60 Second Presentation Formula for Business Networking

Most networking event nowadays include (to some) the dreaded ’60 Second Pitch’. This is a crucial aspect of making that ever-so-important first impression and hook with your audience. Here’s a short formula for success in 60 seconds:

What do you want to do?

The 60 second presentation for some is a daunting task. For others, not so daunting but a lack of structure means that even the most confident of speakers can veer off down the track and refrain from giving a message that hits the proverbial ‘nail on the head’. Make no mistake, this ‘communication’ IS a sales pitch for you and your business. That snapshot in time (or longer for those who stray into 1 minute plus land) is critical to allow those in the room to make a number of ‘decisions’.

Bananarama

Firstly – was that performance any good? “It ain’t what you do it’s the way that you do it and that’s what gets results.” I never thought that an 80’s pop band would have such resonance in business but that quote is SO true. How you ‘deliver’ the message is a crucial part of this communication. With only 7% (ish) of your overall communication being the words, how important is it to pay attention to what you are doing whilst you are saying your stuff! Holding onto the back of the chair, hands behind your back like a copper or looking down just doesn’t do you any favours. Instead, stand up straight, chin up, feet shoulder width apart and hands held around the midriff does the trick!

FAB

No, not the 80’s lolly but Features, Advantages and Benefits. What you do, the difference between you and another business in your field and the benefit/value you offer or headache you remove as a result of your product or service is paramount to the success of the ‘content’ delivered.To think that saying who you are, who you work for and where you are based is enough to leave the audience thinking, “OK, I want to do business with the person saying this,” is a bit lacklustre. People are intersted in ‘gain, value and emotion’. So highlight these factors in your pitch!

Our customers say that, “…………”

If you are looking for an outlet to let others know how great your product or service is because you feel that it is unruly to make those claims yourself, use a “quotation” language pattern. It might even be deemed by others to be a bit OTT for YOU to come out and say, “Our service is the best,” or, “We offer great service,” so take away that challenge and utilise this quotation language pattern to illustrate that it was one of your customers who said it. Some of our customers say, “we offer a great service,” – same message, directed now from your customer, not you.

Finally, Analogue Marking – Eh?

That’s right, analogue marking! This is a tool to highlight the juicy parts of your presentation i.e. the value you add and the important words that resonate with your audience once you use a marker. When it comes to the benefits, use a ‘gesture’ such as a hand movement or nod or otherwise, to mark out that word. The effect is like putting the word in italics and it highlights it to your audience. You can also mark by using your voice tone. Have a go!

They’re all looking at you……..so look back!

Finally, address your audience. Look at them, maintain eye contact and if you can’t do that, just concentrate on looking above everyone’s hairline. At least it will look, from their perspective, that you are looking right at ’em! So go on – Practice, Practice, Practice and start to deliver that message in the way you want to and ‘hit the nail on the head’ every time.

Nick Hill is Managing Director at Binary Vision NLP

nickhill (at) binaryvision (dash) nlp (dot) com www.binaryvision-nlp.com

—————————————————————————-

If you enjoyed this article, please consider leaving a comment or sharing it with your followers on Twitter/Facebook etc. To subscribe to hillrichblog please enter your details in the box on the top right hand side of this page.

Leave a comment