How Do You Create a Memorable Presentation?
By Diana Kander – Entrepreneur, Author, and Speaker on Innovation
Psychologists have long understood that we forget about 50 percent of new information within an hour of hearing it. That goes up to 70 percent within twenty-four hours and 90 percent after a week.
This is a death sentence for most B2B (or as some call them, “Boring to Boring”) presentations, because by the time your potential client has met with all the vendors and is ready to make a decision, they’ve already forgotten most of the compelling arguments you made.
Fortunately, the rate at which our prospects forget can be significantly influenced by the amount of emotion we can trigger in our pitch.
This explains why you have such vivid memories of every part of September 11, 2001, and why you can remember the weather on your wedding day, but you have no idea what happened on August 11, 2001, and you likely don’t remember the weather just one month ago.
The higher the emotional peak, the deeper a memory will sear into our brains.
A lot of professionals talk about how they want the audience to feel at the end of a presentation. But none of us “feel” anything for more than a few seconds.
I believe that you should literally map out the emotional moments of the presentation like the below chart.
And if you can’t quite tell when your emotional peaks take place, then you probably don’t have any.
The question you should stop asking is, “How do I want them to feel?” and instead ask “When will they feel the emotional peaks of my presentation?”
Ok, you might be thinking. That question is well and good, but how do I actually create those peaks? That might take a bit more than an email to explain. In fact, I’ve written an entire book outlining 5 different tools you can use in a presentation to create memorable moments.
Diana Kander revolutionizes the way businesses look at innovation and curiosity. A New York Times best-selling author, innovation consultant and keynote speaker, she asks some big questions.
Diana has spent her career challenging assumptions and asking thought-provoking questions. A serial entrepreneur who entered the United States as a refugee at the age of 8, she has launched and sold millions of dollars worth of products and services. She outlined her biggest lessons learned for launching new products in her first book, All In Startup, which has been used by over 100 universities in their innovation courses and countless large organizations to help their employees think more like entrepreneurs. A former MBA professor at Mizzou, she has served as an entrepreneur in residence at H&R Block, Commerce Bank and several government agencies.
To learn more about Diana Kander contact [email protected]
Derek Sweeney is the Director of Speaker Ideas at The Sweeney Agency www.thesweeneyagency.com. For 15 years Derek has been helping clients find the right Speakers for their events. Derek can be reached at 1-866-727-7555 or [email protected]