Sales Presentations Training

Humorous openings are appreciated by audiences and a great way to create immediate rapport. A humorous opening is even better when the audience least expects it-for example, all of you who deliver technical presentations. Just because you have specific, technical information you don’t get a pass on not boring your audience to death You know who you are!

For example, I recently was delivering a presentation on search engine optimization (SEO) for websites and blogs. This can be a technical presentation but it doesn’t have to bore the bejesus out of the audience. When I started my presentation I mentioned the President of the Association, who was sitting in the front row

I went on to say how “Pat” shared with me that she had a side business and had made an additional $75,000 dollars last year-every time a cell phone went off in one of her presentations, she confiscated the phone and sold it on eBay!

While this is not any earth shattering humor-the audience loved it because they did not expect it from me and I could tell they were at ease with me. More importantly, the President of the association was flattered that I made a point to remember her name and include her in the presentation. I have mentioned before the magic of drawing your audience into your presentation and always introduce yourself to the front row before you start your presentation!

For those of you who give more technical presentations please consider developing a humor file. If you use humor in your presentations your audiences will love you and I guarantee that your humorous presentation will be more memorable and repeatable-these are very good things if you wish to continue to be hired!! Humor just doesn’t happen and you may find the need to hire a coach to inject some humor in your presentations-this is a good investment! My speaker buddy, Steve Rizzo, spends the first several minutes with nothing but humor before he goes forward with his presentation. He has found that once an audience embraces you and your humor they are much more receptive to your presentation.

So, for all you CEO’s and Propeller Heads who are boring your audiences to death…stop it! Use humor in your presentations and we will laugh and learn with you!

The issue of PowerPoint and humor comes up frequently in questions to Presentation skills training. How do you incorporate humor with a PowerPoint presentation? At first the two seem in-congruent because all of us have been bored to death by PowerPoint. Well, I found a good example for those of you looking to brush up your presentation skills! (Read on …)

Remember the song Dirty Laundry by Don Henley?

“I make my living off the evening news
Just give me something-something I can use
People love it when you lose,
They love dirty laundry”

Many of the CEOs that we coach feel they are more susceptible than ever to a press looking for Dirty Laundry! As a matter of fact, the fastest growing aspect of our business is Executive Speech Coaching-learning to verbal banter with the press! (Read on …)

As promised I’ve been looking at your Google searches for Sales Presentations Training. It appears that many of you have humor on your mind. Some of the search terms include: tips for adding humor to your presentation, humorous PowerPoint presentations, sales meeting humor, financial planner humor and many more. As regular readers know I am a huge fan of adding humor to presentations. Humor does not just appear out of nowhere and I’ve discussed how you can build a humor file to help in your public speaking. (Read on …)

Phil Rosenthal was a writer and producer for “Everybody Loves Raymond’ for its entire nine-year run. He has a new book out called “You’re Lucky You’re Funny”. I read the review on the book and liked what I read about how he incorporates humor into his show. His secret is specificity. When your are speaking to an audience there are specific pieces of humor that may only be known to that organization or association. If you do your homework and discover what humor is specific to them you are going to be there hero and remembered long after the event.

He mentions that one of the reasons we see so many failed comedies today is that writers keep looking to get the next laugh instead of trying to “tell a great story’. The same is true for you. Many executives are initially reluctant to share a personal story with their employees, I think this is a mistake. If the story has relevance to your current situation and it makes a powerful point-I would encourage you to use it in your presentation! By taking advantage of telling a great story that is personal to you-your audience will have a strong emotional bond with you and your message. don’t miss out on this opportunity! Via: New York Times.

Steve Mertz
Humor Speakers Sell

Technorati Tags: Public Speaking, Presentations, Phil Rosenthal, New York Times

Somewhere, Somehow dull business presentations got firmly entrenched in our culture. Garr Reynolds has a great post on a new book by Daniel Pink called a Whole New Mind. One of Garr’s observations really jumped out at me:

“Indian physician Madan Kataria points out in Pink’s book that many people think that serious people are the best suited for business, that serious people are more responsible. “[But] that’s not true,” says Kataria. “That’s yesterday’s news. Laughing people are more creative people. They are more productive people.” Somewhere along the line we were sold the idea that a real business presentation must necessarily be dull, devoid of humor and something to be endured not enjoyed.”

We have all been subjected to financial and other business presentations that are completely devoid of humor. Another great reason to start building that humor file and using it regularly in our presentations! Here is the link to A Whole New Mind review.

Steve Mertz

Bringing Humor to Business Presentations!

Technorati Tags: Garr Reynolds, Daniel Pink, A Whole New Mind, Humor, Business Presentations

If you do any amount of public speaking you will serve yourself well by building a humor file. This file can include humorous quotes, pictures and anecdotes You can get this information that is pertinent to your field from trade journals, association literature and a plethora of public sources.

I use to keep all of this material in a huge folder but now I scan it and put it on my computer. By doing that it eliminates that huge drawer of junk and it much easier to put into PowerPoint presentations or overheads. A humor file is always a great way to make a succinct point and draw your audience into your presentation. For example, if you are giving a financial presentation you may want to incorporate an idea like this in your presentation. It was a cartoon of a wealthy, old geezer sitting by a cozy fireplace. His grandchildren run over to him and say: Grandfather tell us again how you shorted the stock market in 1929!” You can take this cartoon and go many ways with it in your presentation but it just gives you another chance at humor in your presentations.

Do you keep a humor file-any other humor tips you might add?

Steve Mertz

Humor is Good!

Technorati Tags: Humor, Public Speaking, Career Training, Presentations Skills

In sales presentations using PowerPoint, we all hope to have that million dollar slide. The one that enhances our presentation and leaves an image with audience members that they can’t forget. We have talked about the million dollar slide before in this post.

I wanted you to see this post from David Garfinkel-He is an excellent copywriter and a great read. Here is his post on Selling With Humor. The humor is a little dark but so are financial presentations about ending up busted and disguisted!

Update-We should have our new site completed this week and will make sure that you have a seamless transition. Thank you all for your patience.

Steve Mertz
Searching the Globe for Humor!

Technorati Tags:
PowerPoint, Humor, Presentations, David Garfinkel

My buddy, Brad Montgomery, good looking guy on the left, made a simple but astute observation: Want to be Funny? Hang with Funny People! Brad is a great comedian and also a fellow Colorado blogger.
Many business presentations don’t incorporate any humor-and that’s a shame becasue audiences today are demanding great content delivered in a humorous way! The big shift is on. Last week I was talking with an owner of a speakers bureau. He told me that in the future he was going to emphasize speakers who could deliver great content with humor. I was glad to be included in this group-and really couldn’t we all use a lot more humor in business presentations? You don’t really want to look like Alan Greenspan, on the left, as you are presenting your brilliant sales presentation do you?

Here are some tips to get you thinking about adding some humor to anchor your key points:

1. When you see a cartoon or hear a comic say something, do you laugh out loud-even if you are by yourself? That’s a good sign that you may be on to something.

2. Practice your humor attempt on a few folks who won’t laugh just becasue you are the boss. Novices tend to step on the punch line so practice until you can snap that baby off!

3. Only use the humor if it anchors a point that you want the audince to take away-otherwise it could distract from your main points.

4. When in doubt-keep your humor short and sweet-don’t take 5 minutes to make a humorous point!!

5. Don’t tell your audince you are going to humor them-just surprise them with your comic brilliance as you make those fantastic points

I will be the first to admit that it is challenging to find clever and concise humor in many business presentations but it’s there you just have to dig it out. But if you are humor challenged remember my buddy Brad Montogemey’s advice: Hang With Funny People and have them give you some pointers! Good Luck.

Steve Mertz
Did Alan Greenspan Ever Smile??
Technorati Tags:
Humor, Presentation, Brad Montgomery, Public Speaking