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EFFECTIVE
OPENINGS |
| To make an effective presentation, it is important to get your audience interested in the first three minutes of your presentation. You need to hook your audience and cause them to pay attention to you. (This is not as important when the presentation is a sales meeting with customers who are interested in your products.) There are three ways to make an effective opening: |
| 1. | Give your listeners a problem to think about? |
| 2. | Give them some amazing facts. |
| 3. | Give them a story or some personal experience. |
| Examples: | |
A
PROBLEM |
|
| 1. | Suppose your company lost 30% of its customer base over a three-month period because a competitor introduced a new product with some new exciting features. How would you respond to this situation? |
| 2. | How many of you have ever had trouble remembering words? Just about everyone, right? Well, imagine a small machine that can read your mind. When you think of a Chinese word or phrase, the machine will wirelessly transfer the correct English word or phrase to your mind. Do you think that’s possible? |
AMAZING
FACTS |
|
| 3. |
According to a new study, the virus causing the bird flu sweeping Asia actually started in China over one year ago. An ineffective vaccine was given to chickens. Thinking the chickens were healthy, chicken farmers exported their chickens throughout Asia for a year without knowing that many of them carried the bird flu virus. |
| 4. | Statistics show that 1 in every 4 Americans have appeared on television and 85% of couples who lose a child (through an accident or a health problem) get divorced. |
A
STORY |
|
| 5. | You may have heard about the 16-year-old girl from Russia who has the ability to "see" broken bones or other medical problems inside people’s bodies without the help of any instrument. |
| 6. | Have you ever been in a situation where you wanted to change some personal habit or some physical characteristic? I remember when I was 40 years old and still weighed 50 kgs and wanted to gain weight. A psychic (fortune-teller) told me to talk to the cells in my body before every meal and ask them to hold on to my food longer after I ate. I did it for six months and it turned out that at the end of six months I had gained 6 kgs. - the first weight I had gained since high school. (This is a true story.) |
| PROBLEM TECHNIQUE | |
| 1. | Suppose . . . . How would you . . . ? |
| 2. | Have you ever wondered why it is that . . . ? You have? Well, if I could show you . . . would you be interested? |
| 3. | How many of you have ever . . . ? Do you think that's possible? |
AMAZING
FACTS TECHNIQUE |
|
| 1. | Did you know that . . . ? |
| 2. | According to a new study . . . . |
| 3. | Statistics show that . . . . |
| 4. | I read somewhere the other day that . . . . |
| STORY
/ ANECDOTE TECHNIQUE |
|
| 1. | You may have heard about . . . . |
| 2. | Have you ever been in a situation where . . . ? I remember when . . . . It turned out that . . . . |