From “It was a dark and stormy night…” (Snoopy, Peanuts cartoon), to “Fourscore and seven years ago…” (President Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address), opening lines are crucial, no matter whether you’re on the big screen or a small stage. Take too long to grab their attention and your audience quickly becomes disinterested. Your job is to reel your audience in from the get-go—and keep them hooked. A great opening line grabs your audience’s attention and makes them want to hear the rest of your story.
Create an Opener That Sells Crafting a creative opener accomplishes three things right away: 1. It engages the audience; 2. It establishes a connection with them; and 3. It offers a glimpse of what’s to come. 4. Try these tips to spark your own ideas:
Start with a story or an anecdote. Drawing on your own experiences instantly allows your audience to relate to you and encourages them to identify with your topic. Just be sure you include an effective segue to the rest of your talk. Ask a question. I always like to ask the audience what they would like to learn from my program. This gives me the opportunity both to hear what they think the program is about and to make sure I highlight the areas they are interested in during the presentation, if possible. It also allows me to check in on their satisfaction level at the end of the program and make sure they got what they came for.
Asking up-front what your listeners want to learn tends to work best with a smaller group (fewer than 50 people). If you want to make this work with a larger group, too, enlist the help of an audience member in advance who is willing to provide an answer you want everyone to hear, thus reinforcing your message. It’s important to keep in mind that sometimes your audience may have lots and lots of questions, or may bring up something that’s completely off-topic. How you handle this depends on the type of talk you are giving and the time allotted.
I once taught a two-day class overseas on a topic that was relatively new to my audience. Because they were not experienced in this subject, they were eager to learn and asked tons of questions, not all of them on-topic. I had to deliver the required course material within a certain time frame, but I also wanted to meet my audience’s needs, so I agreed to stay after the class was over to help them. It took three hours to answer all their questions, but they left satisfied! Even though you may not always have an extended amount of time to give, most speakers are willing to stay after their talk to answer questions. If I am presenting a seminar that has smaller “breakout” groups—to work on a case study, for example—I find it’s helpful to make my way around to each group, because I can answer many of their questions in the smaller group setting. Another way to handle this is to simply offer your email address for any questions that may arise after the session is over.
Use a quote. A good quote in your opener can be magical. It can immediately provide a picture for your audience of what you’re going to talk about and how that topic relates to them. A quote can also reinforce your message, set the tone for your talk, and let your audience know that your ideas are well-supported.
In a presentation on how to hire effectively, for instance, I used Jack Welch’s quote, “The team with the best players wins,” to illustrate the idea that it’s important to hire the best person for the job and for the team.
Using a celebrity quote often brings credibility to the information you’re delivering; all you have to do is type the words “famous quotes” or something similar into your Internet browser, and you’ll see a wealth of websites that list quotes from famous people.
You can also have fun with this by looking in your own backyard. I used to work for someone who had a lot of sayings for which he was renowned within the company, such as “You need them more than they need you,” which I might use in a session on negotiating. I still use those quotes to this day!
Employees or audience members now have a few topics to talk about with each other!
Provide a call to action. One way to provide a call to action—and create instant idea sharing—is to let your audience know that, at the end of the session, you will ask each table or row to come up with three things they think they can use from your seminar or class. Then, near the end of your talk, ask that each table appoint a spokesperson to tell the rest of the audience that group’s ideas.
In the end, a little homework serves to remind your audience about how they can use the great tips you provided—whether back in their offices or at home. It also reminds them what a great speaker you are!
What Happens in the Middle Now comes the hard part. You’ve successfully engaged your audience and connected with them. You can see that they are interested. But how do you get them to stay with you? Your job is to paint a picture for your audience and connect the dots. I like to imagine that I have a delicate gold thread weaving all of my ideas together in my presentation: The thread is shiny enough that my audience will follow it along the path of design, but it’s also delicate and easy to break if I am not careful.
The first way to keep your thread intact is to remember WIFM, or What’s In it For Me. Remember, your audience members are busy people—and it’s your task to figure out what they’re interested in and provide it.
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