November 19, 2012
by Andy Saks
Let me start with this:
Better than one-on-one conversations. Better than brochures and white papers. Better than websites and social media. Better than TV and radio ads. Better than everything. Best.
That’s because presentations combine two formidable components of effective communication, The Efficiency of One-to-Many and The Experience of Being There. Public speaking binds them in a unique and potent partnership I call The Grand Power of Presentations.
The Grand Power is the force that gives presentations their power. It creates energy, unleashes discovery and spreads inspiration. It’s the reason great speakers love speaking. Understanding The Grand Power is your first step to making sure that the next time you’re called on to advocate for your cause, you answer the call and rise to the occasion.
Suppose you’re a salesperson trying to hit your monthly quota of five sales. You average a 5-percent conversion rate, so to make 5 sales, you’ll need to pitch 100 people. How would you do that?
First, consider the traditional approach: making 100 separate pitches to one person each. If your pitch takes 30 minutes to deliver and you deliver it 100 times, you’ll need 3,000 total minutes, or 50 hours, to make your quota. (That doesn’t include the time you’ll spend creating and confirming pitch appointments, traveling to and from pitch sites, and setting up and breaking down pitch materials.) Yikes! Clear the month, stock up on water and throat lozenges, and please, no meal breaks.
Now consider another approach: Gather 100 people in a room and pitch all of them simultaneously. At 30 minutes per pitch, your total pitching time shrivels to a paltry 30 minutes, saving you 49 hours and 30 minutes over the traditional approach (plus 99 rounds of making separate appointments and all the rest). Congratulations! You’ve now freed up over six working days worth of precious time you would have spent on wall-to-wall speaking that you can now spend on, well, anything else you’d like.
This is the simple concept behind The Efficiency of One-to-Many. Group presentations help you get your word out with vastly less time, effort and expense than one-on-one conversations. The better you deliver that message and the more people who hear it, the more sales you make and the more efficient you become.
You might consider this scenario merely a pleasant idea, an appealing option when circumstances permit, or a luxury in which “other” companies with great speakers can indulge. It isn’t. When the communications that keep your organization alive are at stake, you have an imperative to seize every competitive advantage within reach. That’s what presentation efficiency represents, and when you capitalize on it, you sell at warp speed while your competitors crawl.
But this setup is only the first of The Efficiency of One-to-Many. The ripples your presentation creates can stretch deeper and wider than you might realize. Let’s examine a few of the ripples that might work for you.
Your first ripple spreads across the people in the room. Suppose in your group presentation, you feed off the energy you created in the room, and make your pitch twice as dynamic, informative, inspirational and compelling as any one-to-one pitch you’ve given before. As a result, you more than your standard 5 people to buy. Could you double your conversion rate to 10? Triple it to 15? Great!
Now suppose some of your 15 buyers approach you afterward and ask for other products and services to solve their other problems. Now you’ve not only tripled your number of buyers from 5 to 15, you’ve motivated each buyer to buy more, increasing both your closing rate and your income per sale.
Your next ripple involves the magical world of referrals. Imagine that after they leave your pitch, some members of your audience who really got swept up in your presentation—buyers and non-buyers alike—proactively take to their social media pages, tell their networks about the experience and post a link to your website. Other audience members stay silent until a contact asks for help procuring the product or service you provide, at which point they remember you and offer your name. Your audience members have now become your goodwill ambassadors, amplifying your message voluntarily and independently to reach hundreds or thousands of new ears, and driving new and previously unreachable leads directly into your arms.
Another ripple targets those who watched you remotely. Suppose you record your dazzling presentation on video and post it on your website, social media pages and public video sharing sites. Now anyone in the world with an Internet connection can watch it anytime. For the weeks, months or years you keep it visible, your video continues attracting viewers. On YouTube alone, you could reasonably expect to be among the 50% of videos viewed at least 100 times in their first month. Some of your viewers are so impressed, they contact you to make a purchase. For its duration online, your video continues disseminating your message and driving new leads back to you.
See how far your ripples can travel? Here’s one more. Suppose your co-workers, boss, competitors, press and industry bigwigs also watch your presentation. Dazzled by your speaking prowess, each one reappraises your value to them. Your co-workers show your video to their prospects during pitches and ask you for presentation pointers. Your boss marvels at your hidden skills and considers you for a promotion. Competitors attempt to poach you.
Look at the gigantic ripple effect you’ve created and the astonishing number of people you’ve influenced. Look at the ongoing sales you’ve generated and the opportunities you’ve unlocked. Did you really do all that with one 30-minute pitch? That, my friend, is the massive potential The Efficiency of One-to-Many offers you.
But wait—what if your presentation isn’t a sales pitch? Don’t fret. “Selling” in this context is simply sharing to creating understanding and agreement between speaker and audience, the goal of any communication. Leaders sell trust in themselves and a belief in their path to a better future. Marketers sell the promise of improved health and happiness, popularity, and the elimination of life’s hardships. Trainers and teachers sell the understanding, acceptance and use of theories, facts and strategies. Engineers and scientists sell their knowledge of how and why things work.
Of course, presentations aren’t the only format to utilize this efficiency. Group emails, websites, social media, and old standbys like direct mailers, ads in magazines, TV and radio, or books like this one can reach thousands, even millions of people worldwide with lightning speed, many at little or no expense. However, these avenues tend not to create the same powerful results as speaking, because they lack The Grand Power of Presentations’ crucial second component: The Experience of Being There.
NEXT: The Grand Power of Presentations, Part 2 – The Experience of Being There
Tags: public speaking tips
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