Key Learnings for Delivering a Presentation to Move a Group to Action

Do:

• Make your message a showstopper. If it’s not that way at first, hone it until it is.

• Decide who you want the audience to be. Then invite the most important attendees with a personal letter.

• Make sure they know your top person will be there. It makes the meeting seem more important and will increase the attendance on the other side. It’s crucial if you are to attract their top people.

• Create a demonstration to sell your idea, if you possibly can. It rivets an audience. Nothing else can achieve such profound attention.

• Unite the audience, if possible, with some kind of visual symbol (like the daisy) so that your message is alive all day long or until they remove the symbol.

• Rehearse any demonstration until you can do it without a hitch. Then do it one more time. Nothing is more impressive than confidence when doing a demo.

• End the meeting by asking for the action you want the attendees to take. Don’t leave it to inference. Ask them specifically.

Don’t:

• Run an interactive meeting without nametags or name tents. You’ll never recover from calling someone by the wrong name.

• Conduct a demonstration until you’ve rehearsed, rehearsed, and rehearsed. A botched demo means you’re an amateur—and people don’t like to do business with amateurs.

• Think you can show up for this kind of meeting at its scheduled start time. Instead, get there an hour early, take the news value out of the room, and rehearse in the actual environment.