Marketing Edge - Turning Your Vision into Reality

SMALL BUSINESS SURVIVAL TIPS NEWSLETTER: January 2010

Happy New Year and thank you for subscribing to Marketing Edge's monthly newsletter: Small Business Survival Tips. This month's issue focuses on creating a presentation that will wow your audience.

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Beth Goldstein

Zen and the Art of Presentation Mastery
Studies show that we subconsciously form impressions of presenters in three different ways: 1) Body language, 2) Tone of Voice and 3) Actual Words. Anybody who has sat through one of my presentations (or has read the study by the University of Texas) knows that "Actual Words " represents only 7% of our impression.

While the study proved that "body language" and "tone of voice" are essential elements in forming impressions, there's been a tiny voice in my head questioning how accurate that information really was. Well, I can't think of a better way to test this idea than to sit through a 9-hour meeting without understanding a word of what is spoken. I had the honor of being in Beijing last month to speak at a conference for the Chinese Medical Device Association as a representative of Boston University. As the penultimate speaker at this day long event, I sat through about 10 other speakers who came before me who all presented in Chinese. While I had business partners with me who were able to translate some of the content, I honestly only understood a sliver of the concepts being discussed. I did, however, get a very eye-opening experience in how meetings and presentations are conducted in China, as opposed to the U.S.

The American business style of open dialogue and discussion about topics is foreign (pun intended) to many countries outside our border. Since I teach a Global Entrepreneurship class at Boston University, I have seen many non-Americans go into panic-mode as soon as they realized that they were expected to actively participate in class discussions versus simply taking notes, listening and memorizing the lessons taught by the professor.

So, how does this relate to my first statement about how we form impressions of speakers? Let's go back to the conference. With over 300 attendees there was absolutely no opportunity given for participation of any means. What was more surprising was that nobody seemed to mind. Can you imagine being expected to sit quietly and listen for hours while experts presented? I believe that in the U.S. this would have resulted in mass mutiny or at least major signs of protest (i.e., walking out of the session or using your mobile). But, impressively, this didn't happen. For the most part, attendees were polite and patient....indeed, a lot less restless than I was.

Interestingly enough, while I had very little understanding of what was actually said during those long hours, I was still able to evaluate each presenter's knowledge and power/authority without knowing what the actual meaning of their talk was. There were speakers who were quite articulate and animated and showed their passion and knowledge for their topic. I felt confident with what they shared and even found myself liking them and wanting to learn more from them. I equally gained distrust for others who appeared ill at ease with the topic or were clearly nervous about presenting. Several of them spoke in very flat tones and seemed to be droning on. While the audience was polite, it was their body language that told the truth....these less confident speakers had lost the audiences' attention.

What are the Lessons Learned?

Even while some of the better speakers captured my attention, I remain a huge advocate of the participatory meeting and education style which is interactive, engaging and brings many voices to the table!
Regardless of what you say-how you say it is critical to achieving the ultimate goal of your presentation. IF you want people to feel confident in what you share or want to convince them to act on something-you have to be able to express your vision in more than words. Your body language, tone of voice, facial expressions and inflections are critical to success.
PowerPoint without visual support such as images, charts and graphics, in any language, is boring and ineffective in communicating a message. If people can read your slides and know your message without having to listen to you - you've done a poor job of supporting your presentation's goals. Only use PowerPoint if it reinforces and enhances your spoken presentation. If your entire slide show is comprised of sentences and paragraphs that repeat what you're saying...then just SAY it and don't rely on a visual medium that will interfere with the relationship you are building with the audience-you want them to listen to you and pay attention to you...NOT your slides. That's how they'll develop a high level of confidence in you and you will achieve the goal of your talk.

Good luck with your business venture. If I can help you turn your vision into reality, please don't hesitate to contact me at beth@m-edge.com or by phone: 508.893.0976.

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