Zzzzz.
Snore.
Yawn.
Yep, you guessed it, Mistake #4 of the “The Five Biggest Mistakes Professionals Make When Speaking To Sell And How To Avoid Them” is…
Being Boring
That is one of the biggest reasons presentations fail to close. The content can be stellar, and the offer can be fantastic, but if your presentation is boring, it’s game over, Bubba.
That is a big topic, but here are three ways professionals make their otherwise stellar talks as dull as dirt.
- Boring slides. Slides made up primarily of words and bullet points are a snore-fest. You want to use graphics and images to spice things up.
- No humor. Cavett Roberts, the founder of the”National Speakers Association,” was once asked by a professional speaker, “I’m not a funny person, so do I HAVE to use humor?” Cavett replied, “No, no-no. You don’t have to use humor. Unless you want to get paid.”Using humor is a topic in and of itself, and I’ll be doing a future Inner Sanctum masterclass about it. Still, as a quick tip, you can easily add humor to your presentation by using funny images on your slides, so you can still make your audience laugh even if you’re not humorous.
- Drab delivery style. There are two parts to doing a one-to-many presentation that sells. The first is the content, and the second is how you deliver the content. You’ll still get excellent conversions if you deliver mediocre content in a dynamic presentation style. Not to sound like a broken record, but this is a huge topic beyond the scope of this mini-course; here are two tips to spice up your delivery.
Tip uno: Don’t read from your slides. There isn’t much worse than watching someone read what’s on their slides. Why is the speaker even there?
Tip dos: Crank up your energy level. That does not mean running around on the stage like a Tony Robbins wanna-be. You can deliver a compelling presentation with calm and powerful energy. I was fortunate to see the late great Jim Rohn speak at his last ever three-day event. Mr. Rohn stood behind the podium and spoke with no slides, just a whiteboard. Every audience member was in rapt attention the entire time.
Tomorrow, we wrap up this little soirée with the fifth biggest mistake, which is…
Of course, I’m going to make you wait until tomorrow!
Kick butt, make mucho DEEnero!
Dave “Master of Suspense” Dee
P.S. Are you joining me for my birthday webcast with my daddio? It’s going to be super-cool and valuable. If you need it, here’s where you can register: