Loosing the audience is a quit process

Thomas Bock stands in front of 50 important people. People who have huge influence within the company. People who have greater power to move things forward.

They clap their hands for Thomas Bocks recently finished speech. But he feels disappointed, because their applause is only a common form of civility.

He could have left out his disappointment on stage by knowing the risk of BORINTROS. To understand that, lets go back to the moments before he gets on stage.

30 Minutes earlier Thomas Bock is nervous. He always is, when talking in front of other people. But he is an expert on this topic and the audience is here, because they want to listen to his strategies.

Watching the crowd secretly through the curtain from backstage, reveals his challenge: "I have to win their attention over their smartphones"

Like everywhere, the audience is checking emails or social media frequently. But Thomas is prepared with some cutting edge science and impressive data. Finally he is having his turn. He is more relaxed then he expected to be.

While he is saying his first words, everybody is looking at Thomas. He is feeling their attention. It takes a few moments until he gets comfortable on stage. After 5 minutes, he starts to present his key ideas.

This is the stuff, he put so much work in. He knows, that this knowledge can make a real difference to his listeners. So he is totally excited to present his unique ideas. 

This is when it happens. Thomas is getting irritated. He is realizing that 12 people out of 50 have their heads down checking their smart phones. Even worse, one person in the front row already has left the room. Two more are about to leave.

His mind goes crazy: What's happening here? I have only been talking for five minutes and they have not heard my outstanding strategies yet!?!?!

Can you imagine Martin Luther King speaking to only a dozen people, because he lost his audience in the first place? Sorry, but I cannot.

Back to Thomas. His major challenge is not the talk. It´s the circumstances. He is one out of three speakers that day. And he was unable to attract attention right away.

His audience was tired. Their brains were overloaded with information. The event came to an end. People were on their way home in their heads. Maybe your audience is easier to handle or you are the only one who is speaking. 

When it comes to persuading an audience by speaking, many people know about the power of a great intro. Some of us are strong in knowledge - and weak in executing.

Sometimes even the best experts miss the chance of creating attention upfront. They go with the familiar learnings, which I call the BORINTROS. 

Thomas was caught in the trap by opening his speech with the words:

"Hello everybody. Its great to be here with you today. In the next minutes I will walk you trough my research and will show you some unexpected results."

Borintros is what you know as boring intros. They don´t harm anyone, but they widen the gap between you and your audience.

You can easily identify Borintros by observing carefully. Be alerted, if you hear some of the following killer phrases in the opening of a speech:

·      „Thank you for coming."

·     „It´s great to be hear and talking to you."

·     „We are Company A with a yearly revenue of B.“

·     „Our products are sold at x customers in Y countries and Z continents.“

·     „I would love to thank Mr. X, to have the opportunity to speak to you today.“

And maybe you have to time to improve your upcoming speech and get rid of Borintros yourself.