✌️ Presentation Mistake

This week we’re going to cover 3 painful presentation practices to avoid and what to do instead.

I’m willing to bet 80% do at least 1 of these.

Let’s dig in.

If you’d rather watch a 90 sec. clip of me whiteboarding it - click the image below.

Presentation Mistake #1

#1 is one of my biggest pet peeves.

You jump on a Zoom, Teams, or Google Meet call.

For whatever reason, your buyer(s) doesn’t turn on their camera.

So you feel awkward - and you turn yours off too.

Don’t know that.

55% of how a listener feels emotion is through your body language.

Facial expressions, hand movement, posture.

So always keep your video on.

Many times - it will compel your buyer to join you.

And if it doesn’t, who cares?

Do you really want to miss out on a 55% advantage?

Presentation Mistake #2

If you’re using a deck to present and one of your first slides is about:

• How long your company has been in business

• How many locations & customers you have

• How many awards you’ve won

You’re doing it wrong.

The beginning of the presentation should be all about them.

• What you’ve learned about them so far

• The problems they’re looking to solve

• What they’ve already tried to fix

• etc.

The credibility and results of your company are important…

But they don’t belong at the start of your presentation.

Presentation Mistake #3

The final mistake is one we’ve all made, but most don’t realize the impact.

If any slides in your deck have either:

1. A wall of blocky text

2. A long list or multiple columns of bullet-points

You’re adding cognitive strain to your buyer.

What’s cognitive strain?

It basically means a person is strained by having to do multiple computations in their head.

They’re trying to read what’s on your slide.

At the same time, you’re trying to tell a story or describe the intent of the slide.

This means - they’re not really listening to you, because you’re forcing them to multitask.

Instead, here are 2 other options

1. Keep your slides to 1 idea per slide (you may double the size of your deck, however, you’ll also double your chances of keeping the reader’s attention)

2. Use Animation on the slides to stagger the content as you speak to it.

In summary:

1. Always keep your camera on

2. Start the presentation about them not you

3. Reduce the cognitive strain of your buyer by removing busy slides

That’s all for this week.

Any topics you want to learn more about?

Reply to this email and let me know!

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