A skill many Presales people have is handling a big room meeting! Often at conferences and events, but sometimes also for deals, handling a large crowd of 10 more people takes additional skills. We discussed many of these on the latest presales talks session!
How many big board/meetings do you have?
• Rarer
• Only a small number of team members need to do it
• For virtual - chat.
Listening skills
• How are people reacting? Emoting
• Polling tools? Menti-meter
• Hands-up
• Look around the room (left-right-middle)
• Helps you identify people who are willing to interact
Scholar's cradle Gestures for public speaking - the beginners' guide to scholars' cradles
• 12 different ones in use
• Try the Apex Cradle.
Some differences and ideas
• More scripted and directed
• Rhetorical questions
• Do practice runs with small groups
Dealing with Heckling?
• Ignore?
• Put them in their place?
• Getting the crowd to work against the heckler.
Responding to questions
• Right away
• Later/at the end.
• Much later - or afterwards
Resonate
• Setting expectations - what do you want people to do at the end
• What questions do you want answered?
• Vision - if-then…
• Have a story structure that includes challenges, (5 Ps) "And But Therefore If Then."
Why do them?
• Build up trust with our customers/audiences
• Help guide people towards solutions to common problems.
• Give them a purpose - what you want them to do afterwards.
Gaining Calmness while nervous
• Box breathing
• Help control your breathing cycle
• Keep focus while breathing
• Keep some of that nervous energy - it can help you sound more human!