Why Isn’t Anyone Listening To Your Presentations?

culled from:jshea.com

How often have you made a presentation or given a webinar and felt like no one was paying attention to you or that you weren’t connecting with your audience?  Was it your material or your presentation skills?  Or both?  In my opinion, no one is a really bad presenter, but rather you might be using really bad presentation techniques.  Here are some techniques that I hope will help you connect more with your audience.
The slide presentation should not be the presentation
Too often people simply regurgitate what is in their presentation instead of engaging with the audience.  You need to learn to work with the presentation in the background and not have it be the focus of your presentation.  Some presenters think that overloading their slides with information will compensate for poor communication skills, yet this couldn’t be further from the truth.  The information in your presentation is like a book and you should simply be summarizing it for the audience.  If you connect with them and they see marginal value in your offer, then they will want to read your “book”.
Don’t overdo your presentation.
Don’t be THAT presenter who has the 100 slide presentation unless you’re presenting to an audience that is suffering from sleep deprivation.  Limit the number of slides that you are presenting and the number of bullet points or information otherwise your message will be lost during the presentation.  If you feel that there is detailed information that your audience might find of interest, feel free to provide them with hardcopy printouts or email them a softcopy after you have finished your presentation.
Don’t memorize it.  Understand the material you’re presenting.
Simply memorizing your presentation material will not make you connect with your audience.  You need to be knowledgeable about what you are presenting so that you can interact with them and let them participate and apply the concepts from your presentation as this will give them the opportunity to put in to practice what they are learning.  If you memorize your materials without having a good understanding of it, you will have a harder time connecting with your audience and gaining their trust.
Prep your audience and be respectful of their time.
The fastest way to lose the attention of your audience is to not have the right people in attendance.  Make sure your audience understands not only why you’re there but what you will be presenting as well.  You only have a limited amount of time to get their attention and to get them to gain interest in your offer.
While you primarily learn good presentation skills through trial and error and constructive criticism from your peers, having the right techniques in your arsenal will keep your audience engaged and increase the value of your offer.  Before you know it, your audience will start paying more attention.