Polishing Your Presentation Skills

An energetic, smartly dressed, and very interactive Marisa D’Vari embodied the best lessons of “Polishing Your Presentation Skills” when she addressed the Boston Security Analysts Society on April 29.

“Making an emotional connection with your audience is a key to effective presentations,” said D’Vari. She began to build that connection the day before her BSAS presentation. She sent a brief email to each registrant asking four questions. Registrants’ answers helped her to pinpoint her listeners’ most pressing concerns before she ever met them.

How can you as a speaker connect with your audience? “Use WIIFM,” said D’Vari. Early in your presentation, identify “What’s In It For Me” for your audience. On April 29, she skillfully wove in references to topics emailed by BSAS members.

D’Vari took seriously her own advice to use a mix of facts, anecdotes and statistics to engage listeners with different styles. She also used drawings to attract the attention of visually oriented audience members.

Another D’Vari technique: Ask open questions. What if they’re silent despite your best efforts? Try saying, “People have asked me about …., would you like to hear about that?”

Again, she demonstrated her technique on the audience. As a result, the audience participation rate was one of the highest in the 2003-2004 BSAS luncheon series.

Many of D’Vari’s tips are available on her website, www.deg.com. She can be reached at mdvari@deg.com or 617-451-9914.

----------------------------------------------------

Susan B. Weiner, CFA specializes in strategically communicating key messages to help investment companies retain clients and build new business