Speaking and Presenting with Impact - Gaby Awad

Gaby Awad - “Buying Customers”

S4 Episode 12: Speaking and Presenting with Impact

Introduction

My name is Gaby Awad AKA The Coach on Wheels (you have to watch my YouTube channel to know why 😉), and I am your host for the BUYING CUSTOMERS radio show 🔥🔥🔥

It would be awesome if I could hear from you in real time during the show. If you’re listening live or to one of the recordings, you can always connect and interact with us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter at IBGRNetwork.

Listen LIVE every Wednesday 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm: GMT 

 
Show Objectives 

In this “Buying Customers” Episode 12 of Season 4, we are going to talk about speaking and presentation skills for sales professionals. More specifically we are gonna talk about engaging your audience, use stories and ask questions to make an impact and influence… and more.

This talk today will leverage your presentation skills and makes you feel more confident presenting your ideas to influential decision makers such as your managers, clients, investors, board members, and executive teams. 

It will help you present for results and get people to take action, whether you’re speaking to one person or 1000.

Once we finish our talk today, you should be able to follow an action plan to take your speaking and presenting skills to another level.


Key Issues 
At work, we are often required to present our ideas, solutions or services to colleagues, clients or the public audience. Making presentations to co-workers or senior to C-level managers, delivering client sales pitches, giving a speech for an audience or taking part in a formal meeting can be a stressful experience causing anxiety and worry even when you are confident in your material.

What You Need to Know 

John C. Maxwell said: ”LEADERSHIP is INFLUENCE nothing more, nothing less”. And influence is communication and speaking and presenting is in the core of communication skills. So improving your speaking and presenting skills has a direct effect on raising your leadership lid.

What is leadership lid? According to The law of the LID from our friend John C. Maxwell… “The higher you want to climb, the more you need leadership. The greater the impact you want to make, the greater your influence needs to be.  Whatever you will accomplish is restricted by your ability to lead others.”

So Leadership’s ability is the LID that determines a person’s level of effectiveness. The lower an individual’s ability to lead, the lower the lid on their potential.

your audience will ask 3 main questions before you can make an impact in sales as in leadership:

1. Do you care for me?
2. Can you help me?
3. Can I trust you?

Connecting goes beyond words. There are three components to communication.
The impact of a performance is determined 7% by the words used, 38% by voice quality, and 55% by non-verbal communication.

Humans unconsciously send and receive non-verbal signals through body language all the time.
Non-verbal communication is the single most powerful form of communication. Nonverbal communication provides you with clues as to what is on another person’s mind.

Studies of attention spans show that audiences remember the most information in the first 5 minutes of a 1 hours talk. At 10 to 15 minutes, it is time for a change. The audience needs stimulation – give them an activity, ask a question, tell a story, play an exciting video, or tell a good joke. 

• Avoid too much history and introduction
• Let the audience know from start what you will be talking about and what you want them to take action on at the end
• Structure your presentation well and get back to the structure often
• Work it piece by piece
• Focus on ONE POINT only and keep it simple

​Tips to lower the anxiety effect

• Consider the origin of your belief… how it all started
• Take the emotion out of it
• Rehearse it as you breath… close your eye and see yourself delivering a perfect speech
• Breathe deeply… it tells your brain that it is all over
• Be confident and passionate
• Use comfort props (e.g. index cards, slides clicker)
• Direct your eyes to someone you know 
• Arrive earlier and test technology readiness. This will also help you get acquainted with the place 
• Stay hydrated and avoid too much caffeine

What You Need to Do 

STEP 1: PLAN and PREPARE
Do your homework so that you’re well informed on the presentation that you will be giving. Know your audience and research what their industry is about, what are their typical challenges in business, and how you will be going about answering their questions during your presentation.

Compare your introduction to the opening paragraph of a book and try to start with something interesting to immediately intrigue your audience. Things like the question to ask immediately as the first words that come out of your mouth, or the short story that you are going to tell before introducing yourself even, or the statistics that you will provide…

Organize your thoughts with an order of topics. You could use cue cards to help you remember, but avoid reading them word for word.

Ask yourself HOW, WHEN and WHAT and remember the first 15 seconds to establish connection immediately… straight to the point. When you reach planning for the body, brainstorm one or 2 aspects of your topic and find ways to support each aspect with examples, videos, sorties, questions, facts, and statistics. 

During half time of your presentation, your audience might get restless. What will you do to keep them engaged? Will you tell a joke, which one would be relevant?

When arriving to the conclusion challenge your call to action. Does it make the impact you want? This is your point restated. This is the most important moment in your presentation. It is the WHY you are there…

STEP 2: PRACTICE

“Practice makes perfect” goes the phrase, and it’s certainly true of speaking and presenting. 
Practice out loud either on your own or in front of others. Use your phone camera and replay. 

Visualizing delivering a successful speech will help give you confidence. If you can, get a film of your presentation so that you can learn from your performance to improve in the future.


Take note of the things you are going to improve by giving feedback to yourself. 

Use the resources that you are intending to use when you deliver it for real. Tweak it if necessary to make it flow.

Ask for your friends and colleague on the things that you can improve. Ask them if you sold them the call to action.

STEP 3: RITUALS BEFORE THE PRESENTATION
Taking a deep breath can help you to control the tone, pitch and volume of your voice. If you stop to take a breath you will ensure that you are not rushing through the presentation, you will not be speaking too fast and people will be able to hear what you are saying.

Tony Robbins takes an ice cold bath and jumps the trampoline before his speech. You can sing a song or speak to yourself in front of the mirror for 30 seconds to motivate your confidence.  

STEP 4: DURING YOUR PRESENTATION
Engage with your audience, smile and use eye contact. Watch out for clues from the audience.
Smiles and nodding are positive signs. Fidgeting or confused looks may seem that you are losing your audience.

Avoid using too many sentence fillers like "erm" and "err". One or two is fine and will actually make your speech feel more natural as these are words naturally used in conversation. 

Be aware of body language. In general you should adopt a relaxed, upright stance with your hands by your sides unless you are gesturing to emphasize a point. Use your body language to your advantage. Use open palm gestures and use the space. Remember to keep your verbal and non-verbal communication in sync. 

“Never wish life were easier, Wish that YOU were better.” - Jim Rohn

Shows 

• Previous: WOWing Your Customers
• Next: Season 4 Episode 13 – Negotiation – Beyond Win-Win

Written by Gaby Awad 
 
As a Business and Executive Coach, Gaby helps business owners, leaders, and teams grow and achieve their goals through alignment, business re-education, coaching, and mentoring. He has more than 25 years of experience in executive positions and transforming businesses.

Currently, he is the Franchise Owner of ActionCOACH in Lebanon and in this position he also coaches Business Owners, CEOs and other top level executives. Gaby hold international accreditations as certified coach from ActionCOACH, Marshall Goldsmith, The John Maxwell Team, and Jeffrey Gitomer Sales Academy. Gaby is also the founder of Good Session Coaching,  an online learning platform for executives and business professionals where leaders can go through self-paced learning.

You can connect with Gaby on any of his seriously social platforms
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Send an email: gabyawad@actioncoach.com

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