Do you hate it when people don’t keep their promises? I know I do.
Speakers or presenters can make or break their reputation by keeping, or not keeping their promises.
Does it make you feel bad when you get to the end of the presentation and you realise you were promised 3 answers but you only have 2?
Have you ever been told “I will answer your questions at the end” and it didn’t happen? Did a presenter ever tell you they would send you their slides? Are you still waiting?
As a speaker or presenter, when you prepare your presentation think about the promises you are making. Can you keep them all within the allotted time?
If you can’t, then change the time, the number of promises or the complexity if its just a single promise.
If you are speaking to sell and you want to hold something back to tease the audience into buying your product or service. Tell Them.
For example, if you are in property training (and I am not) you might say. “There are 3 ways to make money out of property. Buy to resell, buy to let and buy on behalf of someone and mange it. Today I am going to talk about the first two”
Audiences are quite sophisticated and understand the process. This leaves you free to deliver on your first two promises and still sell on the 3rd part without breaking integrity.
Its the same with the question strategy. If you say you will answer questions at the end, then do so. This also means not changing your mind and also answering some in the middle.
If you say you will get back to someone later. Do it.
I was recently at a networking event and saw someone who had been at a presentation a week earlier. He asked if I had got a copy of the slides yet, before I could answer someone else chipped in and said ” He never sends them out”. Now there’s a presenter building a reputation.
I have expanded a little on this theme in my latest article