Giving a Presentation In a Day For Dummies by Marty Brounstein

Author:Marty Brounstein
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2012-10-25T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 4

Handling the Audience

In This Chapter

Assessing what type of audience you have

Letting the audience know what to expect

Dealing with hecklers and other distractions

Getting the audience involved

Even if you have the world’s greatest speech, your presentation can still be in trouble if you have the world’s worst audience. An audience is like a thorny, long-stemmed rose. Handled properly, it’s a thing of beauty that can blossom as you speak. Handled improperly, it will prick you severely.

Reading an Audience’s Reaction

Many professional speakers claim they can “read” an audience like a book. What does that mean? They read a little of the audience at bedtime, drift off to sleep, and read some more the next day? In any event, it makes a lot more sense to read an audience like an audience — a group of people who have to listen to your speech. What follows are a few ways to gauge their reactions.

Checking the energy level

One of the easiest ways to read an audience is by observing its energy level. Are people talking and laughing as they wait for the event to begin? That’s a high-energy audience, and that’s what you hope for. This type of audience is much more receptive to your speech. A high-energy audience is basically yours to lose. If you have a high-energy audience, you don’t have to be high-energy yourself (although it doesn’t hurt).

Here’s a tip from the late San Francisco comedy coach John Cantu: A high-energy audience laughs and applauds longer than a low-energy audience. Therefore, you need to allow extra time for laughter and applause when you calculate how much you can say in the time you’ve been allotted.

A low-energy audience is just the opposite. No one’s talking, and the mood is kind of blah. (This mood often correlates to specific times of the day and week. For example, Monday night audiences are typically low energy.) This audience is tough. You have to be high-energy. You have to ignite the audience.

Noticing body language

The nonverbal behavior of your audience can tell you an enormous amount about the effectiveness of your speech. Are people nodding at what you say? Are they looking up at you? Are they leaning forward? Are they smiling? Or are they squirming in their seats, nudging each other, looking at their watches, and staring out the windows? (You don’t need a PhD to interpret these signals.)

Don’t judge the entire audience by the reactions of a single person. This tip sounds obvious, but speakers do it all the time. You may see one sourpuss who won’t crack a smile. You’ll become obsessed with this person and make all your speaking decisions based on his reaction. That’s usually a mistake, because nothing you do will work with the sourpuss, and you’ll get nervous, feel you’re bombing, and screw up. If you look at the other 99 percent of the audience members, you’ll see that they’re enjoying your talk — at least until you screw it up by focusing on the sourpuss.

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