#9: Where’s the Action?

I’M SURE YOU’VE BEEN THERE — a party, a concert,  even a meeting where you came in with great expectations . . . and left with a vague sense of dissatisfaction.

There could be a lot of reasons for that at a party or concert — the band sucked, somebody you’d hoped to meet didn’t show up, there were toooo many people, etc. When it comes to presentations, the fault invariably comes down to the presenter.

We’ve talked at length about how not to suck as a presenter, but we’re going to cover new territory in this, the 9th exercise in our 10-part series on how to be more effective and compelling in your presentations.

And it’s a big one. Big on opportunity, big on impact, and pretty much missed by a big number of presenters. We call it the Action step, and it’s more than just the standard call-to-action.

The Action step frames where you are — actually, where your audience or prospects are — and where you want to lead them. It’s absolutely critical to give them an idea of what you want them to do or how you want them to act. And this applies even if you’re not selling tangible goods or services. Every presentation is a chance to influence people’s ideas and behaviors, so even the most basic of presentations should have some type of action that you want people to take.

And if you are selling tangible goods or services, you definitely want to apply this Action step. Too many just say — and display — “Any Questions?” but what a waste of an opportunity to move things forward.

Here are the main parts of the Action step (and your tasks for this exercise):

[1] Review What’s-In-It-For-Them
It’s amazing how many presenters ignore this or mention it only in passing. But it’s incredibly powerful to review with your audience why they should care about what you’ve been discussing with them.
        And to help you in your preparations, do this ONE EASY THING: write it down on paper. Write it down so you can see it, hold it, carry it around with you, whatever. And make it only one sentence long. This needs to be concise, so that your audience — and you — can easily remember it.

[2] Outline 3-4 next steps or actions
You’ll help your case immeasurably if you give them three or four steps in your progression. It shows them a path to the desired end. There might be more than three or four steps — hell, there could be 20 — but you should be able to compress or combine a number of elements into those three or four.
        In fact, you can talk about as many steps as you like (provided you’re not putting them to sleep), but only put three or four on a slide. More than that will start to muddle things for your audience (not a good result).

[3] Make the first step EASY
This is the secret part and it comes courtesy of Robert Cialdini’s Principles of Persuasion. According to the principle of Consistency, if someone takes even the smallest action on your behalf, they are much more likely to agree to additional requests, even when those requests involve more work or further commitment.
        In other words, getting them to take one small action makes them more inclined to continue to act on your behalf or toward the goal that you’ve charted for them. And “easy” can be something as simple as making a phone call or sending you a key piece of information.

So, what simple action can you have them take? And what comes next? And after that? Be clear and concise (with, of course, a compelling payoff), and they’ll definitely stay engaged and moving forward.

<note>
To see the other parts of this series, find the heading EXERCISES in right column of The YouBlog. It’s between “Recent Posts” and “Categories”. You can do them in any order you like.