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“Wow, what a fabulous presentation!” they said as they stood up after your speech. “Wow,” they said as they mingled after the event.

You, yes, you… WILL produce an impact.

What will it be?

Can you make it a “wow”?

Of course you can.

And the first step is to understand that it is not a mystery. It is something that you create. “Wow” is not an accidental by-product of a presentation. You create it deliberately.

The first thing to do is to define what it is that you want to create. What exactly is that “wow”? In other words, you need to define:

How will your audience respond to your speech or presentation?

What will they take away with them and remember?
What will they remember of you?

Why will they think “Wow what a fabulous presentation!”?

Start by defining the purpose of your presentation or speech. What do you want its impact to be?

You need to articulate whether you want to inform, persuade, inspire, motivate, entertain, shock… You may even want to do several of these things – in different parts of your presentation. But they must not be left to chance or you risk creating “Ho-hum… ” rather than “wow!”

Then define the message; the central message of your presentation – what one thing do you want the audience to take away? This message can be called a thesis statement or a theme. It can be given a number of names, but you need to be able to state it in one sentence. That way you will stay focused on that outcome when you are planning

When you have those two things articulated, the things you want people to remember, the impact you want to make; then you can create the structure and the language of your presentation to support them. The whole speech can be organised to reinforce that impact and that message.

The second of the questions was “What do I want them to remember of me?”

Who are you? How will you be remembered after this presentation? Are you professional, poised, articulate? Are you warm, folksy, creative, nurturing? Maybe you want to be seen as ballistic, confronting, no-nonsense, boot camp material. What message will your clothes and your grooming convey? What will your choice of language say about you?

You cannot be someone you are not, when you present, unless you are prepared to be a performer for the entire production. Insincerity will detract from your speech as quickly as a joke in bad taste. But you can present a side of yourself as the highlight – the side you want your audience to remember.

And the most powerful choice you will make is how you get that image to support your message – how you put the two together.

It may be totally supportive, in that the image is unobtrusive; seamlessly part of the message and the complete package – an incredibly effective combination.

Or you may choose to create an edge, a mystique.

Your body language, your facial expression and gestures, your clothes and your grooming all need to work towards the impact you choose to make. And they will contribute as powerfully to the impact you choose to make as a person as they do to the impact you choose for your presentation to make.

This package, this combination of impact, message and image are what people take away from your presentation. They are the wow you create.

But the pivotal word, there, was “choose” – the impact you choose to make, the impact you choose for your presentation to make.

Whatever you may be trying to achieve, don’t let the impact of your presentation be an accident. Right from the beginning, it needs to be part of the planning. When you are visualizing your production, toying with ideas and possibilities and first drafts, make the impact of you as a person and of your performance an integral part of that process. Visualise it and work it into all aspects of your production planning.

Then you have the foundation for creating the “wow” factor.

You’ve only got about fifteen to thirty seconds before people start to settle into their impressions. Hence, when effectively presenting, we want openers that will not only grab our audiences’ attention, but will also quickly establish our credibility, cultivate goodwill with our listeners and introduce our topics.

Think of your opening as not being more than 10 percent of your entire presentation. Budgeting your speech in this manner forces you to organize your time so that you know exactly what you’re going to say and how you’re going to say it. Scrap the old fillers like, “Today’s topic is…,” or “I’m going to speak on…,” or worse, “I was assigned to talk about….” When preparing your opener, think of efficiency and accuracy. First of all, consider ways that will grab your audience’s attention and perk them up. Several of the most effective approaches involve the use of humor, the telling of a personal story, the posing of a question, the sharing of a quote or the presenting of a startling fact or statistic. Anything that you feel will get your audience to tune in is critical to your opening.

When preparing your opening, how do you establish credibility? One thing is for sure: Don’t just start spouting off your accomplishments and credentials. Nothing will turn an audience off faster. Sure, education and experience matter, but there are subtler ways of mentioning them. Sometimes it will be natural to mention the school from which you graduated, to refer to a publication you authored, etc. Many times, you can do so without seeming pompous. A better strategy than tooting your own horn is to have someone else introduce you before you come on. Another handy way to highlight your qualifications without including a “Why I’m So Great” section in your speech is to include a written bio sketch in any materials you may hand out. Your biography could even be included if a basic itinerary is handed out. Such background information is commonly seen for keynote speakers in programs, for example. A written bio can be very effective, but it is very important to keep in mind that when furnishing this “blurb” about yourself that it be written in the third person-that is, as if someone else is describing you (“s/he” instead of “I”).

When I say you want to establish goodwill with your audience members, what I mean is that you want them to feel that you genuinely care about their needs. You want to exhibit your desire to share something that is both meaningful and useful to them. Very early on in your presentation (in your opening), you must clearly communicate the answer to the audience’s two most pressing questions: “WIIFM?” and “WSIC?” “WIIFM?” stands for “What’s in it for me?” “WSIC?” means “Why should I care?” Your audience has to have a reason to want to listen to you and providing them with the answers to these questions gives them one. If you can answer their unspoken, but sincere interest in WIIFM? and WSIC?, they will definitely feel goodwill towards you. You can then achieve a win-win situation where the feeling of goodwill extends in both directions.

Finally, how do you go about introducing your topic? You introduction can be worked into the opening story, question, statistic, quote or joke you use to grab your audience’s attention. Alternatively, you can set up your presentation so that the way in which you grab their attention smoothly transitions into your topic. Last but not least, I will state the obvious and remind you that a charismatic demeanor from the get-go will carry you miles beyond a dry, monotone one.

Understanding different types of audiences will also help you determine how you design and deliver your message. Following are some different categories of audiences and some strategies on how to deal with each of them.

Learning how to persuade and influence will make the difference between hoping for a better income and having a better income. Beware of the common mistakes presenters and persuaders commit that cause them to lose the deal. Get your free report 10 Mistakes That Continue Costing You Thousands and explode your income today.

Conclusion

Persuasion is the missing puzzle piece that will crack the code to dramatically increase your income, improve your relationships, and help you get what you want, when you want, and win friends for life. Ask yourself how much money and income you have lost because of your inability to persuade and influence. Think about it. Sure you’ve seen some success, but think of the times you couldn’t get it done. Has there ever been a time when you did not get your point across? Were you unable to convince someone to do something? Have you reached your full potential? Are you able to motivate yourself and others to achieve more and accomplish their goals? What about your relationships? Imagine being able to overcome objections before they happen, know what your prospect is thinking and feeling, feel more confident in your ability to persuade. Professional success, personal happiness, leadership potential, and income depend on the ability to persuade, influence, and motivate others.

If you are raising capital from a number of potential investors a perfect presentation could be a key component of achieving your goal. Over 150 investor presentations given in the past decade concluded in raising millions of dollars of equity capital and millions of dollars of debt equity provides a good basis for understanding how to deliver a superb presentation.

What does experience say about a good investor presentation?

1. Clearly describe the investment.
2. Clearly define what you will ask of the investor and how much they can invest.
3. Describe the time frame for the investment.
4. Explain how the invested capital will be held prior to closing the investment.
5. Define what the investment life will be and what return to expect.
6. Describe how the project(s) will be managed.

Describe the background and experience of the principals. Where they worked, accomplishments, investing experience, significant volunteer work and so on can be included. Some interests and personal information is good to add as it makes the principals into people and causes them to have color and depth in your presentation.

Return tables, sources and uses, and pro forma tables are critical components of the presentation. All of the information above should be included. However, the meat of your presentation should be the things like:

• How much money the project will make, why that is reasonable, and what could effect it.
• How much money the project will cost, why that makes sense, and what may impact the costs.
• How risk is being managed and why this is a really smart way to do so.
• How opportunity is being captured and why this is the smart way to grab the brass ring.
• How you will manage the project.
• How you will market the project.
• How you finally get the investors capital out of the project.
• What you will do to keep the investor completely in the loop on the project.

These items in a top line sense are the “features” of your investment. From the features, you should be talking advantages of the investment. Finally you hit the emotional button. Your presentation should be heavy on emotions for why investment and those emotions should be backed up with great graphics that say the same thing in a very visceral way to your audience.

With all this in place, you have created a compelling investor presentation that explains what the investor is getting into, all the great reasons they are doing it, and why is such perfectly exciting and wonderful thing for them to do with their money.