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Don’t flunk the “Taxi Test”
What is the Taxi Test? It's a test you apply to the headlines on your slide deck before you send it out. The question you are asking yourself: If someone only reads the headlines on your slides, will they still understand what you are proposing and why? Imagine that...
“I need business English” is a dangerous phrase
Why? Because it leads to way too much unfocused effort and time wasting. You're going to waste your time learning how to set meetings and talk to receptionists. I don't mean to malign receptionists, they are great people and the world needs them. But you have an...
The point
In this episode of The White Rabbit podcast... https://open.spotify.com/episode/1cn5bJITDjfxZBOjUeJoSE?si=708e2514c8354bef ...Alper makes an interesting point, that the value of a presentation is not in convincing people to support you, it's in reassuring your...
The right questions
99% of my clients are not native speakers of English. (Fun fact: Did you know that, by far, most speakers of English are not native speakers of English?) And, quite dependably, every single one of those clients asks at some point, "How is my English," or some other...
Stalk the board
This is a great article, it made me so excited and I jumped for joy many times upon reading it! One of my favorite points it makes: Know the board members. Not on average. Every. Single. One. They're all different. I call it "stalk the board"...
RFP presentation tip #2
The second step in our series is to reduce your ahh count. It's much easier to listen to somebody who is not saying "uh" all the time. Let me give you an example. Option 1: I, um, went, um, to the, um, store. Option 2: I went to the store. Read them out loud. Compare...
People are like dogs
If you stare at one long enough, it'll attack. Screen-based teleprompters are great. They allow you to read a script while looking at, or at least appearing to look at, the camera. But don't fall in love with your teleprompter so much that you forget to break eye...
Aspect ratios
"The aspect ratio is off."Said no one in your audience, ever. They probably aren't sitting there thinking, the aspect ratio is off, I don't like this guy.But they might be sitting there thinking, I don't know what it is, but something is off. Maybe it's the color...
RFP presentation tip #3
Make mirror neurons work for you. What are mirror neurons? Basically, it’s that humans tend to do what other humans are doing. You know how if you’re at a party talking to someone, and they are smiling, you’ll smile too, even though you’re not sure why you’re smiling?...
RFP presentation tip #4
Use vivid language. Use words loaded with color. Emotion. Sound. Why? If you use dead or uncolorful words, then when your audience leaves the room, they're going to forget what you said. They're going to forget you. And when you're giving a pitch presentation, being...