A work presentation can often be a gruelling and nervous experience, irrespective of whether or not you are prepared.
Even if you have the best presentation, it is possible that your audience might lose interest. So what do you do?
Here are a few techniques that could help.
Do Something That Has A Shock Effect
One of the best ways to get your audience’s attention, especially in the middle of the presentation when they may start to lose interest, is to show something that has a shocking effect. This could be a weird image on the slide, a sudden audio clip or anything that can bring back their attention to what’s happening on stage.
Tell Them A Story
Image Credit: Facebook
Who says stories are meant for bedtime and for children alone? In fact, this is one of the oldest forms of communication that can help you put your thoughts across. Use the story format and make sure to add facts to it.
Nupur is the founder of Storywallahs, a Bangalore based organization that uses stories to motivate, teach and inspire in professional as well as personal lives. Her vast range of clients includes educators, corporates, cultural spaces and more. Even though she has been doing this for quite some time now, there have been some instances where she has had to improvise and take back control. If your audience is not completely connected to you and is not paying enough attention, it can become very distracting for a performer. In such a case, I stop talking and have a more personal and direct conversation with them. I let them talk about their point and then I take on from there again.
Encourage Audience Participation
Don’t be the boring person who talks and shares things alone and expects everyone else to follow. Instead, cue in your audience and allow enough scope for them to participate in the presentation. Have fun trivia and fun question answers, incorporate simple group tasks and so on.
Let Them Guess What’s Happening
Don’t give away all information right at the start. Instead, hold on to the main information and let your audience guess what’s coming. Keep it interesting and engaging by focusing on the bits first, before you head to the bigger and main part of the presentation.
Not every style of presentation will work will every client you have to sell to, so make sure to do some groundwork about who you are meeting and why, and accordingly work on the presentation.
