The introduction is one of the most important parts of any presentation. A good introduction will explain to the audience why you are speaking to them, establish your credibility, and inspire them to listen.
The first rule of introductions is- don’t wait until you are in front of the audience to introduce yourself.
Arrive at the venue early and engage audience members as they enter the room.
There is rarely enough time for more than a 2-minute exchange. However, using that time to get to know the people you will be speaking to will set your presentation up for success. This early introduction serves as a classic ice breaker. First, you can familiarize yourself with audience members and also get them interested in what you are presenting. Second, you can find out something about each person you talk to, this adds a personal touch to your presentation, allows you to gain insight into the audience, and focuses attention on them.
Remember, people like to talk about themselves, so the more you focus on them, the more interested they will be in you and your presentation. Also, by meeting people early you will be able to recognize a few friendly faces in the crowd during the presentation, which has the benefit of helping to calm your nerves.
Lastly, this gives you one last opportunity to identify and/or confirm objectives. Ideally, you have gained enough information during your pre-work to clearly identify the needs and objectives of the people in the room. If this is the case, you should ask a few questions to confirm that the objectives you plan to focus on are still current. For example, “I understand that your team is looking for a new process that results in less warranty issues, is that correct?”
If you were unable to properly identify objectives during the research phase, this is your second chance. Ask a few open-ended questions as you introduce yourself to people, and before the presentation begins. For example, you may simply ask, “What are you hoping to get out of today’s presentation?” Although you won’t be able to change the content of your presentation, you can change how it is delivered and add information relevant to the new found objective(s).
As part of the introduction, your first goal should be to set the stage for the audience by explaining why you are presenting.
Explain why you are there
Most likely, you were invited to speak by an audience member. Begin by explaining who invited you to speak and why. For example, I was recently asked by a colleague to present best practices on using LinkedIn. He regularly asks for advice on using the social media tool for marketing. After several months of advice giving, he asked if I would share my insight with his team via a lunch presentation. It is that background that I gave the audience at the beginning of the presentation. Sharing information on how you got to be standing in front of them creates a commonality between you and the audience. Specifically, when you explain to the audience that Steve invited you to speak on the topic of LinkedIn marketing because your advice to him has helped his business, the audience, who likely knows Steve, sees that Steve is the link between them and your presentation. Following that same thought pattern, if Steve respects you enough to ask you to speak to the group, and they respect Steve, they subconsciously begin to respect you. This sets the stage for your relationship with the audience.
Once you have started to earn the audience’s respect you need to establish yourself as a knowledgeable professional on the topic you are presenting.
Establish your expertise
For example, start by telling the audience your name and background. For example, when speaking on a technical topic, I typically begin by telling the audience I am a geotechnical engineer with a master’s degree. I continue by explaining my role at the company and how many years I have been working in the industry. This both gives the audience some insight into me as a person, and continues the process of developing rapport between us.
While you don’t want to present yourself as arrogant, be aware not to humble yourself. People are in the audience to meet you and learn from your presentation. Because you are standing in front of them, they are more likely to believe you are more of an expert than they are on the topic. Therefore, if you say something like, “I’m not an expert in automotive parts”, but then continue to present automotive parts, you are likely to lose the audience in the first few minutes.
The line between presenting yourself as humble or arrogant can be fine. However, to be successful, you need to walk it. The best way that I have learned to do this is to have confidence that you are sharing information that you are an expert in and that it is valuable to the audience. At the same time, remember that each person in the audience is an expert in something else. This exercise helps you to not talk down to your audience while allowing you to build or maintain your own confidence in the subject matter you are speaking on.
It isn’t enough, however, to explain your why you are there and tell them about your expertise on the presentation topic. You need to engage them.
Inspire them to listen
Now that the audience is feeling more comfortable with you, inspire them to listen. I recommend that you share your why with the audience. On a side note, if you haven’t developed your why, grab Simon Sinek’s book, “Start with Why,” and start working on it. Your why is the reason you do what you do. There are two reasons to include your why. First, by definition, your why inspires you. By repeating your why aloud, you will be more positive and confident simply because you just reminded yourself why you are there. Second, you continue to build a relationship with the audience. The more a person can relate to you and feels that they know you, the more apt they are to like you. By sharing your why, you capture the part of the audience that relates to your why, and open yourself to the audience by providing insight into you as a person.
One of the benefits of introducing yourself to audience members as they enter the room is that you can relate your why to one or more parts of your early conversation. For example, I enjoy helping people, planning, and solving problems. At a recent presentation, a few people shared their upcoming vacation plans with me. I used this to generate a more meaningful why to that audience by saying, “On the way in, Patrick was telling me about his frustrations in booking a trip to the Bahamas. I have always loved planning and helping people solve problems. In fact, I just organized a trip for 10 of my friends to Panama because I love problem solving in my personal life just as much as my professional life. Although I’m not here to plan your vacation, I’m going to present a few solutions that may help you in your business so your next vacation is more relaxing.” Although short, this introduction gives your audience insight into you as a person and gives them insight into your why.
At this point, you’ve successfully established the connection between you and the audience, and explained why you are there. Now you need to lay-out the logistics of the presentation. A guide to letting the audience know what to expect will be presented in the next blog.
