Featured Article of the Month

 Stay Interviews
A Retention Strategy for Innovative Organizations
Has anybody ever thought about the logic of asking people why they are leaving when they have one foot planted out the door? I remember on my exit interview when they asked me why I was leaving. Part of me wanted to say, “Geez, because my manager is such a hypocrite that I would rather be boiled in hot oil than have to work with her another day.” I did, however, know better. Why burn a bridge (although the bridge has since been torched)? No, I gave some answer about want to move on, etc. My only thought was I wish somebody (other than my manager) had asked me while I was there and maybe I could have stayed within the consulting firm in a different area. Oh well, c’est la vie!

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Tips for Improving Your Next Presentation

• Remember that people want to be entertained as well as be informed. Think about the reviews a dull movie receives. It’s the same with presentations. People will give you a lousy review unless you attempt to not only inform, but make the presentation fun and interesting at the same time. You can do that by focusing specifically on what the audience will want to know, eliminating fluff material that is not required and making the presentation interactive.
• Cut the fluff. Focus on what the audience wants to know. By eliminating the fluff such as ‘history of the company’ or ‘why technology’, you can really hit the high points of your message, which should how your product or service is unique and solves a problem that the audience is facing. It also makes your presentation much more powerful by making it precise.
• 3s a charm! What many people don’t understand is that the more information you give, the less likely the audience is to remember. The brain simply becomes overwhelmed with too much new information to process. According to a number of memory studies conducted, the optimal number for memory retention is 3. This is an important fact to remember for your presentation. You should have only present three fundamental concepts to your audience. By adding in more you start to dramatically reduce the effectiveness of your presentation. So when putting your presentation together, try and focus on the three most important points you want to convey, and at the end summarize them again. By telling your audience that if they take only three things away from your presentation that these are the things they need to remember- and they will.
• Use humor. It’s been proven that if humor increases retention by at least 70%. Humor engages people to retain what they heard. Think of something funny you saw recently and the impact it had on you. Don’t be afraid you won’t appear professional. Done properly and with good taste, you will actually appear more professional. Those who use this technique know that it is powerful and effective and are considered some of the best presenters in their fields.
• Never give a one-size fits all presentation. There is nothing worse than a canned speech that gets bogged down in details and ignores the audience. Focus instead on providing the audience with insight about how it solves a problem that the competition does not. Focus on what is truly be important to your audience and do not just give a ‘one size fits all’ presentation. For example, if you sell software, gloss over the obvious aspects of what your product does. Provide something that the competition does not, such as adding new functionality that solves a known industry problem. This will get the audience’s attention much more effectively – and keep it.
• Charts and graphs do not tell stories. Mark Twain once wrote that there were three types of lies – lies, damned lies and statistics. Instead of providing loads of meaningless numbers, why not tell stories that illustrate the numbers instead? Not only will it be more successful, it will bring the message home much more effectively as well. People would you rather hear how a company returned to profitability and increased sales by 27% in the fourth quarter then seeing a series of pie charts and graphs about how the software can work to help organizational effectiveness.
• Be charismatic. While that that may sound challenging, this can be done easily by simply controlling how you breathe. When you breathe deeply and control your breath, you are controlling the breathing of the audience and they will be mesmerized. Actors use this technique to create charisma. by simply standing on the stage silently. In addition, be sure to various your voice, varying the speeding of your delivery, pausing for effect, walking around the room, asking questions to people in the audience, etc. Although nobody could remember a single thing that the delivery.
• Remember the 4 Bs Be brief, Be bright, Be entertaining and Be gone. It is better to leave them wanting more than wanting revenge

Remember that nobody will buy your product if you put them to sleep. By thinking about how you present as well as what you present, you will find that your presentations focus not on you but on your customer, become much more effective and result in increased sales. Plus, you will ensure that no one in your audience falls into their plate of mashed potatoes as well