What strategy can you use to capture your audiences attention in your introduction?

Hosting a successful conference call can be difficult. The introduction sets the pace and tone of your whole presentation. If you can grab the attention of your audience at the beginning of your presentation, you have a far better chance of getting your entire message into their heads.

Use any one of these hooks for your introduction and you will have a leg up on keeping the attention of your audience during your speech or presentation.

Ask A Question

Posing a question that your audience wants answered is a great way to capture attention. This is captivating when you ask a question that then gets answered at the end of your presentation. Remember the news segues before a commercial? “What are 3 things in your household that could be killing you right now? More after the break”.

Make the Familiar Unexpected

One way jokes can be funny is by taking advantage of the unexpected. You can too. When we humans spot something that doesn’t fit with what we think is a normal pattern, we pay attention. Getting a few laughs from your audience with this method can also help boost the energy level of your audience. Depending on your subject material, you can make a statement that is not what the audience was expecting. For example, a horse walks into a bar and the bartender asks, “Why the long Face?”.

Tell a Personal Story

Introduce yourself with something about who you are. Tell about how you got into the work you are in now. What led you to speaking in front of people? People have been telling and hearing stories since, well, forever. It's part of who we are, and when we hear a story, we will sit up and pay attention to it.

Audience Participation

Asking your audience a question and then letting them answer will not only help get attention up, but also give you an idea on where everyone stands with the subject material. You can start off by asking a few questions about your material and getting answers by a show of hands. Use polling software if you are hosting a conference call.

You can use any or all of the above to make an impact on your audience at the start of your presentation. An audience that is paying attention to you at the beginning will stay with you until the end. Asking a question, making the familiar unexpected, telling a story, and getting your audience to participate are four simple ways to jump start your next speaking engagement.

About the Author: David Byrd is the VP of Ops at AccuConference. David co-wrote Lessons from the Bored Room: How to avoid meeting monotony, be a better speaker, and make your communication sing with Maranda Gibson.

You’ve just been introduced, the crowd is clapping, and you’re heading up to the podium. For hours, they’ve been PowerPointed to death, and now it’s nearly lunch. You’ve only got a moment to make an impression – how do you capture your audience?

That’s the situation that Kare Anderson, a former Emmy-winning journalist for NBC and the Wall Street Journal, confronts regularly. A co-founder of the Say It Better Center, Anderson is a public speaker and consultant on how people can improve their quotability and collaboration. Here are four audience-grabbing techniques she shared with me in a recent interview.

1. Be specific sooner. No one is rooting for you to fail. The audience wants to be edified and entertained. But sometimes we make it almost impossible for them by going into corporate speak. “The smarter we are and the more we think we know,” says Anderson, “the less likely we are to start with something relevant, actionable, and interesting.” She praises entrepreneurs Richard Branson and Chip Conley for their concrete stories and real world approach: “It’s surprising to me that more people who are the face of their company don’t speak like human beings,” says Anderson.
2. Make a connection. Anderson calls this her “connected to what?” dictum. It’s hard for people to process numbers outside our day-to-day experience – trillions of dollars, or nanoseconds, or light years. Instead, make it relevant to the human experience and have some fun with your comparisons. One possible example, says Anderson, is “Put on this medical patch and you’ll feel the effect faster than a Porsche can go from 0-90.”
3. Watch what works. You may be surprised by what audiences respond to, says Anderson: “We often don’t know what resonates. When I first started speaking, I’d say something offhand and people cracked up – but I didn’t think it was an important point, and I’d be startled.” But what you think is important or funny is a lot less important than what the audience thinks. If you’re consistently getting a response, either positive or negative, learn from it and adapt.
4. Stick to three points. “Our mind can’t hold more than three points,” says Anderson – so don’t push your luck by citing endless reams of data. Instead, be clear on your overall theme and create sub-groupings of key points, and your audience will be far more likely to enjoy and remember your talk.

What are your strategies for crafting and delivering a successful speech? Any advice to share?

Dorie Clark is a marketing strategist who teaches at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. She is the author of Reinventing You and Stand Out, and you can receive her free Stand Out Self-Assessment Workbook.

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