Welcome
Good news and bad news this month. First the
bad news, I have had to take the "Close More Sales!" course off the
calendar for next year. My lecturer, Shaz, has been enticed back to the
real world of sales as VP Sales EMEA for a worldwide software company.
The good news is that his knowledge and techniques can still be found
on-line at www.salesgurushaz.com
. I would like to take this opportunity to wish Shaz all the best.
The other piece of good news is that I
have a new associate, who runs very good leadership skills and
teamworking courses. These are available to run in-house at the moment
and can be tailored to the needs of your people. Give me a call if you
would like to know more.
Thank you to every one who responded to
my survey on the preferred length for a presentations skills course. It
was a fairly close result. As such I have decided to keep the public
Effective Presentation Skills course at 1 day, but have structured a 2
day course for in-house use.
Finally, my
www.businesspresentation.biz website has been re-vamped to
reflect these changes and bring it up to date. Please take a look and
let me know what you think.
Please feel free to forward this newsletter on to your friends and
colleagues. If you have any feedback or comment on the contents of this
newsletter, or any questions about Effective Presentations, I would love
to hear from you.
Yours
sincerely,
Graham Young
+44 1276 502257
Upcoming Courses
First, a quick plug for the public
courses I am running this year.
- Effective Business Presentations Wed
21st Nov in Oxford
- Effective Business Presentations Wed
5th Dec in Slough
- Effective Business Presentations Wed
12th Dec in Guildford
By attending one of these courses you can
discover how to structure and deliver an effective business
presentation. This is not just training on how to speak in public. It is
concise, fact laden training on how to speak in business.
If you have already been on my course or
don't think you need any help, why not forward this email on to someone
who may need it.
Beat the annual price rise book your
place(s) today.
New course dates for 2008 have just been
announced. For details click here.
The fees for attending a course will rise slightly in January, but book
before Christmas and and you will still pay the 2007 price of only £265
(ex vat) per delegate.
New Course Calendar for 2008
The new 2008 Course Calendar and
Conspectus is now available with details of our public and in-house
training, including dates for the first half of 2008.
You can down load it from
here or send me an email and I
would be happy to mail it back to you.
You can also now download a file to
automatically populate the course dates, for your favourite locations,
into MS-Outlook from the same place.
The A to Z of Effective Presentations
In previous newsletters, which you can access
here, I have covered A to
M , so
now it is the letter “N”
N is for Natural Gestures
People can become very hung up about how
to stand and what to do with their hands while they are presenting. The
ideal stance is feet slightly apart, with your weight mainly on the
balls of your feet and arms at your side. However, if you are someone
who talks with their hands, in normal conversation, then do not worry,
carry on talking with your hands. A word of warning though, try to avoid
small repetitive movements, as these can become irritating and
distracting.
As you are effectively on stage when you
are presenting, whether or not there is a physical platform, it pays to
be dramatic. By being dramatic and over emphasizing your actions they
will be conveyed better to a larger audience. Hand movements, for
instance, should start at the shoulder not at the wrist.
By the way, even if you are presenting to
a small audience of only 2 or 3 people, I would always recommend
standing up to give a presentation. It will carry far more weight than
if you give the same presentation sitting down.
N is for Noise words
There are three types of "noise words"
which are commonly used by presenters. These are "get out clauses",
"filler phrases" and "habitual fillers".
The "get out clauses" are phrases like "I
think", "possibly", "maybe" which are used just in case the presenter is
wrong. They sap your confidence and lessen the impact of what you are
saying.
Instead of 'I think, we can achieve
target' say, 'Not only can we achieve target, we aim to exceed our
target'. It is far more impressive, far more authoritarian, and far more
believable. And at the end of the day, if you don't meet target nobody
will remember that you only said "I think we can achieve target".
The second type of noise word is the
"errs" and "ums" which inadvertently slip out while you are thinking
what to say next. Then there are the "habitual fillers" that people add
at the start or end of a phrase or sentence, which add nothing to the
content of your presentations and which can become very wearing for your
listeners. They are the 'y'knows', the 'basically', 'actually' and
'obviously'.
Try to omit filler words and do not
repeat stock phrases. Some people tend to finish a sentence with 'okay',
'right' or 'yes' when they are looking for agreement and understanding
from the audience. Others have a habit of adding, 'you know' to the
beginning or end of everything. Part of the problem with using these
filler words is that most people do not even realise when they are
saying these words.
The cure is relatively simple. If you
recognise this as a problem, ask a colleague to sit at the back of the
room and put their hand up every time you say the word. You will soon
stop!
Improve
Your Presentations I hope you
have found this newsletter useful and interesting. You can learn a lot
more about how to structure and give an Effective Business Presentation,
by:
- Attending a Young Markets Effective
Presentations Skills training course
- Reading my ebook "The A to Z of
Effective Business Presentations" which you can download from my
website today.
- Taking my on-line course which is
just one of the many sales related training modules at
www.salesgurushaz.com
Please feel free to forward this on
to your friends and colleagues. If you have received this second
hand and would like your own personal copy of future issues, please
click to
register.. |
