice. Voice too high or low can add to word value. A monotonous voice may drift the audience away from the speaker.
   2. Rate: It relates to the number of words released per minutes. The purpose is to synchronizing speaking with listening pattern of the audience. The rate should also relate to the subject matter. Often you might have felt that if you speak a sentence at a higher rate you can create a better impact.
   3. Volume: It relates to the loudness or softness of the voice and by contrast in volume one can give emphasis on the spoken words.
   4. Vocal Quality: It is difficult to define it but we come across so many words to describe voice quality. Some of these words which describe voice quality are: Throaty, loud, vibrant, dynamic, moving, weak, strong, harsh, shrill, effeminates, gentle, clear, flexible vibrant, colorful, etc.
   5. Pronunciation: It should be your constant endeavor to find out the right pronunciations of each word. You may not get any advantage for correct pronunciation but you are certainly at in disadvantage when it is incorrect. You would be surprised to know, how carefully your audience are observing your mistakes, and on every mistake they drift away from you.

There are some suggestions to help you in enhancing your non-verbal while you speak to a group. These suggestions are:

• • Sincerely like your audience.
  • Know your subject thoroughly in order to appear confident.
  • Be well dressed (not overdressed).
  • Look your listeners in the eye (Not too long at any one) and talk with them.
  • Avoid excessive, meaningless, gestures and nervous movements.
  • Keep calm.
  • Remain objective, no matter what the provocation.
  • Speak clearly and pleasantly, make sure that you can be easily heard.

 

Effective Presentation: Some Principles

Ron Hoff, a hard core advertising professional, head of Ron Hoff and Associates, based on his presentations to the clients, has suggested some basic guidelines for effective presentation. Let’s discuss these eight real-life principles of presentation that make a measurable, meaningful difference in the success of your presentation.

1. 1. In preparing your presentation, may be you should start about halfway through.
   2. Content is always the first requirement of any presentation. Once content breaks down, delivery is never far behind.
   3. It’s impossible to be too clear.
   4. Keep in mind that your audience is going to remember about one quarter of what you say.
   5. Participation by your audience will help them remember you and your message, but “handle with care“. Participation can backfire.
   6. Nervousness is not all bad, but it can become serious when your audience becomes more concerned about your nerves than your subject.
   7. Eye contact is the strongest force in your favor during a “Live” presentation.
   8. “People may lie, but body language never does”.

 

Start Ralf Way

In preparing your presentation, may be you should start about halfway through. There isn’t an audience in the world that hasn’t said to itself, “When is the presenter going to stop talking about his business and start about mine“. So instead of “Opening Remarks”, why not structure your outline to begin with, “an issue of direct concern to my audience”. The sooner you can stop being self-conscious and start being audience-conscious, the better your chances of winning a positive verdict.

 

Plan Out Content

Content is always the first requirement of any presentation. Once content breaks down, delivery is never far behind. If you don’t know your subject, your voice is going to tighten. If you don’t believe what you are saying, your gestures are going to be halfhearted. If you get a question that catches you unprepared, your body language is going to answer for you. How much substance do you need in order to feel supremely confident about your next presentation? The answer is, have in your head about seven times as much information as you are likely to use in your presentation. Know your subject better than anybody in the room and your delivery may not be magnificent, but it will carry conviction – and that’s better than empty theatrics any day.

 

Clarity

It’s impossible to be too clear. Many presentations are so muddled that members of the audience say to themselves, “What in the world is that person talking about?” or, “What on earth am I doing here? Here is a simple but effective exercise: Ask yourself “If I were going to put a fifteen-word headline on my presentation, what would it say?” Isolate the meat of what you want to communicate and make sure you say it – clearly, prominently. Also ask yourself, “What do I really want my audience to do as a result of this presentation?

 

Partial Receptivity

Keep in mind that your audience is going to remember about one quarter of what you say. A surprising number of presenters will assume that once a statement is made, the audience retains it. It’s reality, an average audience retains approximately 25 percent of a presentation if the verbal content is given visual reinforcement (slides, charts, videotapes). If the presenter is simply standing there, going through a manuscript, flooding the atmosphere with words, he or she will be lucky to have one tenth of the total message retained by the audience.

So what do you do about it? May be you would like to “tell them what you are going to tell them – tell them – then tell them what you told them”, i.e., put your proposition up and keep referring to it. It is not that audiences have poor memories, it is simply that presenters assume that audience have perfect memories.

 

Encourage Participation

Participation by your audience will help them remember you and your message, but “handle with care“. Participation can backfire. You, the presenter, can ask you-audience to do almost anything. Most audiences are surprisingly agreeable. They will do almost anything. Nonetheless, a few words of caution.

• Study your audience carefully before you get up to present.
• Look for the most animated people in your audience to be your participators.
• Never force anybody to participate if you detect even a hint of reluctance.
• Never allow anybody to look bad.

Participation by your audience can nuke your unforgettable but just make sure that it does not backfire.

 

Control Nervousness

Nervousness is not all bad, but it can become serious when your audience becomes more concerned about your nerves than your subject. Nervousness is the number one problems of people who make important presentations in advertising, or in any other business. But nervousness (sometimes known as “stage freight“), is not all bad. There are ways to deal with it, and some of them can actually work.

• • Take a brisk 2-minute walk, It can be around the block, through the halls, or
    anywhere you want to walk. Exercise of any kind breaks the strain that creates nervousness.

• • Look at yourself in a minor and check your appearance. Nothing’s out of place
    and you look like you want to look. That reduces anxiety.

• • Next, take five deep breaths. Deep breathing always calms the nervous system.
    Ask anybody who has hypertension, about the results of deep breathing.

• • Tell yourself that your presentation has one goal only: to genuinely help the
    audience. That uncomplicates your mind and keeps the focus clear.

 

Eye Contact

Eye contact is the strongest force in your favor during a “Live” Presentation. When you make your next presentation, you will know whether you are making eye contact or not because you can see your audience. Here are three fundamentals on eye contact that, will benefit your next presentation:

• • Don’t set any specific length of time to maintain eye contact with one person. Stay only as long as it is comfortable for both people.

• • Eye contact should be broken by natural pauses in meaning – between phrases – or thoughts. Eye contact usually breaks most comfortably at punctuation
    points.

• • There is a big difference between staring at people and eye contact. Staring is intimidating, confrontational. Eye contact reduces the distance between people. It reaches out, asks for understanding on a one-to-one basis.

 

Body Language

“People may lie, but body language never does.” Body language, once you have learned how to read it, is going to tell you more than what your audience will say. You can rate people by their body language, and use your ratings to apportion the amount of time you spend with each member of your audience. Obviously, you will want to work a little harder – with eye contact and participation techniques – on the person who is scoring low on your body language scale.

 

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