Issue 281 - The Secret of Persuasive Presentations

Issue 281 - The Secret of Persuasive Presentations - It's In The Voice!
By David Woodford

I was working with a student recently who
had a very quiet voice -- and he knew it. But,
too, he recognized that it was time to do
something about it. "I realize that making a
persuasive presentation that can be heard by
everyone is an essential step in my career
development" he said. And how right he was.

How many times have you sat through a
presentation where you have had to strain to
hear what the speaker said? In fact, after about
five minutes of that, we usually switch off and
give up the attempt.

Whilst your material might be top notch, if no
one can hear you clearly, all you preparation is
wasted.

Not only that, if you do not have authority in your
voice, then it will be a very difficult job to
convince anybody of anything.

So what can we do?

We can work on what is called MODULATION.
Usually connected with such things as radio
waves -- which can be modulated to change
their characteristics -- modulation is also an
essential skill for the professional presenter.

So let me present the 4 'P's to improve your
voice and increase your authority in
presentations.

PITCH

The pitch of our voice could also be called the
'musicality.' It has to do with the note at which we
pitch a word or phrase. Doing so in a monotone is
guaranteed to send your audience to sleep!

What we need to do is to vary our pitch
according to the importance of the expression
we are using. For instance: when we are excited
our pitch goes up and when we are serious or
somber, it drops (just listen to the voice of the
sports commentator when someone scores a
goal and compare that to when someone is
injured, to see what range is needed!)

If you have a problem with pitch, either join a
choir, or practice singing in the shower to
increase your range (or learn Norwegian - with
apologies to my Norwegian friends)

PACE

The pace is clearly the speed at which we
speak. That too needs to vary during the course
of a presentation to maintain audience interest
in our material.

Again, sports commentators give admirable
examples of this during the course of their work.

When you want to emphasize an important
point, slow down and speak distinctly. When you
want to cover less important points it's Ok to
speed up.

POWER

Power speaks for itself. And motivation of an
audience certainly calls for the ability to increase
the power of our voice.

But remember too that it is possible to 'whisper'
and still be heard! It's the relative sound that
counts from the audience's side not yours!
Here's a suggestion. Read a few sentences out
loud to some colleagues sitting some distance
away increasing the volume (power) all the time,
and ask them to raise their hands at the point at
which it gets uncomfortable.

I guarantee you will be in for a shock! That point
for you will seem like you are shouting at the top
of your voice!

Why? Because when we hear ourselves talking,
the sound has only traveled from our mouth to
our ears - but a few inches. But for our
audience that distance had to be measured in
feet! So be careful!

PAUSING

The last - but arguably the most important - of
our 4 'P's.

PLEASE pause from time to time - for
everyone's sake!
For your own sake to get some breath. And for
our sake, to allow time for the points to sink in.

Time has a funny habit of extending when you
are a presenter. By that I mean that 3 seconds
of silence to the listener feels like 3 minutes to
the speaker, and he feels that if he stops, even
for a second, the audience will think he has
finished and get up and leave.

Not so! Pausing not only gives us time to think,
it can also be effectively used to create
anticipation.

"Now I would like you to think about this next
point very seriously. (PAUSE and count to 5).
During the next three months we need to "

Can you recall the 4 'P's for persuasive presentations?

Pitch, Pace, Power and Pausing.

Work hard on those and see how your
audience's attention will improve in leaps and bounds.

David Woodford has been teaching presentation
skills for over 30 years, and during a period of
almost 15 years he taught this to Swedish
businessmen at the highest level. His courses
were always highly rated.

For more tips and suggestions and free
resources about presentation skills, visit David's
site at
http://www.presentersforum.com/

Accelerated Sales Training, Inc.
Helping You Develop More Business Through Live Cold Calling Sales Training Workshops(tm)
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1-818-991-6487 PST Office | 1-818-519-3852 Mobile | 1-818-991-5938 Fax
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We used Ron about a month ago strictly to
teach every rep (from senior to new kid on the
block) how to cold call and the results a month
later are on a scale of from one to ten at least a
nine.

The senior reps (who of course did not need the
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have literally adopted it and it is now part of their
routine.

Ron conducts a hands on class and perhaps the
most important part actually shows them how
to use the methodology by doing many calls
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they were astounded at the level they got into
within a company and then to the right person.

I have always been pretty cautious about
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thought for what you are trying to do and with
the growth you are trying to achieve I would
forward Ron’s information on to you.

Roy Hogsed, VP of Sales
nuBridges

Hope you found this informative, see you next time.

Until then. . .

Make it a great day and a successful week!

Ron

Accelerated Sales Training , Inc.
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