When you set your guns on an audience that you’re going to be talking to, you’re trying to nail them down with your presentation, your message. And that’s what every speaker tries to do.
By now, your audience has already been through several presentations over the course of their career and each presentation they have to sit through becomes more a chore than a love affair.
When you open your presentation by introducing yourself and your company and what you’ve come to talk about, you’ve just tried to nail them like everybody else. And because your audience is so attuned to people nailing them, they couldn’t care less.
What you want to do is to hook them. To woo them. Think approaching a girl at a bar. Would you open by saying I’m Rahul Varshneya and I’m the CEO of Arkenea? She doesn’t care what you do, but would certainly care about how you can make her evening interesting.
Your presentations have to have the same flair. Open with a story to get your audience to feel the same way as you do about what you have to say. How many times have you seen a TED talk that begins with the speaker saying, “Several years back, when I was…” They just hooked the audience to go on a journey with them.
And the next time you present with a big bang opening, don’t forget about the end. Finish by keeping them hooked for until after you leave by sending them on a journey of their own that resonates with your message, not directly with your product or service. Lead with, “So the next time you think about…”, or “The next time you see…”, or “The next time you come across…,” etc. Craft your own lead out.