Which radio station is EVERY member of your audience tuned in to?

If you have ever wondered how to deliver a successful presentation, one of the most important prerequisites for presentation success is focusing first and foremost on your audience.

Audiences decide early on if they are going to keep listening to you. You need to grab them at the very beginning of your presentation with a great hook, such as an intriguing question or a thought-provoking quote.  

Then you need to do your utmost to address their interests and concerns. If you don’t, you may lose them, and you may not get a chance to bring them back from the brink. 

As a public speaker, when you deliver a presentation, your audience will give you their time. But it is up to you to EARN their attention. 

Your worst nightmare is when the members of your audience zone out, tune out, yawn, fidget, glance at their watches, play with their phones and look like they’d rather be a million miles away. Sure, they are seated in front of you, but their minds have left the room. They will be thinking everyday thoughts such as “Where will I go on my next vacation?”, “What will I have for dinner tonight?” and “Did I remember to turn the iron off before I left for work today??” 

The fastest and most effective way to alienate your audience is to start your presentation by talking about your background, business and brilliance, and then to prattle on endlessly about things that your audience could not care less about, things such as the amazing, whizz-bang features of your products and services. 

Instead of launching in and aiming to impress everyone with this self-absorbed focus, what you need is an audience-focus. 

Demonstrate from the outset that you completely understand and empathise with your audience’s problems, their issues, challenges, pain-points and concerns. In other words, the things that keep them up at night. 

And you can bet your bottom dollar that every person will be riveted if you can propose a workable solution to one or more of their problems! 

Every member of your audience is tuned into one radio station – Radio W.I.IF.M. (a.k.a. Radio “What’s in it for me?”) 

Your presentation should not be about you and stoking your ego. It should be all about your audience and you helping them to find ways to solve their issues and concerns. 

Please keep this in mind when you design, write and deliver your next presentation. 

It will make a world of difference to whether your audience stays tuned into you and your presentation, or if their eyes glaze over and they start planning their next vacation.

© 2020 Susan Weser.  All rights reserved.