Opening Business Presentation
When you stand in front of an audience you have five seconds to get their attention and thirty seconds to develop interest and curiosity. How you open is critical to the success of your presentation. In those opening words you must hook your audience, establish rapport, set the mood, demonstrate your credibility and introduce your topic. Yes, all this in seconds. You cannot afford to waste a moment or 'wing' your opening.
Your opening is your way of ‘shaking hands' and building a relationship with your audience. They need to feel good to be meeting you and they need to know you have something useful to say. The opening is less about opening your presentation and more about opening up your audience, so they will be receptive to you and your message.
You cannot afford to make a bad entrance. Otherwise you will waste an opportunity you just won't get again. So hook them with your first sentence. Leave it till the second or third sentence and it will be too late.
Establishing Rapport
Establish rapport with your audience. Let them know you understand how they are thinking and feeling. For example: Some of you may
be thinking you haven't got the time to be sitting here listening to me, but today provides real opportunities...
Being Credible
Your credibility is likely to be less to do with your academic qualifications and professional experiences and more to do with having a strong posture, quality eye contact and being enthused about your message.
Seven Ways to Open a Business Presentation
1. Emphasising the benefits to the audience
Talk people not subject. People buy outcomes not products. Emphasise what your audience will gain by listening to you:
Today I am going to show you how to do twice as much in half the time is likely to be far more appealing than:
Today I am going to talk about time management.
2. Telling a story
Stories, especially those of human interest, are generally welcomed by audiences. Make sure your stories are aligned with your objectives and key points, otherwise you risk appearing disjointed.
3. Introducing interesting facts
Begin with an interesting fact that relates to your material. For example:
Eight hours sleep accounts for one third of our day. When translated through a lifetime of 70 years, this amounts to over 23 years. That's a lot of sleep time.
4. Arousing curiosity
Rhetorical questions that demand an answer in your listeners' heads can be a good way to fire the imagination. For example:
What would you do with a million pounds?
Have you ever gone home and said to yourself ‘I've had enough'?
Ever lost sales to a competitor you should have beaten but don't know why?
5. Shocking your audience
The internet is going to put us out of business.
6. Using props
Perhaps the easiest way to hold attention is to hold something up for people to look at. For example, hold up a credit card and say:
Imagine life without credit cards.
7. Making topical references
Making reference to a news item, a TV programme or a business issue can be useful as long as they are relevant to your topic and everyone knows what you are talking about. Your opening words set the tone for your presentation. A shock opening might be great if your want your audience to take action but not if you want them to be relaxed and have some gentle fun. Select your opening to match your objective and remember that no two audiences will react in the same way to the same material.
