Would you like a piece of chocolate cake?
Posted on 13th January 2020 at 11:07
Blah, blah, blah …. Ever heard this, when someone starts a presentation? Or worse, could you be this person?
If so, you may be interested to hear how you can get the attention of your audience in the first few seconds.
Begin with a hook to draw your audience in. If you answer the question the audience is likely to have in their minds in the first couple of sentences (the what’s in it for me thing) then you are much more likely to have their full attention. Yes, it’s about your audience not you! Sorry!
Let’s take an example of a Marketing Presentation by a Business Coach to individuals who are building up a business. They could begin by saying, “What I am going to be exploring today is different markets, growth trends and unique selling points.
Or they could start by saying, “Did you know that vegan food sales increased by 1500% in the last twelve months"?
This is clearly an example of a growing market, so say for example your company makes cakes you could ask your current customers whether this is something that’s important to them.
If it is, you could significantly increase your sales. And, if it isn’t you could find new customers who are into eating delicious vegan cakes and increase your sales this way”. And, then if you had a piece of vegan cake (chocolate comes to mind, mainly because I love chocolate!) they would certainly remember you!
Or an alternative start on the same theme could be “Would anyone like a piece of chocolate cake” (I reckon you would get some takers) Then ask them “What do you think is different about this cake?” And, of course, it doesn’t matter if they don’t realise it’s vegan you can go on to say that and talk about the increase in vegan food sales.
Of course, there are many other ways to draw your audience in, such as a quote or a story or anecdote. So sticking with the same example of a Marketing Presentation by a Business Coach they could start with “You must be remarkable – you must be a Purple Cow”
As Seth Godwin states you need to be remarkable in business to thrive and today I’m going to show you one way to do that”.
And moving onto a story (particularly a personal one) to draw your audience in, you could say, for example. “I’m Jen Tailor and after I left school at sixteen I worked as a Personal Assistant, but it didn't excite me. At home I got into baking cakes, as I loved the creative process and became so good at it friends started asking me to make cakes for their birthdays.
I was even asked to do a vegan wedding cake! I started off doing this for free as I loved it so much (apart from charging for the ingredients) but then as more and more requests came in and it was taking up most of my time I knew that I had the beginnings of a business. And the rest, was not always a piece of cake (pun intended). It certainly had its challenges, such as a time when my oven broke, but now I’m financially successful and so much happier being my own boss. And, I’m here today to help you become your own boss too!
Grab your audience (metaphorically of course) and they’ll love you for it!
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