How to deliver a killer presentation opener: 5 steps

We’ve just come across this great video in which we are given some great hints and tips about how to hit that presentation opener out of the park! At Eloquens we’re connoisseurs of good presentations, and are always on the look out for great advice to help improve presentations. Jason Teteak, the author of Rule the Room: A Unique, Practical and Comprehensive Guide to Making a Successful Presentation, shares his 5 tips for hooking your audience within the first five minutes.

1. Confidence

Without confidence, you’ll find it very hard to bring your audience along with you. If it looks like you’re nervous or like you don’t believe in what you’re saying, then there’s no reason for your listeners to believe in it either. It doesn’t matter if you are nervous — everyone is at times — but the important thing is that you don’t show it. Stand still, keep your hands at your side and deliver a confident pitch.

2. Give your credentials

State your credentials to let your audience know why they should listen to what you have to say. As well as being a natural opening point for your presentation, it’s the best way of adding weight to your words. The implied deeds of your credentials will go a long way to backing up your words.  The key tip here is to let your audience know how listening to you is going to help them, and why you’re the best qualified person to help them.

3. Deliver your hook

Get your audience to feel something. You do this by making people feel more successful, more happy or more free. ‘You can’t tell them what they’re going to get before you’ve told them how they’re going to feel’.

4. Introduce a clear agenda

Use a slide to give an overview of the key take-aways from your presentation. Don’t just read the list off. Instead, tell them how many points you’re going to make and summarize the overall goal of the presentation.

5. Give a credible statement

Reinforce your statement by smart use of data or statistics. Do this within the first couple of minutes of your presentation so that you can gain the trust of your audience. It’s important to do this early on, because research shows that audience’s are likely to lose interest if they aren’t convinced of the speaker’s credibility within the first few minutes.

We recommend that you watch this short video. In it Jason Teteak gives memorable and actionable advice that should be useful for even the most experienced presenter.