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Cut through the clutter :
Give your audience a reason to listen
By Karen Friedman, Communications Specialist

Your words may be very important, but if you don’t give your listeners a reason to listen, they will tune you out faster than a radio station with a scratchy signal. In an age where sound bites are king, cutting through the clutter is more important than ever.

Thanks to technology, like children, we expect instant gratification. We want the home page to load faster, the images to appear clearer and the transactions completed sooner. After all, if we can broadcast events from around the world as they happen, why shouldn’t we expect everything in an instant?

That is the challenge during today’s business presentations where fidgety impatient audiences have childlike attention spans. That’s why it’s essential for you to get to the point. Before you speak, make sure your words answer these questions: Why should your listener care? What’s in it for them?

Most of us are not born presenters. Even the seasoned speaker battles butterflies and sweaty palms. But powerful presenters who can hold your attention have something in common. They’ve learned that speaking is for the ear, not for the eye. Instead of preparing a presentation like a research paper jammed with minutia, these presenters have learned to bring information to life by tapping into their listener’s emotions.

Not too long ago, I walked into a room where some of the country’s top oncologists were preparing to launch a new cancer-fighting drug. This was their final step before presenting their findings to the FDA. Given that these men and women are some of the best and the brightest, I thought rehearsals would be a breeze. So, I sat down, pen poised to make a few notes in order to help them fine tune their presentations, but I was really looking forward to learning more about a cure.

What a letdown! It didn’t matter what they said because the audience never heard them. Five articulate presenters, all well dressed, all armed with animated power points and technical grids droned on and on and on. While eyes closed and others pretended to take notes while playing solitaire on their laptops, I wondered how in the world I could help and if perhaps I should triple my fee.

WHAT’S THE TAKE HOME?

No matter how many years and dollars you’ve spent on research and development, when presenting, your entire project should boil down to one key thought. If you could sum it up in ten seconds, what would you want your audience to know? For example, workers around the country spend ten years collecting census data. The statistics and volumes of information are endlessly complex, but their message is short and simple: Fill out the form.

HOW IS YOUR PRESENTATION LAID OUT?

Is your presentation written like a term paper? Is it written in sentences? Do you allow room for pauses so your listener can participate? People don’t speak in sentences, so writing in sentences is not optimal. We speak in phrases. If you write in bullet points, you will find yourself talking more and reading less. Take time to pause between key thoughts so your listeners can digest what you’re saying.

DO YOUR FACTS AND FIGURES HAVE PERSONALITY?

Presentations are like people. They come in all shapes and sizes. Explaining the features of your product may be important, but explanation without examples has no meaning. People can’t remember all of the facts, but they do remember impressions. By comparing and contrasting, providing analogies and visual images, your presentation will come to life.

NO ONE CAME TO SEE A SLIDE SHOW

PowerPoint has become to presentations what cell phones are to communications. Almost everyone has one, but not everyone knows when to use one. No one came to see a slide show. They came to hear you. Visuals should reinforce what you’re saying, not detract. If people are too busy reading, then they can’t listen to what you’re saying. Instead of preparing your slides first, prepare your remarks. What do you want your listener to do, think, know or feel when you’re finished speaking? Let your words drive the visual instead of the visual driving your words.

TECH TALK

Just because your audience is packed with colleagues doesn’t mean you should talk jargon. Presentations are not about you. You live and breathe your work, but what’s important to you might not be as significant to your listener. Look for opportunities to put your words in context by humanizing the material to offer greater perspective.

By the way, those scientists I told you about did eventually bring their product to market. There was nothing wrong with the product, yet during practice, listeners were confused. Because the presenters never connected with their audience, they were not able to excite, motivate, or inspire and missed key opportunities relate their work to the people they were trying to help. Ultimately, near-failure had nothing to do with the product and had everything to do with the presentation.

Karen Friedman brings 20 years of on-air television experience to media and presentation training. She recently earned the International Association of Business Communicator's prestigious "Recommended Speaker" designation and can be reached at www. KarenFriedman.com or at 610-292-9780.

To make this easier, think of the word S P E A K and remember this acronym to help you connect with your viewers, readers and listeners.

S uccinct. Short sentences or phrases are more effective than long ones. You want to inform your listeners by talking with them, not at them. Your sentences should contain single thoughts in plain, simple language.

P assion. If you’re not enthusiastic about your subject, how can you expect to excite or inspire an audience? The audience wants to like you. If you appear bored, they will be bored. If you’re visibly uncomfortable, they will feel uncomfortable. However, if you look people in the eye, gesture accordingly, and involve your audience, you will keep their interest.

E xperience. Don’t just tell people what happened. Let them experience your words. Create examples, stories and descriptive adjectives that bring your words to life. If you try to memorize what you want to say, you’ll sound insincere and you won’t give meaning to your words.

A nalogies. Use analogies to drive home a point. For example: The new store that’s being built in this community is the size of two football fields. Analogies also help us visualize which increases the likelihood that we will remember.

K eepers. These are what I call take homes. If you want a listener to take away one or two points after hearing you speak, what would those points be? Have you delivered those points passionately and succinctly through analogies and recreating experiences. Did you leave the audience with something to remember?

In an age of information overload where headlines speak louder than facts, your job is to make it as easy as possible for your audience to cut through the clutter and connect with what you’re saying. They can’t do that if you don’t SPEAK their language.

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Karen Friedman brings 20 years of on-air television experience to media and communications training. Her Philadelphia area company, Karen Friedman Enterprises, Inc. prepares people to take advantage of media interviews, presentations and public appearances. Friedman recently earned the International Association of Business Communicator's prestigious "Recommended Speaker" designation. She can be reached at: 610-292-9780 or at www.karenfriedman.com