Public Speaking Tip: I Want to See Your Eyes-Not Your Back

The Mystery Shopper (me) was out and about last night. I attended a Public presentation for a new product. The presenter was looking to sign up additional afflilates for this program. The presenter was very good. She was articulate, energetic, sincere and used PowerPoint that actually enhanced her presentation!Near the end of the presentation-the call to action, if you will, she went to a board in the front of the room and proceeded to show the aprticipants how they could make money in this venture-with her back to the audience. My regular readers know how "this drives me to drink!" She is too good of a presenter to make this mistake!
Here is what I would suggest she do in the future:




1. Give the audience a handout where they can fill in the information. This not only includes your audience (more buy in), but they have something tangible they take home.
2. Here is another option. Invite an audience member to the front of the room and have them write the figures on the board while other audience members write on their handout.
3. She did not offer her audience an evaluation form of her presentation-Didn't we just talk about this? This is a missed opportunity to get great feedback and maybe great suggestions for future sales presentations.

4. She could have also used an overhead for this part of her presentation but I really prefer the handout and the audience interaction.

Would you have had her do this differently? Please feel free to comment!

How do you get your audience to fill out evaluation forms? Tell them to please fill out and pass to the front and put them in a box. Have an audience member draw one out and they win a door prize-a gift card from Starbucks, a free sample etc..

Steve Mertz
Helping Craft Great Sales Presentations!

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