Many people believe that a great presentation makes it easy for the audience to choose you. The easier, the better.
Yet, the most satisfying decisions are the hard ones. The ones where we consciously struggle with the decision.
What makes a decision hard is that it forces us to confront who we are. Do we want this thing so badly that we are willing to pay so much for it? Do we really want to spend the effort of changing our habits to achieve that goal?
If a decision is hard then it is because we care. Because if we wouldn’t, it would be easy, right? If we don’t care, we can just as easily dismiss a thing as we can choose it. It won’t matter much.
So, leading your audience to a hard choice means leading them to something they care deeply about. And if they do, then the decision they make is this:
“If that’s who I am, then this is what I need to do!
This, of course, is only possible if you care, too! Leading them to this point means making them see that you understand something profound about them. That you do care about them.
You care by leading them to the point of no return. The point where this choice needs to be made. The point where tension is so high that it can only be relieved by making the decision.
What separates good from great presenters is that the great ones realise that it’s still the audience who’s going to decide. It has to be. Because when it is, you’ve got commitment. They have consciously decided for you.
Your job is to make this decision obvious. To confront them with it. To make them see clearly so that if that’s really who they are, then, well …
… up to you to decide.
