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A lot of people have no fear of standing up in public and making a presentation.
They have all the self confidence that it takes, and they have been doing it for so long that they tend to pour scorn on those who quake at the knees at the very thought. However it may not necessarily mean that an experienced presenter has nothing new to learn. And if your are one of these people who will have to face up to the challenges of making a presentation in the near future, here are a few tips on how to make a presentation that works.

1. How to prepare the content.

Before you enter into the line of fire, be it for the first time or the 500th, the presenter needs to do research. Not just on the material to be presented. Not just on how it should be presented. Not just on the audience that it will be presented to. But all of them together. A novice presenter should try to imagine himself as a member of the audience, and feel how the presentation should be made.

They should be well aware of which multimedia program they will be using as an aid, and how it operates. Making a few trial runs before an objective audience to iron out any potential glitches will only increase the presenter’s confidence in facing the real thing.

2. How to present the content

The thing that many “experienced “presenters will tend to forget in time, is to differentiate between a presentation and a speech. He or she may be the wittiest and most original speaker, but if they leave their audience laughing, but asking themselves, “what exactly were they trying to tell us”, and then nothing has been achieved. On the other hand, a scenario that is almost as dry as the Sahara Desert is when the presentation evolves from an often extremely lengthy prepared document. They can stand there for what seems like an eternity, but in reality is only 20 minutes, droning on in a dull monotone. In many cases these speakers will be speaking in a language that is not their native one. To add a little color to the proceedings, they might add in a few slides, which may well be upside down.

The ideal presentation is when the speaker combines an interesting but short lecture backed up by a PowerPoint presentation to emphasize their points. They will know or will have learned that audiences as a rule do not necessarily take notes at presentations. Therefore the professional presenter will have made sure that each member of the audience will have received the presentation in a printed or digital format. This will allow the content to be reviewed any time in the future.
This formula of presentation stands the best chance of meeting the approval of the audience, and being remembered positively.

3. How to wind up the presentation.

Assuming that the presenter has learned the first two steps inside out, and is now standing in front of an audience that will now be eating out of the presenter’s hand. This is the time that a successful presentation should be wound down. The best way to do that is to invite a few questions from the audience. This can continue for a few minutes, until everyone in the audience has had enough, and are ready to move on to the next speaker. The presenter can move unobtrusively behind the scenes, and give themselves a pat on the back.

All the hard work, thought and preparation that went into a preparation that works has been worthwhile!

I’ve addressed hundreds of thousands of objections over the course of my negotiation career. Objections should be addressed with the mindset of information gathered about the party with whom you’re negotiating; that includes silent partners that are not at the negotiation table, foils that might be aligned with your negotiation opponent to perform nefarious functions, the demeanor of the negotiator(s), and the culture of the negotiator’s organization. Such insights, along with reading one’s body language, will lend credence to the validity and viability of the person making objections during a negotiation. That, in turn, will allow you to discern how important an objection is, versus it being a possible ploy, created to distract you from something that is more beneficial to your position.

Handling Objections:

Before addressing objections, always be aware of the attempts of others on the opposing negotiator’s team to hype them; remember, these attempts could stem from people that are not at the negotiation table. Hyping objections can be in the form of giving them the appearance of being more valuable or dire than they are, for the purpose of gaining insight into how you might react to such attempts. Keeping that in mind, follow the steps below when addressing objections in your negotiations.

1. When the first objection is posed, assess its veracity to determine if you should address it at all. If the other negotiator insists upon having it addressed, note his body language before proceeding to the next step. In particular, you should observe if he looks directly at you with a smile or scowl, if he looks through you as though he’s in a daze, or if he makes such a request in a timid manner. In all such cases, appraise the degree to which any of these gestures might be ploys.

a.) Looking directly at you is a sign that he’s focused. A smile can indicate that he wants to convey a friendly/casual perspective. A scowl may be an indication of a more serious projection and/or one to set the stage to take his request more seriously.

b.) Looking through you in a daze could imply that his mind is somewhere else and the fact that he’s testing you as a ploy.

c.) Making the request in a timid manner could belie the fact that he doesn’t possess a strong demeanor. He might also be examine you to see if you’ll attempt to take advantage of his docile demeanor.

2. Ask the other negotiator to cite all of his objections. Your goal is to get them out in the open. Do this by requesting what else he’s concerned about. If warranted, have him detail why he thinks his objections are valid. Observe hidden insights gleaned from his body language and nonverbal signals, as mentioned in step 1. By doing this, you’ll gain a sense of direction he has for the negotiation.

3. Once you’ve garnered enough insights about the purpose and value he has for citing his objections, have him prioritize them. Then, address one that’s lower on his priority list to see if that has more weight than disclosed. Couple this tactic with the outcome you seek for the negotiation. Continue this process to the successful conclusion of the negotiation.

In any negotiation, you should know what you’re dealing with before you attempt to deal with it. Such is the case when dealing with objections. Thus, by implementing the suggestions above, you’ll be better positioned to keep in check those objections intended to dissuade your attention from what’s more important. That, in turn, will allow you to be more laser focused on addressing the real objections that will impact the negotiation… and everything will be right with the world.

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

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