First Impressions Matter - How to Deliver a Compelling Opening

Can you imagine a John Grisham novel beginning with, "Hi, my name is John Grisham. The name of this book is The Firm"? Or worse, how about an episode of the West Wing starting with Martin Sheen saying, "Hi, I am Martin Sheen. Today's episode is about…"

Books and television shows don't start like this for good reason. Writers know that audiences are already thinking about personal items, and as writers, they are competing for mind-share against everyday life. Presentations are no different than books or television shows. Presenters need to make their presentations stand out right away. To do so, a presenter must have a compelling opening.

To illustrate the importance of an effective opening in business presentations, let's take a look at a presentation from the viewpoint of some typical audience members - people from a management team who are participating in a quarterly update.

John and his wife are sharing the car today. His mind is consumed as he tries to figure out how he is going to get out of work early enough to pick up his daughter and wife by 5:15.

Hilary is thinking about the budgets, due tomorrow. She's not yet sure how she is going to divide all resources between all divisions.

Bill is on a mental vacation. He leaves for Hawaii in the morning.

What is the challenge here? Your audience is physically present, but their minds are not. As a presenter, you must quickly get your audience mentally in the room if you expect to get results. Unfortunately, many presenters fail to do so. Most presenters begin with statements like:

• Thanks for being here. My topic is the quarterly update.
  
  
• Hi, my name is Joe Smith and I am with the ACME Corporation. We specialize in Wi-Fi security.
  
  
• Thank you. It is a pleasure to be here to talk with you about a career in the biotech industry.

Starting with a lifeless opening like these will likely keep your audience mulling over their transportation, budget or vacation issues while you launch into a presentation that could be helpful for your audience - if only they'd listen.

Can you recover from a weak opening? Perhaps, but the tone has been set. So how can you get your presentation started on the right foot? We'll address three alternatives guaranteed to jumpstart any presentation.

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A well placed statistic can create meaning and context for a topic. It can also shed new light on a familiar topic.

Examples of statistics as openers:

• For the quarterly update presentation: We improved profitability by 20% over last quarter.
  
  
• For a presentation on Wi-Fi security: As many as four out of 10 of your emails may not be reaching their intended destinations.
  
  
• For a presentation to students interested in a career in the biotech industry: Average real wages in the biotech industry nearly doubled in the last 10 years to $70,000.