Technology Detox

You have heard about going through detox; whether it is with too much alcohol, nicotine, or even technology. Trying to pry cell phones away from kids and going out to walk in the park without being tethered to a phone. That is a challenge for many people these days.

I have another challenge for you: can you detox your own speeches and presentations? Can you get away from an overreliance on technology? I am not averse to using technology, I use it all the time whether they are lights, cameras, remote controls, or the internet. But keep this in mind, many of the most important presentations you give in your life, there is not going to be any technology around. Important interviews do not have technology, or even marriage proposals! There are so many important conversations you will have in life where tech is not appropriate.

So don’t be one of those people who cannot take about something without a deck of slides. You should be ready to present on any subject important to you at any time. Your attitude should be that you have a great presentation regardless of the availability of projectors or computers. Technology should be supplementary to your speech, not the most essential part of it.

Do Your Presentations Have Themes

What are the themes of your presentation overtime? Over weeks, months, or even years? Ideally, you go deeper into your core area of expertise whether you are in the industry, the private sector, or the public sector. You go deeper and deeper in knowledge.

Some things may be regular bases that you touch upon regularly. Other times, you may introduce new ideas. But you always have to be looking for general themes and how you can be doing it better and better.

As some of you may know, I have been doing this for more than 33 years now and some things are consistent with what I present as well. It used to be to practice your presentations again and again, and then when video recorders became popular in the form of VHS, to shifted to that. Now it has shifted to mobile phone recording. So themes are the same but the specifics vary because the world changes.

So step back, analyze what your themes are, and assess whether or not they are still helpful to your audience or something needs to be changed.

Tips for Phone Presentations

What do you do when you are giving a presentation over telephone? This is a common problem for sales people and marketers everywhere in the world as well as business leaders. You have an opportunity to speak to a prospect who may end up benefiting you in the long run but you are lost for points.

Here are some tips for when you come face to face with such a situation: for starters, listen more than you talk. Sometimes we are so proud of our unique selling propositions and achievements, that we run the risk of talking over someone as you try to educate them on every single thing that you do. The number one thing you can do to solve this problem is to listen.

The second thing to do is to not talk over the person. If they ask you a  question, you begin to answer, and they interrupt you to ask something else, do not try to complete your answer. By interrupting they are letting you know what it is that they are actually interested in. you have to focus on them

The third big tip is to ask lots of questions. It is the one way you can get the most out of any presentation that you conduct over the phone especially for new business pitches.

Listen, do not talk over, and ask questions. Do that, and you will get much better results.