One big, brief thought while reading: Psychology | Inside a deal | Economist.com

Can you see the world, or at least *your* message, from the “audience” point of view?

The same perspective-taking and empathy skills that make people more effective in negotiations also make presentations much stronger and more persuasive. After all, a presentation is often the stepping off point towards engaging in negotiation.

Perspective-taking, “the cognitive power to consider the world from someone else’s viewpoint,” is probably the most important part of presenting more effectively.

(Via SigmaXi’s Science in the News.)

Why aren’t presentations becoming generally better despite so much great thinking on how to fix them? Is it because many come together at the last minute?

Presentation Zen (which is awesome) got me thinking. What can you fix if you only have a few moments? Say you don’t have time to master the concepts in Garr’s book, you haven’t been reading presentations blogs, your company didn’t invest in training or coaching, and you’re on the spot. What then?

10-minute overhaul to improve any presentation:

Audience & Objective
Put your slides (or script/visuals/etc) away and get out a piece of paper. Imagine that you just gave the presentation. Now write down answers to:

1. Who was in the audience? What motivates them? (2 mins)
2. How did my presentation connect directly to their interests and motivations? (1 min)
3. What did I achieve? What is the audience going to repeat from my presentation? How will they answer “What did you just learn?” (1 min)

These answers determine your purpose. They show your “audience-specific objective.” Know who you’re talking to and how to connect their needs to your goals.

Get Darwinian
Back to your slides. Delete or hide any that do not support your audience-specific objective. (2 mins) (If you MUST, promise you will click swiftly through with little comment. If knowing it’s there makes you calmer, well, calmer is better.)

Reorder
Start and end the presentation with your big idea expressed as “what’s in it for them.” Tie it to your audience’s interests and motivations. At the end of the presentation, connect your big idea to what you want to achieve. Your presentation should start something. It should stimulate an active response from the audience. (2 mins)

Extra time? Arrange your entire deck to build up the case for your big idea. Illustrate with simple stories. Sort concepts and stories into coherent sections and use clear transitions between them. Find a sequence brings the audience to your conclusions.

Lightning Round
Race through your presentation using no more than one sentence to explain each slide. Take no more than five seconds per slide. State the point in just one short remark. If you can’t, kill the slide. If you can’t kill it, “maim” it until it has a point. (2 mins)

Extra time? Go through the presentation several times in “lightning round” mode, and do significant edits between rounds. Work in teams to collaborate on the best “main points” of the presentation.

Come see this in action. Join me on ooVoo (sign up at www.MyOovooDay.com/signup.php) at 4 PM on 2/12, 2/14, 2/19 or 2/21. We’ll experiment with the ooVoo videoconferencing software (download required) by discussing how to use this fire drill. The seminar is FREE and benefits the Frozen Pea Fund.

I use the word “slide” in this drill. Most formal presentations still use slideware. They DO NOT have to. If yours does not (YAY!), substitute “paragraph” “supporting point” “story” “example” to best suit your presentation.

Whether you’re DEMOing or watching, some links and key ideas for pitching.
***UPDATE: WebInno presenters and attendees, this means you too!***

Stay within the six minutes by focusing on what’s most exciting to THEM and by ending with what you want them to DO. Don’t try to show or tell all you possibly can. It’s never about tonnage. It’s about leverage. It’s the compelling core idea.

What is the point of being at DEMO? What is the ACTION you could stimulate? What do you want the audience (both there and remote) to actually DO when you finish? (stuff like: try out the product, tell someone else about it, blog that it’s a great thing, whatever…) Have a clear objective.

For those about to pitch, we salute you:

10 pitching rules to break
10 tips for pitching
Body language cheat sheet
Nail the “ah-ha moment”
Name who you help & how
Who & how part 2
Apply the “which means that” razor

• Think about the audience’s motivations, needs and interests. Connect and resonate with these needs when you demo.
• The pitch itself is never the ends (I did “great,” but so what?). It’s a business tool. To accomplish something.
• Focus on what you want to accomplish, and have a clean ending that leaves that thought in their heads, preferably 20-30 seconds BEFORE time is up, so your last words can settle in.
• Maybe the goal is to get them to come to you for a full product demo. Tell them that. Say “come to me for a full product demo.” If your 6 minute pitch touches a nerve with their interests and motivations, they will. But don’t leave it to chance.
• Don’t think that just by showing them “interesting” and “exciting” and “good enough,” they will figure out what they should do next to engage with the idea.

If you only have time to read one post, this one’s lightning fast and universally useful.

SCORECARD: Using the ideas above, tell us how DEMO pitches you saw stacked up. Who left money on the table? Who swatted it out of the park? What one thing would have made the most difference across many pitches? You can use the top 10 lists as “scorecards.”

(Inspired by Twittering with @loiclemeur this morning.)

Need better body language fast? Walk, smile and care.

Mastering presentation body language gets confusing fast. It takes time learn effective body language and eliminate “wrong” messages. Overused body language “tricks” ring false and irritate your audience. So here are three simple ways to dramatically improve your body language – fast.

Walk…
Take a hike! Practice relaxing your walk. Head up, shoulders back and relaxed, breathing deeply and walking with confidence and purpose. Try to lead with your sternum or collarbones. Practice by simply going for walks. Occasionally “scan” your body for relaxation, paying attention to how you feel and where you hold tension.

Smile…
Even if you’re not feeling it, put a genuine smile on your face. You will relax and engage your audience better. With a real smile – not a forced one – a lot of other better body language will follow.

Care…
You’re talking to someone, a lot like you would if you were simply sitting together. They matter to you. A lot. Show them you care about the experience they are having. Look at them, talk to them. Using the right gestures and posture can be effective, but avoid “tricks.” If you wouldn’t do it in conversation, you probably shouldn’t while presenting.

Walk. Smile. Care. Got it? Great. Have a nice day.

UPDATE: What are your favorite tips for better body language? Tell us in the comments!

Rick Segal spotted this gem by Stanley Bing.

Marc Andressen continues to thwack it out of the park with a few more thought-provoking entries on VC:

The PMarca Guide to Startups, part I: Why NOT to do a startup

Navigating an asteroid field is evidently quite tricky.

But seriously, you have to be ok with the overwhelming likelihood of failure. Not because anyone’s mean or against you. Not because it can’t be done. But because the odds are (again) overwhelmingly against you. If you know that and it’s still crucial to go for it, have at it.

For all the successful tech companies that made bazillions, there are bazillions who made nothing. Call it the long tail of startup failure. It happens everywhere: professional sports (sure Pedro makes ga-millions, but ga-millions of players never even make the minors), real estate investing (don’t get me started about “experts” who make all their money teaching others. If real estate’s so easy, why not teach others for a small cut of what they earn, instead of cash upfront? Some will make a lot, many will make nothing or lose money), network marketing, etc. etc. etc.

I ‘m not saying don’t try, I’m saying don’t be a dumbass naive about what you try to do.

The PMarca Guide to Startups, part II: When the VCs say “no”

ROTFL:

Being told “no” by VCs in 1999 is a lot different than being told “no” in 2002.

If you were told “no” in 1999, I’m sure you’re a wonderful person and you have huge potential and your mother loves you very much, but your plan really was seriously flawed.

If the layers of an onion are the layers of risk for your newco:

The whole theory of venture capital is that VCs are investing in risk — another term for venture capital is “risk capital” — but the reality is that VCs will only take on so much risk, and the best thing you can do to optimize your chances of raising money is to take out risk.

Peel away at the onion.

It can be difficult. It can sting. It can even make you cry.

Bonus: Also funny (from a link embedded in PMarca Part I)

Attention (non-stealth) startups! Go check out Vator.TV (”the YouTube for entrepreneurs”) and then start working on a pitch for it. Is the Angel you dream of going to find you this way and end all your money problems? Yeah, right. But even if nobody ever *found* you there, this is a great chance to nail your pitch.

1. Keep it short and rock their interest (read yesterday’s post and especially the Update #2 link!).

2. Once your pitch is up, send links to interested people for some quick 411 on your deal.

3. Take a good look at what is already on the site, especially in your “space,” to get tight on what works and what does not.

4. Tag your post well so it gets FOUND.

5. Do NOT let your post go stale. When your pitch gets better, re-post, and continue to improve.

BONUS: Send advisors, investors, mom, etc. the link to your pitch and ask them for feedback!

Tip o’ the pitch podium to Tony Hung of DJI

While you have their attention, get to the point. The “ah-ha” moment. Connect them with what you’re doing and why it matters, preferably on an emotional or visceral level.The winner of a May Entrepreneur Idol pitching contest at Stanford swats it out of the park:

Linus Liang, 25, a first-year graduate student in computer science, held up a diapered baby doll. “What if I could tell you how you can save 4 million babies a year?” he asked.

Liang’s idea is to create “a low-cost incubator that could help infants in developing countries.” But put that way, how much of your attention does it grab? How motivated are you to learn more? Is that easy to grasp and file away in your memory? Do you already have opinions and emotional buy-in around low-cost incubators in developing countries, or do they just sound like they would probably be a good thing?

What about saving babies? Better yet, millions of them.

That answers “what’s in it for me” and gets right to the benefits, it connects something we know nothing about (low cost incubators) to something we value highly (saving babies), it contains an easily understood problem statement (babies are dying), and it’s all supported by a clear visual aid, the baby doll.

I saw a startup pitch a technology to “fine tune” chemotherapy — and minimize its harmful side effects — a couple of years ago. Their grabber? A young mother who beat Breast Cancer only to die because chemo destroyed her heart. That entrepreneur didn’t have to waste pitching minutes convincing us that chemo needs to be fine-tuned.

The “Rule of Thumb” (ROT) goes: you get a 30 second “free ride” of audience attention. How are you using it?

UPDATE: You really can help save babies today, please support the March of Dimes be a hero for babies…

UPDATE 2: The Google Reader Oracle coughed up this gem on pitching, via Seth Levine’s VC Adventure blog.

Going after VC? “Must-read” posts from Attorney/former VC Suzie Dingwall Williams at Venture Law Lines and Rick Segal at Post Money Value:

Why VCs Take Meetings; The “Great Meeting” With Money

Why’d you get the meeting? Fine-tune your objective, and ergo, your pitch.

Notice how little they talk about your company’s story, and how much they talk about your audience. Be smart about this to use even throwaway “favor” meetings to your advantage (or to skip un-strategic ones). Suzie:

Many of these meetings resulted in longer term relationships, even if our interest was not in making an investment. Good business development? Yes. But a useful part of your search for near term money? Probably not.

Rick’s gem:

Prepare, practice, rinse -n- repeat. And here’s a tip if you really want to do extra credit homework: Speak to people who have pitched and gotten a formal no. Ask them about the experience as that data is even more telling then the funded CEO who is (duh) singing the high praises of the VC firm.

Both Rick and Suzie will talk VC Pitching at MESH tomorrow. Watch this space for more…

“Rehearsal Video” Videotape yourself practicing your next high stakes presentation. Now, watch it 3 times:

• Normal speed, normal volume
• Normal speed, no volume
• Fast Forward

Normal speed, normal volume: First, stop hating yourself. No, really, everyone thinks they sound and look weird, let it go. Do you think you got your ideas across? Good start. Do you think you meant business? Hmmm. Watch the video with someone else. Do they agree?

Normal speed, no volume: What story is your body telling? Does your movement have purpose? Do your gestures ADD to what you are doing, or distract?

Fast Forward: Who doesn’t love Benny Hill? It’s kind of fun to watch this way. But if FF elicits too many laughs, do you need to alter movements/gestures? “Funny” how glaring your quirks are, viewed like this. Watch for nervous movement, movement without a point and distracting gestures, all of which will jump out at you even better on FF.

“Performance Video” Videotape yourself speaking every chance you get. Get used to watching and learning from these tapes. Enlist a friend’s help, and ask them to write down:

• What they think you were trying to achieve
• What they can guess about who you were talking to
• Your 3 most important points
• Something you did well
• Something to improve

Well, how did you do?

Even if you don’t get up the nerve to view these recordings right away, keep at least a tape a year to review your progress.

Scott at Presentation Revolution offers this very true-funny post:

“…after four years we still have not seen a drastic change in the way presentations are built, designed, and delivered today. The bottom line: most presenters are insane…

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

Now, I love what Ethos3 is doing. Meet Henry is brilliant. AND, I do enjoy this post about insanity.

BUT (Yeah you saw that coming. Sorry Scott.)

To play devil’s advocate, why WOULD there be drastic change on the whole? We’ve been mediocre at presentations for millenia. Cicero, Carnegie, lots of smart folks been chipping away at it. Same for how people overall put together memos, writings, music… Drastic improvements don’t follow just because we realize things matter, or even how to improve them. Some can, and do, make drastic improvements, but overall?

As much as communicating well matters, it’s just one thing successful people need to be good at. Presentations “built, designed and delivered” by individuals probably won’t get drastically better anymore than emails will on the whole improve. Or fitness. Or personal finance. The many who know what they *should* do, don’t. And most books on the topic offer little beyond formulaic “rules” and tricks.

When it really really matters, well, that’s when Scott and I earn our keep. We help people do their jobs better by communicating effectively.

Now, if an individual kept schlepping into meetings with the same awful slides and never understood why they weren’t making progress, sure. Insane. If an organization could not break through its “sliditis”-dependent tendencies, well… ok, maybe a lot of large organizations are pretty insane.

All this said, YES, a thousand times, I wish everyday presentations were evolving faster. But I do think the major presentations, the big conferences, we have seen some pretty cool stuff. We just gotta keep plugging away at it and showing where excellence can take us.