Welcome
Welcome to the summer edition of Markets View, I hope you have either
had an enjoyable, restful and stress-free summer holiday or you are
about to have one. We all need to re-charge our batteries every now and
again.
I have been rebuilding my presentation training website and creating
a new Advanced Presentations Workshop, see below.
The A to Z of Effective Presentations article in this issue is
dedicated to the letter "Q". "Q" is for Quotations and Questions.
I would just like to take the opportunity to wish Natalie Jones and
Shaun Bather, both of whom work for Financial Express, all the very best
for their wedding at the end of the month and for their future together.
Shaun attended one of my courses a couple of years ago and Natalie was a
delegate earlier this month.
Yours
sincerely,
Graham Young
+44 1276 502257
Upcoming Courses
Courses available over the next few months include:
- Effective Business Presentations Wed 10th September in Reading
- Effective Business Presentations Wed 26th September at Heathrow
- Effective Business Presentations Wed 8th October in Oxford
- Effective Business Presentations Wed 22nd October in Slough
- Advanced Presentations Workshop Wed 29th October in Reading
- Effective Business Presentations Fri 31st October in Guildford
- Effective Business Presentations Fri 7th November in Basingstoke
- Effective Business Presentations Wed 19th November in Reading
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 give a presentation that will make your voice heard and your
objectives fulfilled.
If you have already attended one of my courses and you found it
educational, enjoyable and effective why not forward this URL to a
colleague and encourage them to book on one of these courses.
For more information or to book click here.
Leadership &
Teambuilding Course
As you may be aware Young Markets is now able to provide in-house
teambuilding and leadership courses, courtesy of Paul White an expert in
this particular area.
I have one client who is interested in running an Introduction to
Management Course for 4 or 5 of his people. As these courses usually
cater for about 10 people there is an opportunity for another company to
join with them, share the cost and share the benefits.
Do you have 4 or 5 people who are taking their
first steps in to management? Give me a call and let's see how we can
help.
Advanced
Presentations Workshop
Over the summer, I have devised a new style of presentation skills
training aimed at the more experienced presenter who would like to
refine his or her techniques and/or hone a particular presentation.
The first run of this
Advanced Presentations Workshop will be in Reading on Wed 29th
October.
If you have an important presentation coming up or would like to
develop your skills further, take a look at the website and give me a
call.
Who Sits Where?
I was reminded the other day of an article I wrote about where to sit
at the boardroom table. This is a perennial problem for many people, so
if you want to know where you should sit or why someone else chooses a
particular position why not take a
look.
Testimonials
I recently joined a internet directory site called
www.freeindex.co.uk and thanks
to a number of very kind clients who entered testimonials, I am proud to
say that Young Markets is now the leading Presentation Skills training
company on the site. So a very big thank you to everyone who responded.
It hasn't generated any new business yet but you never know, it is still
early days.
If you would like to take a look click
here.
The A to Z of Effective Presentations
In previous newsletters, which you can access here,
I have covered A to P , so now it is the letter "Q". In this issue "Q"
stands for Quotations and Questions.
Q is for
Quotations
Quotations are a very good way to back up what you are saying. They
provide an independent justification or collaboration of your point of
view.
Starting your presentation with a quotation is a typical ploy.
With the Internet, getting quotes is now so easy, there are many
sites like
www.quotationspage.com ,
www.thinkexist.com and
www.saidwhat.co.uk all of which provide a wide range of different
quotes, from different people.
Most are searchable by author and subject.
Quotations can however be over used in which case they tend to be
viewed in the same way as Benjamin Disraeli viewed statistics: 'There
are lies, damn lies and statistics'.
Q is for
Questions
It is useful to state, at the outset of a presentation, how you would
prefer to handle questions. Can people just shout up, or would you
prefer them to wait to the end.
For smaller audiences of up to about 50 people, I usually find it
better to keep it informal and offer to take questions from the floor as
you are going along. As a speaker, you can always reserve the right to
delay answering a question until later in the presentation, when you
will be covering that particular aspect of the topic.
Questions from the floor are one of the few things in a presentation
that you cannot plan in advance, however you can prepare for them.
Think, 'What are the three worst questions you could be asked?' and then
devise answers for these three questions. It will boost your confidence
just knowing that you have the answers whether or not they are ever
asked.
When you give the same presentation on a regular basis, you will find
the same questions being raised time and time again. There are two key
points to note if this occurs. Firstly, you should consider changing
your presentation to include the answer to those questions. Secondly,
always wait until the questioner has completely finished his or her
question before giving an answer.
If it is a question you are expecting, it is tempting to jump in with
the answer but their question may actually be different from what is
normally asked. By jumping in you are not giving the questioner
sufficient respect. You may have heard the question many times before,
but to the questioner and this audience it is a new and valid question.
You never know, it may not be the question you were expecting.
Thinking off the top of your head to create a good answer to a
question can be difficult. Have a technique prepared that will give
yourself some thinking time. Techniques I have seen used include:
cleaning your glasses, drawing a square on a white board or taking a
drink of water. Repeating the question back to the audience, so they can
all hear what was being asked, and you have a chance to think about the
answer, is also a good tactic.
To avoid question time turning into a conversation between one or two
people and yourself, ensure that you give the questioner only 25% of
your eye contact and the rest of the audience 75%. If you do not want a
follow up question from the same person, ensure you are not looking at
the questioner when you come to the last part of your answer.
No matter how controversial a question is asked, never get into an
argument with a member of the audience. When you argue with one, the
effect is the same as if you are arguing with everyone; it will ruin
your presentation!
When anyone is being too confrontational, you need to find a polite
way of diffusing the argument and then moving one with the rest of your
prepared presentation. When somebody insists on asking too many
questions, or is getting in to too much detail, politely suggest that
you carry on this discussion after the presentation.
Sometimes it is difficult to elicit the first question from an
audience. Most people are quite shy about asking questions in case it
shows them up in a bad light. However, once one or two questions have
been asked you will find people become more relaxed about asking
questions and soon you can be in danger of the presentation degenerating
into a question and answer session. This may or may not be a bad thing
depending on your objectives and the size of the audience.
When you want people to start asking questions, it is wise to plant a
colleague in the audience with one or two pre-agreed questions to get
the ball rolling. If no questions are forth coming then she/he can step
in.
Q is for
Questioning the Audience
Asking the audience questions is a good way of increasing their
involvement in the presentation. When you ask them to raise the hands,
raise your hand at the same time. It encourages people to do the same.
Usually you will gain a lower response to the first question than is
actually the true representation of the audience. This is because people
are a bit shy or nervous of putting their hand up. By the time you get
to the third or fourth question and people have realised nothing bad is
going to happen if they put their hand up, you will get a far more
representative sample.
When you wish to conduct some audience research, and you are really
interested in the answers that are being given, it is wise to ask a
couple of dummy questions to get people started.
Asking open questions that require a verbal response is much harder
with a larger audience. One word of warning, never ask a question, the
answer to which you are not equipped to answer.
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.salestrainingonline.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
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