You are ready to start and sure that the listeners are going to listen to you carefully and follow every your word. We may disappoint you a little, but they won't. Especially if it is Friday&Summer combination. Or just Friday. Or summer.
You may ask: but why? They are here because they want to listen to me. They've made some efforts or/and paid for their tickets to be there. Ok, you are right, but not on 100%. People are human beings and their psychic works under the specific directions. We all feel some seasons (and days) as a legally relaxing time that was created to give us a rest. We have this feeling instead of the objective reality – even if we know that we have some business tasks or planned things, or have to work hard. Our brain and body tend to relax. This is normal, and the same way we feel this, we can cope with this and motivate ourselves and each other – we are homo sapience, not animals. We have a will and know how to use it. But we should help each other to concentrate, to focus and to listen.
Especially if it is Friday. Or summer.
How to help them listen to you?
Do not say anything if you understand that no one or almost no one is listening to you. Open your mouth only when you feel the connection with the audience. For many people - even quite conscious and serious, who came to the presentation or lecture of their own will - a constant hearing can be quite a serious problem. As a rule, the lecturer says something, these sounds merge into white noise, and the listeners simply disconnect from participation in the process. Avoid this. Remember the rule number one: first get an attention and then start talking. When you see that their eyes are not looking at you and there are no active listeners in the hall, do not be embarrassed and don't take it to your personal problem. People tend to be inattentive in nature. Work on their attention and everything will be in order.
How to Earn (And Not Lose) Your Audience's Trust
Find the hooks to catch their attention
You can directly ask for attention. On family events this is usually done by the head of the family, who gets up and knocks a glass with the spoon to draw the attention of everyone who sits at the table. Of course, at the presentation you can't do this because you are a serious business man and your event has an official direction. But even if you came to entertain people, it's still best to ask their attention with words. Of course, there are other ways - you can just shut your mouth, and quickly enough the audience will understand that something is wrong, that it is worth looking at you and stop talking.
It is best to attract attention with positive methods. Invite the audience to ask their questions. Ask them to tell you about their morning or their work. Let them talk about a product, service or project that they are interested in. Suggest them to take part in polls or surveys - but forget about that old-school sheets of paper with words written on them. Use PodioBox that will help you to make this process easy and full of joy. You can make any surveys and polls, fill out any questionnaires in real time, process the information and immediately show the results for everyone if you want to. This feature turn any presentation into an exciting game, where each listener uses his own device and actively participates in everything what is happening. Try PodioBox for free for 15 days – FOLLOW THE LINK!
Delegate some power to listeners
Allow them to participate in decisions. Offer tasks and motivate them to answer questions, ask them to tell you their own ideas. Suggest them to choose a team to play on stage or lead their own small presentations, invent a system of points or votes that will help the audience to choose the best in this contest, and give them out small nice prizes. Undoubtedly, your topic should include such interference in the presentation, but it is worthwhile to think about it in any case - active participation of listeners not only makes everyone really LISTEN to you, but also helps them to remember better what they hear, helps them to keep interest on a high level. And still, makes the presentation memorable.
How to Engage Them if Your Topic is Boring?
Solve their problems
Psychologists know that the best music for a person is the sound of his own name. We all like to speak about ourselves. Your listener likes to listen about himself, too, even if you are talking about a completely different topic in your presentation. Well, talk about him. Sound his problem aloud - as a rule, for the majority of listeners, it is common, because they were united here by a single topic of your speech. Name aloud this problem, talk about what difficulties await for a person in an attempt to solve it on his own. Suggest a solution - what you can do, how you can help, what you can suggest to solve it. This will focus them on your words to the maximum. In addition, the success of your presentation will increase at times.
Good luck!
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