Chapter 5. Capturing Your Audience Immediately


Company Examples:

  • Intuit Software

  • DigitalThink

  • Mercer Management

  • Cisco Systems

  • Yahoo!

  • Macromedia

  • Argus Insurance

  • TheraTech

  • Microsoft

  • Network Appliance

  • Cyrix

  • ONI Systems

  • Laurel Elementary School

Picture your audience at the start of your presentation. Perhaps it's a group of potential customers who've come to hear you give a presentation about your company's newest product, drifting into a meeting room one by one, sipping their coffee, checking their handhelds. Or perhaps it's a banker in a wood-paneled office, sitting behind a tall stack of documents, probably loan applications, who must decide whether or not to lend your startup money for expansion. Or, as with my IPO clients , perhaps it's a roomful of institutional investors in an elegant hotel banquet room, wondering how the NASDAQ is doing while they're away from their office.

What are they focused on? Chances are it's not you, not at the start of your presentation. Chances are it's on an urgent message on the handheld, the prior loan applicant , the mercurial NASDAQ, their next appointment, the report that's overdue, or the fight they just had with their spouse.

If you were to launch into your presentation at full speed, describing your product, service, or technology, you would vault ahead of your audience and they would be hard-pressed to catch up. Don't make them think!

The Opening Gambit can overcome this problem. It's a short statement you use to seize the attention of your audience (and, simultaneously , to help you launch into your presentation in a comfortable, conversational manner).

In this chapter, you'll learn about seven proven options to consider in crafting your next Opening Gambit, with examples for each option.



Presenting to Win. The Art of Telling Your Story
Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story, Updated and Expanded Edition
ISBN: 0137144172
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 94

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