This special report shows you how to use presentations as a low-cost, highly-effective marketing tool.
These articles give you the tools you need to improve your communication. You may copy and distribute them freely if you include the contact information.
Articles That Show You How To Improve Your Communication
The 5 Biggest Blunders In Business Development
Effective communication skills are essential to successful business development. Yet they’re often under-emphasized and sometimes completely ignored. Why? Because we communicate so much and so often (approximately 20,000 words per day) we often take it for granted. But regardless of how good your product or service is and how much expertise you have in your area, it all goes to waste unless you can communicate it to others. When you actually get the chance to sit down with a potential client and discuss doing business together, don’t blow it by committing one of these big five business development blunders. ...read more
Audience engagement is crucial to the success of any presentation. Yet, it’s often one of the most overlooked aspects. Too many presenters operate on a broadcast model, where they believe information should flow from the source (them) into passive receivers (the audience). Here are the top five ways presenters disconnect from their audiences and ways to avoid falling into the same traps. ...read more
How to Bore an Audience to Death
Most people dread them. Some will find ways to avoid them and others will attend but keep their attention elsewhere. I’m referring to meetings. One of the most common complaints among business and professional managers is the amount of time wasted in meetings. In addition to their concern about wasted time, unproductive meetings also affect the bottom line. Consider the fact that the average business meeting of ninety minutes attended by fifteen people represents more than just ninety minutes of company time. If you multiply the time by the number of people, you’ll find it’s actually 22.5 hours. That’s time that participants could spend productively on other tasks. For businesses that operate on a billing schedule, that’s a big investment. To make certain you get the most from you meeting ROI, consider these do’s and don’ts for productive meetings. ...read more
Are You Confusing Comfort with Confidence?
Is self-confidence necessary for success in presentations? You bet. Unfortunately, too many speakers confuse self-confidence with comfort. There's a big difference. ...read more
Clean Out Your Linguistic Closet
On occasion, my matrimonial partner has perfunctorily accused me of employing significantly lengthier words than necessary or appropriate. This is an accusation I would like to vigorously, vociferously and vehemently categorize as lacking in verisimilitude. I could express the same thought more economically as: “My wife says I use big words, but I disagree.” ...read more
But I Don’t Give Presentations
In the process of helping thousands of professionals transform themselves into more effective communicators during the past twenty years, my greatest obstacle has been the misconception people labor under concerning the role and nature of presentations in their professional lives. The most common myth is “I don’t give presentations.”
If you believe this, you need to expand your thinking about what constitutes a “presentation.” ...read more
Your introduction got the audience interested. You laid out a great benefits-oriented presentation and now it’s time for the close. Don’t let all that hard work go to waste. Presentations can’t simply stop—they need to conclude. Here are the top five problems that sink presentations. ...read more
Making Statistics Understandable
The use of statistics in a presentation is a double-edged sword. When used appropriately, statistics can make a presentation more credible, more persuasive and more authoritative. Used inappropriately, they can make the presentation less interesting, less effective and less audience-centered. It’s unlikely you’ll have a room full of statisticians, so you need to find ways to translate those numbers for a lay audience. Here are some tips on how to make statistics work for you rather than against you. ...read more
Introductions can make or break a presentation. Even seasoned presenters must pay close attention to their beginning few minutes with an audience. One of the most common pitfalls is going overboard. ...read more
We’ve all seen it. A speaker thoroughly familiar with his or her product gives a presentation filled with information about the history of the product, the development of the product, how it is used, and a list of ten nifty features. But at the end of the presentation, we’re left wondering what the point was. ...read more
Frequently Asked Questions about Successful Presentations
These are the most frequently-asked questions about successful presentations. ...read more
It has many names; glossophobia, communication apprehension, stage fright, having butterflies in the stomach. It has several symptoms; a rapid heartbeat, sweaty palms, a dryness in the mouth and unsteady hands. Most people are familiar with one recent poll or another showing that Americans rank fear of public speaking ahead of fear of death. ...read more
The Seven Deadly Sins of Powerpoint Presentations
It’s not surprising Powerpoint© slideshows have become the norm for visuals in most business presentations. They are quick to produce, easy to update and effective to inject visual interest into the presentation. However, they can also spell disaster even for experienced presenters. ...read more
The Top 10 Reasons Presentations Fail
You invest lots of time and effort in your presentations. They often make or break sales. They advance or inhibit career growth. They demonstrate your leadership potential or your lack thereof. Give yourself a greater chance of success by watching for these ten factors that will damage your efforts. ...read more
Emotional Vigor + Intellectual Rigor
It’s an all too familiar scene: The speaker invited to the meeting is a person with impeccable academic or business credentials, degrees a yard long and recognized as one of the top experts in his or her field. Expectations are high. The very appearance of such a person is tantamount to a successful event. Then it happens. Emotional Vigor + Intellectual Rigor
The old adage that “a single picture is worth 1,000 words” was never more appropriate than applied to today’s environment for business presentations. Television, multimedia computing, and the World Wide Web have conditioned audiences to expect visual messages. Computer slide shows used to be a cuttingedge luxury, but now they are the expectation in business and professional presentations. Bu t do visuals really help the message? ...read more (pdf)
Resources That Show You How to Communicate Across Cultures
Explores some of the major differences among cultures and suggests ways to take these into account in business environments.
Localizing the Global Presentation
Presentations that work well at home often fail when delivered overseas. Here are practical tips about how to localize your presentation.
FAQ’s on World Religions: Misperception and factual errors are often at the root of cultural misunderstanding. These are brief (2-4 page) descriptions of major world religions. They are not meant to be exhaustive or to contain all information about a particular religion. They are designed to provide readers with some information about religions that may be unfamiliar to them.
Frequently Asked Questions about Buddhism ( also in .pdf)
Frequently Asked Questions about Hinduism ( also in .pdf)
Frequently Asked Questions about Islam ( also in .pdf)
Frequently Asked Questions about Judaism ( also in .pdf)
See what learning resources are available
