Being a great presenter is a great skill to have in front of a live audience. However, the reality of large national and international corporations is that creating a live in-person audience is often impractical and costly. Technology has been making speaking to a physically absent audience more realistic with teleconferencing, video conferencing, and the like. However, an effective presenter also needs to have a great presence over the phone and through video conferencing equipment. The skill set is obviously similar, but here are some tips for nailing that presentation on your next conference call or video conference (which I have filtered and summarized below).
- Check in to solicit comments or verbal acknowledgement that the audience is still with you. You may have lost the audience 10 minutes ago, and you don’t even know it.
- Master the silence. Silence can be okay as long as it is not too long. Over the phone, it can still be used for dramatic effect.
- Go around the horn to check in on different audience members to see that they are still following along. For instance, call someone out who you know should be listening, i.e. “Are there any questions from the Atlanta office?”
- Don’t over answer questions. It is possible that a large portion of the audience already knows the answer and has decided to tune you out because you spent 5 minutes answering the question from the new guy who needs individual attention later.
- Send out visuals beforehand. The addendum to the call should be sent in advance of the call to all attendees. Don’t forget page numbers and reference them in your call so the audience knows where you are.
- Don’t read off the slides. Unlike a live presentation, the audience already has your slide deck and has probably looked ahead because you were supposed to send them the slides and exhibits before the call. Add color. Make it lively. Add value to the listeners. Keep the audience awake with a funny anecdote or an example that they couldn’t find using Google.
- Remember to practice. Depending on the format, you may be tempted to write down what you are going to say and read it on the call. The audience can tell when something is scripted. Instead of sounding polished, you sound like an actor reading over his lines in a read-through. This is not a dress rehearsal – this is the real thing!
Inspiration:
http://blog.teamthinklabs.com/index.php/2011/12/21/7-tips-for-presenting-over-the-phone/
http://www.threetraining.com/three-tricks-to-powerful-phone-presenting/
http://brainzooming.com/7-tips-to-improve-conference-call-presentations/952/
Thanks Tim –
I really appreciated this information. As someone who has to do phone presentations multiple times per month, I found this especially helpful. Especially where it talked about checking in to solicit comments. I think that is very important because it is easier for people to multi-task or check out when not in person for a phone presentation.
Another area I found interesting was mastering the silence. Silence can feel very scary when in a phone presentation and hard to overcome but I do agree that it can be effective when handled correctly. The trick is learning how to handle it correctly.
Thanks again.
Brandi
Hi Tim-
Great post with some excellent ideas.
One suggestion to add is that if you are also sharing your desktop to help present the material is to try and use the courser to help call out key items, just as if you were using a laser pointer. However, be careful to scroll & change the screen slowly as sometimes there is a delay in the transmission.
WJEM
I have heard from a couple of individuals that even though you are on the phone, standing up while presenting can be one way to help make it feel more natural. It not only gets you in a similar environment as a normal presentation, it also allows you to sit upright and project your voice more than if you were sitting down.