Learn to develop a compelling two-minute introduction that will position you as a confident speaker, engage your audience, and make them excited to hear more of what you have to say.

When you are in the middle of a presentation and suddenly forget what to say, what do you do? Do you ramble, turn around and read your slides, or starting saying “um” and “ah” while you try to get back on track? Here’s a helpful tip. Pause and breathe. It really can be that simple. Stop talking, take a breath and gather your thoughts. Remember that silence is okay! It gives your audience time to consider what you’ve said. They’ll likely never know that you struggled.

Whenever you give a presentation, you need to keep your audience’s attention so they leave informed and excited, not confused and bored.  Try implementing the following suggestions to keep your audience captivated throughout:

1. Personal Story/Anecdote:  Tell a brief (under two minutes) and relevant personal story to increase your own enthusiasm and connect with your audience.  Make sure to tie it in to the point you are trying to make.
2. Startling Statement or Statistic: Say something that might surprise the audience or cite an unexpected but relevant statistic.  This will both inform and excite them.
3. Use humor: If you share something funny that is related to what you are presenting, you can keep your audience engaged.  Don’t use offensive humor.
4. Quotation or Familiar Saying: Use a universal saying or quote a recognizable figure to help your audience identify with your information.
5. Question: ask an open-ended question.  Even if you don’t have anyone answer, your audience will at least be thinking. 

Using these tools throughout your speech helps keep your audience interested, excited, and on-track. 

Make Every Presentation Great,
Sheri Jeavons

Many of you struggle with developing content for your presentations. You may spend hours compiling information and putting it in a format that makes sense to you, only to deliver it to an audience of yawns and blank stares. There is an easy remedy for this problem called the TOP Mastery Craft Compelling Content Format.

The first step in this process is to think about your audience. Who are they? What do they want to leave your presentation knowing? What’s in it for them?

The second step is a compelling introduction. This consists of four elements and should be delivered in approximately two minutes.

1. Open/Goal Statement:  Highlight the audiences’ goal for your topic.
2. Current Situation: Briefly review the audience’s current situation as it relates to the information you are about to offer.
3. Agenda Topics: Briefly list the topics you will cover during the presentation to help solve your audience’s problems.
4. Value Statements: Highlight the value the audience will realize as a result of implementing your recommendation.

Make Every Presentation Great!

Sheri Jeavons

There is no doubt that heavy workloads have us all stretched to our limits these days. Executives are no exception. Their time is more valuable than ever. So, when you’re given a 10-minute meeting with an executive to pitch an idea, how do you make the most of your time?  Implement the Ten-Minute Solution Process:

1. Identify the pain or change opportunity
2. Propose goal-related solutions
3. Quantify solution options
4. Describe the pros and cons of each proposed solution
5. Urge specific action steps

Sticking to a short, goal-oriented agenda is sure to make your recommendations stand out from the crowd.

Make every presentation great!

Sheri Jeavons

To keep your virtual audience from tuning out of your presentation, consider using interaction tools every one to two minutes. This lets your audience know that you’ll be asking for their input, looking for their response and requesting questions.

No matter what web-based meeting platform you use, it surely offers tools for interacting with attendees. These tools are the key to keeping your attendees focused and engaged.  The following tips will help you plan for interaction and help ensure your attendees are focused and getting the most out of your presentation

1. Strategize – Ask yourself:

• Who is going to be on the call? How many attendees?
• What do they want to know?
• From whom?
• When?
• At what point might my attendees lose focus?
• What is the best way to ask questions? Live questions, use chat or polls?

2. Build in time for interacting instead of powering through your presentation.

3. Plan on creating more slides with less information on each. This allows for more movement on the screen.

Make every presentation great!
Sheri Jeavons

The No. 1 way to keep your audience’s attention is to focus your content on what THEY need to know.

It’s easy to develop your content based on what you want to tell them, but it is critical that you take a step back and think like your audience.

• Think about who will attend your presentation.
• What benefit will they receive from learning what you have to tell them?
• They must understand how your information relates to them specifically.

To really bring your message home, use someone’s name. For example, “Mary, you’ve always said that it takes you two hours to generate the weekly report, and no one runs reports faster than you. With this new software, you’ll be able to do the weekly reporting in thirty minutes or less.”

Make every presentation great!
Sheri Jeavons

We’ve all been there… You’ve survived your presentation. You’ve delivered all your content, and you feel like things went well. Then, you utter the daring phrase, “Are there any questions?” That’s when you feel your confidence slip away.

So, how do you handle difficult questions? The following four-step process will help keep your confidence up and position you as the expert you are.

1. Listen to the entire question. Don’t start formulating your answer until the questioner has finished.
2. Repeat or rephrase the question to the entire audience. Shorten the question and use more neutral language to remove hostility and emotion.
3. Answer the question. Be honest, concise, and answer to the entire group.

When you’ve completed the Q&A session, go back and repeat the conclusion and action steps from your presentation. This helps leave the audience on a positive note, telling them your presentation was good for them and what they need to do next.

Make every presentation great!
Sheri Jeavons

There’s no doubt that we’re addicted to e-mail.  However, in this on-demand world we have become extremely informal in our communications. This can pose a real problem when it comes to credibility and professionalism.  Here’s how you can make your everyday e-mails stand out from the rest of the clutter:

1. Use a specific subject line.
2. Have a clear purpose.
3. Check punctuation, sentence structure and spelling.
4. Read e-mails 3 times before sending.
5. If it’s an important correspondence, leave it for a while and come back to read it again before you click send.
6. Add the “to” address after you’ve completed the e-mail. That way you won’t accidentally send it before it’s ready to go.

Implementing these simple steps can help increase your productivity and credibility.

Make Every Presentation Great!

Sheri Jeavons

When communicating with an E-Level professional, you must be decisive, persuasive and concise. Time is the biggest issue for any executive. So how do you make the most of your meeting?

1. Respect their time. Be early and end on time.
2. Have a prepared agenda. State early on what decisions need to be made and what timeline applies.
3. Present your issue with several recommendations.
4. Be honest, direct and concise.
5. Be prepared to edit your agenda.

Preparation and a positive attitude will create the best image for you and will allow you to achieve your desired results. Establish yourself as someone your top executives can rely on for business solutions.

Make Every Presentation Great!
Sheri Jeavons