They Don’t Care How Much You Know Until…

…they know how much you care. Of course you’ve heard this saying, we all have. It may even seem trite to you. But it’s important to every presenter. Early in your presentation it’s critical that you show the audience that you care about them and care about delivering value to them. In fact, I recommend that you do this right after you engage their attention.

How do you do this? Identify the big benefit they will get from listening to you. Since you are likely speaking to business audience, there are some benefits you can connect with:

• Improved productivity
• Enhanced career success
• Better work relationships
• Saving time
• Making more money
• Increased sales
• Cutting costs

Be clear and concise about this and avoid getting into detail. Save the details for the body of the presentation.

Strengthen this by making it a “you” statement. In other words, use phrasing similar to the following:

• “During this presentation, you’ll learn to improve your productivity.”
• “Today we’ll examine some techniques to improve your productivity.”
• “I’ll show you today how to enhance your career success.”

This technique will show your audience that you care about them and their success. They’ll repay you by being more attentive!