Learn how to make a compelling presentation that will keep your audience hooked.
Patricia Fripp is hired by companies to help them drive more business by perfecting their sales conversations and presentation.
In this episode, Patricia talks about how presentations play a key role in your work– whether it’s about building credibility for your team and audience or effectively persuading potential clients. Patricia shares powerful ways you can improve your presentation so that you can speak and persuade with confidence and impact whenever and wherever you are!
What you will learn from this episode:
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Discover why PowerPoint plays an additional persuasion effect on your team and clients
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Learn what are the five ways how you can make a powerful, effective, and compelling presentation that will keep your audience hooked
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Understand how you can sell the topic and the result at the same time through the power of presentations
“Specificity builds credibility.”
– Patricia Fripp
Valuable Free Resource:
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How to build credibility through amazing, audience-centered presentations in order to make effective growth and impact: https://fripp.com/handouts/
Topics Covered:
01:40 – Challenge is finding new options for building a new way of business for the future while being comfortable, productive, and competitive
02:33 – Not realizing the brilliance of presentations and public speaking: the common mistake business women leaders make when trying to present an effective presentation in their workplace
03:28 – One free and actionable tip you can do to make perfect conversations, compelling sales talk, and effective presentations: Very simply, who is the audience? And if you were to consider that you are going to connect to an audience, if your subject is of interest to them. And you might think well, “How do I do that?” By speaking as an audience advocate! You look at your message from the point of view of the audience.
04:28 – One valuable free resource to help you improve your presentation and present with an impact that will keep your audience hooked: https://fripp.com/handouts/
05:13 – Q: What are the five ways everybody at any level can improve their presentations? A: And they would be– one, open your presentation with impact. And of course, close on a high. The first 30 seconds and the last 30 seconds of any presentation have a great impact. The purpose of the opening of your presentation is to arouse interest in the subject.
Key Takeaways:
“Open and close with impact, have a simple structure, tell good stories, focus on the audience, and add specific language.” – Patricia Fripp
“Although you might be brilliant, have a great grasp of your content, that doesn’t mean you can put it together into a powerful and persuasive presentation. Plus, it takes a lot longer than most people realize to create a masterpiece that looks as if you’re just delivering it spontaneously.” – Patricia Fripp
“By speaking as an audience advocate! You look at your message from the point of view of the audience. To say our new strategy will be great for shareholders has no interest to employees unless they are shareholders.” – Patricia Fripp
“Every presentation is built around a premise, a big idea, a central theme.” – Patricia Fripp
“Sometimes you sell the topic, sometimes you sell the result.” – Patricia Fripp
“Because although we use words to communicate, our audience sees what we say in our stories. They can often see themselves in the stories you tell, and find specificity builds credibility.” – Patricia Fripp
Ways to Connect with Patricia Fripp
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Website: https://fripp.com/handouts/
Ways to Connect with Sarah E. Brown
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Website: https://www.sarahebrown.com
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/knowguides
Full Episode Transcript:
Patricia Fripp 0:00
Every presentation is built around a premise, a big idea, a central theme.
Dr. Sarah E. Brown 0:14
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the KTS Success Factor Podcast for Women, where we talk about challenges senior female leaders face in being happy and successful at work. I’m your host, Dr. Sarah E. Brown.
Dr. Sarah E. Brown 0:34
My guest today is Patricia Fripp. Companies hire her to help them drive more business by perfecting their sales conversations and presentation. She is a Hall of Fame keynote speaker, executive speech coach, and sales presentation skills expert. Her online learning program, FrippVT.com Powerful, Persuasive Presentation is embraced as a “must-have” by speakers and companies worldwide. Kiplinger’s Personal Finance wrote that “Learning presentation skills from Patricia Fripp is one of the best ways to invest in you.” Patricia was the first woman elected to be president of the National Speakers Association. Welcome, Patricia!
Patricia Fripp 1:27
Great to be with you!
Dr. Sarah E. Brown 1:29
So tell me, what the biggest challenges that you’re helping female leaders or any leader, frankly, face in business today, and what might be the symptom of that challenge?
Patricia Fripp 1:40
From my experience, leaders in companies of all sizes have done a superb job responding fast to their teams having to work from home. Now, I believe their biggest challenge is that they find a good portion of their workforce is now comfortable at home, realizes the benefits of not being distracted and not having to commute. So, then the challenge is how do you communicate their options for the future to still be able to be very productive, competitive, and build a new way of doing business?
Dr. Sarah E. Brown 2:28
And what do you see as the biggest mistake they make before working with you?
Patricia Fripp 2:33
My clients obviously come to me to improve their presentation skills. Often, it is for a big presentation, an all-hands meeting, speaking at an industry event, State of the Union. Most people before they work with me don’t realize that, although you might be brilliant, have a great grasp of your content, that doesn’t mean you can put it together into a powerful and persuasive presentation. Plus, it takes a lot longer than most people realize to create a masterpiece that looks as if you’re just delivering it spontaneously.
Dr. Sarah E. Brown 3:20
I get it. So, what would be the number one free and actionable tip you can give our audience today to address this challenge now?
Patricia Fripp 3:28
Very simply, who is the audience? And if you were to consider that you are going to connect to an audience, if your subject is of interest to them. And you might think well, “How do I do that?” By speaking as an audience advocate! You look at your message from the point of view of the audience. To say our new strategy will be great for shareholders has no interest to employees unless they are shareholders. The same message needs to be focused on the shareholders, the Board of Directors, compared to the strategies that will guarantee employment– a chance for an opportunity to grow.
Dr. Sarah E. Brown 4:18
I see. I get it. So, what would be a valuable free resource you can share with the women who are listening today to help them understand this challenge better?
Patricia Fripp 4:28
If you go to my website Fripp, F-R-I-P-P, .com/handouts, with an S, you have special reports, downloads on speech structures, opening lines for presentations, eight tips to avoid pitfalls, to avoid in putting together a presentation and 11 Mistakes Sales Professionals Make. Plus there are some videos, so it’s a great resource to get you focused on improving your presentation!
Dr. Sarah E. Brown 5:00
Oh, what a great offer! So, Patricia, what is one question that I should have asked you, that will help our audience take action to have better presentations now? And then would you answer the question?
Patricia Fripp 5:13
Yes, perhaps it would be, what are the five ways everybody at any level can improve their presentations? And they would be– one, open your presentation with impact. And of course, close on a high. The first 30 seconds and the last 30 seconds of any presentation have a great impact. The purpose of the opening of your presentation is to arouse interest in the subject. So, “Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. What a pleasure to be here.”–Uh-oh is boring, predictable. I might say your audience would forgive you anything except being boring, especially at the beginning. So open and close the presentation, then understand a simple speech structure. Every presentation is built around a premise, a big idea, a central theme. I ask all my clients, “If you had one sentence rather than 45 minutes or 20 minutes, what would you say?” And if they answer in a paragraph, I say, “That is the whole structure of your presentation. What’s the big idea?” And sometimes you sell the topic, sometimes you sell the result. So, for example, if you were a consultant on strategies for success, I would always say, “What is the outcome of everybody taking your advice?” So, what is the end result? Sell the result, that is the premise. And then how would they do that? That’s the simple framework– what I call the “skeleton under the flesh of your words”. Third, not focus on the audience, using you-focus language. For example, if you were going to say, “I am going to talk about-” compared to “In the next 45 minutes, you will learn three techniques to improve every presentation you ever deliver.” I think the second approach is going to engage the audience more. A you-focus language that ties in with what we discussed earlier about speaking as an audience advocate. Then stories! You know, everybody loves a good story. And any good conversation, webinar, presentation, sales presentation, training, or teaching include stories. Because although we use words to communicate, our audience sees what we say in our stories. They can often see themselves in the stories you tell, and find specificity builds credibility. We are living in a world of sloppy speakers. The number one question I ask all my clients is, “If it weren’t a thing, what would it be?” For example, one brilliant engineer said, “There are two things people love about-” And I said, “Well if they weren’t things what would they be?” She said, “Innovative upgrade”. I said, “There are billions of people in the world. Will people love your innovative upgrades?” She said, “Systems administrators.” Can you see within the context of the presentation, the difference between two things people love and two innovative upgrades systems administrators love? So, when I help clients, obviously, you need the big idea- the structure, but then we look at every word, and the power, and the connection. So open and close with impact, have a simple structure, tell good stories, focus on the audience, and add specific language.
Dr. Sarah E. Brown 9:15
Great advice. Patricia, thank you so much for being with me today!
Patricia Fripp 9:19
Absolutely my pleasure! And your last words linger. So, I would say to your audience, I hope you will remember me, Fripp. However much more than remembering me, remember what Fripp stands for– Frequently Reinforce Ideas that are Productive, and Profitable.
Dr. Sarah E. Brown 9:43
That was great! Thanks so much.
Dr. Sarah E. Brown 9:45
Thanks for listening to the KTS Success Factor Podcast for Women. If you like what you’re hearing, please go to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave a review. And if you would like more information on how we can help women in your organization to thrive, then go to www.sarahebrown.com. You can sign up for our newsletter, read show notes and learn more about our podcast guests, read my blog, browse through the books or contact us for a chat. Goodbye for now!