In Part I of this series, I have discussed three tips to help you to make your oral presentation more persuasive. It is my hope that you will apply these tips in your next presentation. Do you think I have more tips to share? Of course! Welcome to Part II of this series and let?s continue our discussion.
1. Use of Flip Charts and Not PowerPoint
Can I share with you a real story? Recently, I was talking to one of my clients regarding a 
training engagement and we were debating the use of flip charts vis-?-vis PowerPoint slides.
As a Certified Trainer in Accelerated Learning Method, I am fully aware that PowerPoint is not an effective training tool because participants will focus on the slides more than the trainer. If you agree with me, can you sense or feel the detrimental effect it might create on your presentation? Regardless of how good you think your presentation might be, your participants do not really care as their focus is on the slides. How many of you know what I am talking about?
Here is my feedback. Use flip charts if you want your oral presenstation to be more?persuasive. There are certain techniques I use when writing words or drawing pictures on the flip charts. Guess what? My participants will be anxious about what I am doing on my flip charts and indirectly, they will also pay attention to what I am going to say too. Is that good news to you as a trainer?
2. Mind your Body Language
How many of you have seen trainers who remained standing in the same position throughout the entire session? If so, how many of you would find it challenging to stay focused because these trainers did not exhibit any body language? Personally, I can relay to this because I was exactly like this during my early career as a trainer. Somehow, I feel that it has something to do with a trainer?s self-esteem and confidence although I cannot prove to you that?s the case.
As my mentor suggests, some people decide to become trainers because the Universe takes the view that these people have their own message to share with other people. One of the key lessons I learnt as a trainer is to identify the ?Bigger Me? inside my body. My mentor told me that the bigger I feel I am, the more powerful my message will be. How many of you can relay to this?
As soon as we are confident in delivering the message, amazing thing will happen. What is it exactly? Our body and mind will become congruent, making our oral presentation more persuasive and powerful. Guess what? Your participants will feel this. Conversely, if a trainer is not confident in delivering his message, would you agree that his body and mind would not be congruent? Do you think that his participants will be able to tell that he is nervous? If so, do you also agree that his oral presentation may not be persuasive and powerful at all?
3. The use of VAK Learning Style
What is VAK? It stands for ?Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic?. Each of us has our own learning style. What this means is that as trainers we have to be flexible and increase our vocabulary of actionable words to cater to different learning styles of our participants.
For example, how many of you notice in this article, sometimes I use ?feel? as the verb and other times I use ?think? as the verb. ?Feel? is more for kinesthetic learners while ?think? is more for visual learners. Another example is the use of ?see? and ?tell?. The word ?see? is more for visual learners while the word ?tell? is more for auditory learners.
I hope you understand that whether our speech is considered persuasive is a matter of our audience?s perception. Appropriate use of actionable verbs that cater to different learning styles of your participants will increase your chance to engage the entire group, making your oral presentation more persuasive and powerful.
4. Practice, Practice and More Practice
You should have heard this before. The word is ?practice?. Public speaking is a learnable skill. After you have prepared a speech, say it out loud and have it record so that you can identify any room for improvement before the actual delivery. If possible, get your friends and colleagues involved in this process too as it would be beneficial for you to hear any constructive feedback and suggestion from them.
I hope you will find my sharing useful. If you have any comments or experience to share, please drop a note in my website as I would love to hear them.
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