As consultants, we have to sell our products, our services and our skills. So you know you have a tough job when your audience starts acting in a similar way to this video
- During a HAZOP
- During a product presentation
- During your marketing shpiel
Does anyone have any suggestions what you should do to break the rhythm?
Wata - Malaysian Oil and Gas Engineer 
Suggestions; begin with:
I’m your worst nightmare or
I’m more creepier than your mother in law.
Then probably get their attention. huh.
Or just ‘lempang’ them.
Am I hired .. boss ? Looking for another Gustapo ? He He He
Tough indeed… Hope you don’t mind the lengthy opinion as follows. If it is a meeting presentation (not at a marketing event), the preparing the audience will have to be adjusted accordingly. However, the general idea remains the same.
Suggestions:
– Preping the audience
Have some printed resources available to the audience and everything setup at least 30mins before the presentation starts. From here, use the time window to socialise (networking). People who do get to talk to you prior will be more keen on your presentation.
For the technical audience, your printed resources will do the talking for you while they wait for the presentation to start.
*Put all the important information in the printed resources (pictures or tables preferably). If they missed something in the presentation (dozed off…), they will at least have something to refer to; after or in future more importantly.
Freebies are compulsory when presenting to a group of people you’re not acquainted with. However, this is not the case if you’re presenting as a manager (not as a representative) to active clients. Any freebies would then be on a personal level which usually entails a good meal.
-Presenting
1. Keep it short and simple (KISS)
2. Begin by relating to the audience on a personal level, e.g. some O&G related events or jokes (personal experience will help greatly here).. we are all humans =P
3. Summarize it in layman’s term. If the audience intrigued, they’ll ask the details later.
4. If it has to be technical…get over it quickly. The average attention span for this is 15 minutes before you start losing your audience.
5. Try to avoid general statements and vague in-betweens(it’s either yes and no).
6. Be one step ahead and focus on what the audience are there for and may ask; how it will benifit them , and not just marketing product (e.g. how will it save me money in the long run =P)
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I hope something in the above can be of use to you.
Best wishes.
Daz: thank you for the feedback.
Wata: It’s a pleasure and even more so reading your blog. Thank you!
PS. My apologies for the grammatical mistake *facepalms* Overlooked a few bad ones…
PSS. Massive ones… My humble apologies again. Is it possible to include an edit option in future?
Daz: The blog enviroment is provided by WordPress. If there are errors that tend to change the meaning or intent of a comment, I usually go in and edit the piece, but gave up on those comments which look as if they were typed on a phone keypad, or a keyboard missing vowels.
Thanks, Wata. Just want to amend the following in case others might think it needs to be considered:
‘E.g.’ how will it save….
-not ‘i.e.’
the only thing i know is i love those little round headed thing that sway their heads.
anyway, that’s a very very long article. i lost track after the 3rd line. sorry…. jabba is only interested in money, porn, crime, and more porn….
by the way, for my slaves, i beat them with a stick and hope the swaying is because of the brain concussion.
try telling your clients, if they don’t buck up, you’re going to send them to jabba.
I still learning how to ‘copy and paste’ here. Maybe someone can help me .. he he he