Grab Attention From the Beginning

Your heart is pumping wildly and adrenalin courses through your body. Through a surreal haze you hear your name being introduced and wham – you’re on. Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome Lynne Schinella!!

A strong opening will give you confidence to move forward. If you get those first few minutes right, the audience will buy into what you’re saying. You’ll have their attention and it will be easier to engage them.

There are lots of effective ways to open and I thought I’d share a few. You’ll discover on your own which are more comfortable for you to use.

Personal story

This is one of my favourites for a few reasons. Being a Mango, telling stories comes easily to me so I am using one of my strengths. When you go with your strengths you’ll appear more natural. I also like the personal story because it immediately says “you can trust me”  to your audience; you are sharing something of yourself with them. But choose your story well, and learn to tell it well, no rambling or meandering. It’s an opening, remember, not a 21^st birthday speech. Get to the point and make it RELEVANT.

A Quote

There are so many brilliant quotes out there you can find anything that is relevant to your topic. I like the quote because it is dramatic. It makes a statement. It grabs attention. To use it well though, you must have a sense of theatrics. Just saying it like you would normally speak will have little impact. You don’t need to be Johhny Depp, but you do need to present a quote in the manner in which it was intended.

You can support your quote visually with PowerPoint but make sure you don’t turn your back on the audience.

And finally, make sure it’s RELEVANT. For example,

In around 55AD, a Greek philosopher called Epictetus said, “ God has give man two ears but one mouth, so he may hear twice as much as he speaks.”

So listen up, sales people because we’re going to take a look at how you can talk less and listen more to be more effective sales people.

A Fact or Two

Facts and stats are great openers to get attention but the key here is backing up your facts with your source. This is particularly cool for left brain audiences like Limes and Apples because it shows a) you’ve done your homework and b) gives you some cred up front, all of which means they are more likely to listen to you. They can also have great impact.

According to Washington-based analyst Anthony Cordesman, each day the US-led military effort costs $US100 million ($A120 million) in order to ensure that a mere $US7 million in reconstruction aid can be spent.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is just the beginning of many reasons why I believe we must leave Afghanistan.

Make sure your fact has RELEVANCE.

As our attention span gets shorter and shorter in this age of superfast technology and information, your opening needs to have great impact and grab attention. If not, you’ve lost your audience from the start and they’ll be tweeting instead of listening to your message.

So pick a starter that works for you, practice until it hurts and kick off your presentation with a bang.