Don't waste the prime time

Make the most of the 30 seconds at the start and the end of the presentation to greatly increase the audience engagement and impact.

Not doing so is one of the frequent mistakes I see in business presentations.?

People squander the opportunity at both the start and the end of their presentation or pitch telling the audience what they already know. A couple of classics:?

At the start: “My name is <name> and I’m here today to talk about <title of presentation>”

At the end: “That’s the end of the presentation, I’m happy to answer any questions.”

They know. They read the agenda, accepted the meeting, and this is the 1824th presentation they’ve endured in their career, so they know the 'asking questions' paradigm. Following the same boring format to most of the last 1823 presentations in the first 30 seconds sends most of their brains into standby mode for the duration and you’ll be lucky if they remember they were there, let alone the core message. That's why you need to tell them it's finished at the end to wake them back up.

Don’t feel bad that you’ve done this many times; we all have. But there is a better way.

At the start, deliver a polished, practised and impactful statement, phrase or question that succinctly and directly communicates your core message. You can alternatively use something that alludes to the problem you’re planning to address or something related to the core message that will shock and grab attention, but it’s often most impactful to just hit the core message directly.?

At the end, finish with a polished, practised and impactful statement, phrase or question that succinctly and effectively reiterates your core message. This can be exactly the same as the opener if you wish to use the power of repetition, but often it is different; backing up the opener and, where appropriate, creating a call to action for the audience to do what you want them to with the information you’ve shared.?

As an example for the opener, from this post: “Make the most of the 30 seconds at the start and the end of the presentation to greatly increase the audience engagement and impact.”

It would be remiss of me if I didn’t end the post with an example of a snappy call to action.?

It may feel uncomfortable at first, but make this change and start presenting like a pro.?

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This content by James Carter is licensed under CC BY 4.0