Ever looked into the eyes of your audience when making a sales presentation and find that they are glazed over…or even worse, half-lidded?
One of the most often recommended tips for sales presenters is to keep your focus on the audience. You should make eye contact regularly with your listeners. Often, though, we find in our sales presentation training, that this is very difficult for participants. Unfortunately, sometimes it is because they are afraid to “read” boredom in the eyes of their audience.
Here are ways to keep your audience wide awake and engaged:
- Use your body language to advantage.
Move powerfully as you take the stage. Project confidence (even if you don’t feel it) by the way you walk…purposefully and with your head held high. Keep your facial expression friendly and open. The opposite—a timid walk with a frown or worried look—will only harm your credibility as a speaker and lessen your ability to persuade your audience to action.
And use gestures to enhance your communication. One of the exercises we use in sales presentation training is to ask learners to “over-emote.” In other words, we ask that they express themselves in a way that feels over dramatic. When they review the videotape, they are always surprised that they appear far more natural than they thought and that their message comes across far more powerfully with their use of hands and arms and face to express emotion. - Use graphics to illustrate your main points.
Whenever you can use a picture to highlight your message, do so. Your listeners are far more apt to remember a visual cue than the words you use. In fact, if the image is closely linked to your theme, your audience will have a 65% greater recall than if you delivered your theme without pictures to enhance your core ideas. - Punctuate your talk with pauses, never fillers.
As you transition from one thought to another, take your time and be silent. The “ahs” and “ums” undermine your message. They indicate either nervousness or a lack of preparation. Instead, a pause will alert your audience that something important is coming. Give them a chance to really pay attention as you begin to make your next point.
