Be Interactive – Engage Your Audience’s Senses Early And Often

“No presenter’s mouth can move as fast as the audience’s eyes,” Jerry Weissman told Peter Guber when he asked why Weissman stresses interactivity when coaching senior executives to prepare for their IPO road shows. Weissman is the founder of Power Presentations, whose client list includes the top brass at Microsoft, Yahoo!, Intel, Netflix, Cisco Systems, Sequoia Capital, and clients of Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, and Credit Suisse.

“As soon as the presenter becomes a one-way broadcaster,” he explained to Guber, “there’s no return feed. There’s no loop; there’s no synchronicity. When somebody has to pitch a VC for financing when a company goes public, they have to be interactive.”

Otherwise, he said, there’s no communication and the presenter might as well save his breath.

Many of Weissman’s clients come to him from the investment banking industry, where millions, even billions of dollars can ride on the ability to communicate financial data to potential investor audiences. “PowerPoint has become the coin of the realm in this business,” he told Guber. “They put the slides up and then they essentially read what’s on the slide. I ask my clients, ‘how do you feel when presenters read what’s on the slide?’ and they say, ‘you could have mailed it to me.'” then Weissman breaks the news that what’s on the PowerPoint is not the story.

“You, the presenter, are the story’s teller,” he tells them. “And engaging the audiences’ senses early and often is the story teller’s secret sauce.'”

In other words, whatever your business is, when it’s time to tell your story, it’s show time!

 

MORE ABOUT TELL TO WIN

blog-telltowin-linkTo validate the power of telling purposeful stories, Guber includes in this book a remarkably diverse number of ‘voices’ – master tellers with whom he’s shared experiences. They include YouTube founder Chad Hurley, NBA champion Pat Riley, clothing designer Norma Kamali, “Mission to Mars” scientist Gentry Lee, Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank, former South African president Nelson Mandela, magician David Copperfield, film director Steven Spielberg, novelist Nora Roberts, rock legend Gene Simmons, and physician and author Deepak Chopra.
 
After listening to this extraordinary mix of voices, you’ll know how to craft, deliver – and own – a story that is truly compelling, one capable of turning others into viral advocates for your goal.

 

Got Story? If You Build It, They Will Answer Your Call To Action

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