SELL THE BENEFIT - Identify your key points, talk about the experience those concepts bring. Ask of your content, "What does this mean to the listener's life?" If you're training on new software, it's how it enables their work to get done faster / better / easier. Use the "here's how you do X" to demonstrate. It's all about what your topic can do for the audience.



THE LAW OF THREE AND ITS COROLLARY, THE RULE OF 15 - Determine the number of words in the name and title of the highest ranking attendee (Bill Smith, President = 3) and have no more than 3x that many slides. The corollary: the average word count for your presentation should be no more than 15 words per slide. Skip the complete sentences ? go for phrases, clips, or sound bites. Speak subjective words as part of your enthusiasm ? "gorgeous" sounds better than it reads.

MNEMONIC VISUALS - Use graphics to reach visual learners and act as memory triggers. Draw on mind-mapping techniques and good web design practices by using pictures and images that directly relate to the slide at hand. If you're teaching good marketing skills, show a picture of a target drawn on the typical consumer of your product or service with a simple phrase "four targeting techniques."

KINESTHETIC LISTENERS - Give people something to hold, to make notes on. In your marketing skills presentation, have a handout with the slide at the top and a notes section listing the top 4 marketing skills (1-4) with room for the attendee to make notes. Add a simple outline of your topics for an agenda sheet.

CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE? CASE STUDIES - Go back to the case studies we all loved as a kid. Write the case study on the handout and provide 2-3 action options. Break out the audience into small groups, no more than 7-10 people each. Have them determine the probable impacts of each option, then review with the group. Ask "why" questions to probe to see if the knowledge is truly being comprehended and applied.

PREPARE FOR THE CONVERSATION - The best presentations are conversations. It's not about getting through your material; it's about getting the concepts through. Let the questions come; it shows your listeners are engaged.

This kind of mindset isn't what most people focus on today when preparing workshops or presentations.

Do you have what it takes?

Copyright (c) 2007 John Avellanet