Find out how to be insanely great in front of any audience even if you don't have a Steve Jobs or an Apple-sized marketing budget. Success is in your content and delivery not just the onstage wizardry. Find more resources like this at http://www.technoledge.com.au/b2b-marketing-trends.
Good Stuff Happens in 1:1 Meetings: Why you need them and how to do them well
10 Ways to Present Like Steve Jobs
1. 1
Whether you went to a live presentation, seen one on
TV or just heard about them, Steve Jobs’ presentation
skills were legendary. Yet the tricks he used don’t just
make sense; they’re essential if you’re want to make a
complex piece of technology (or a service) sexy,
desirable and irresistible - like he did.
Here are top 10 tips you can use even if you don’t have
sexy Apple technology, an Apple-sized budget or a Steve
Jobs in your company.
While we do a lot of presenting and teaching of
presenting, we don’t take credit for these tips, but we
use them and agree with them. We adapted this content
from a slideshow by Carmine Gallo at BusinessWeek
http://www.slideshare.net/cvgallo/the-presentation-
secrets-of-steve-jobs-2609477 .
1. Tell a story
Steve Jobs told stories, usually about how Apple
technology would change the world. Like all good
stories, his had a beginning, middle and end.
More to the point, they had heroes and villains and lots
of drama. Do you remember when he pulled the
MacBook Air our of an envelope at Macworld?
2. Start with the narrative
Before you work up a slide or video presentation, work
out how best to tell your story. Jobs spent a lot of time
thinking, brainstorming, sketching and ‘white boarding’
the story outline. He spent years in the movie business,
remember?
Once you’re sure of the best way to tell the story, you
can start thinking about the supporting visuals.
3. Add variety for spice
Jobs used stunning visuals. He knew the story he wanted
to tell, and used slides and props to support the story,
not drive it. He didn’t give his audience time to get bored
or distracted either. He mixed it up with video clips,
demonstrations and other speakers. He added drama.
4. Use catchy headlines
‘iPod. One thousand songs in your pocket.’ Few of us
have products like those Jobs held up to his audience,
but we can still craft great headlines: ‘The 4 Words That
Will Get Your Email Opened.’ ‘The Three Key Elements of
Irresistible Email Subject Lines.’ The last two are from
Brian Clark (www.copyblogger.com) who makes a living
teaching others how to write.
5. Create an antagonist
Every good story has heroes and villains. For Jobs at first
it was IBM then it was Microsoft. For you, it might be a
persistent problem or influence that people in your
market face, or an obstacle that has held back industry
progress.
When Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone, his message
was simple: it would get rid of all the irritating problems
people had with their mobile phones.
6. Make features tangible
For every statement you make, put yourself in the shoes
of your audience and ask: Why should they care? If all
you do is talk about speeds, feeds and specs they won’t.
You need to relate your features back to pains they feel.
10 Ways to Present Like Steve Jobs
How to be insanely great in front of any audience
2. 2
So, what was so great about Apple’s new Time
Capsule? ‘All your irreplaceable photos, videos and
documents are automatically protected and easy to
retrieve if they’re ever lost.’ Ever lost a precious
photo? You know the pain.
7. Use the rule of 3
A story has 3 structural elements: a beginning, a
middle, and an end, and the middle is best made up of
3 main points. You may have 10 key points to make
about your product, but don’t be tempted. Most
people can only cope with 3 points at once, 4 at a
stretch.
If you give them too many points, chances are they’ll
tune out and won’t remember any. If you think of
every application of marketing and selling, it’s always
the same: rule of 3. It works.
8. Be passionate, sell dreams
Jobs did what he did with a messianic zeal. As head of
Apple, he could have just talked about changing the
world, but he actually did. He once said that his goal
was not to die the richest man in the cemetery, but to
go to bed at night thinking that he and his team had
done something wonderful.
You can use similar ingredients in your presentations:
passion, emotion and enthusiasm, to connect with
your audience’s hearts, not just their eyes and ears.
9. Make numbers speak
A lot of presenters, especially of technologies, use lots
of numbers and statistics. Problem is, they fade into
blur. If you want to use numbers, they have to be
memorable. That means using them in a context that
makes them tangible for the audience.
For instance, you could talk about 10 terabytes of
storage—or say it’s the capacity to hold the entire
printed collection of the US Library of Congress. Which
of these brings the scale of the number to life?
10. Use simple language
The rules that apply to great writing apply even more to
presentations; you can’t speak with the same formality as
you write, and you don’t want to be editing live on stage.
Eliminate clutter, use simple words and short sentences,
use short Anglo-Saxon words (not convoluted Latin ones),
and use words that create images. The audience sees and
remembers far more than it just hears.
Final word
Of course, Steve jobs also mastered the other
presentation skills of eye contact, body language,
gestures, vocal variety, pauses and a lot more.
They’re the tools of the trade, and they make a good
speech better, but won’t make a great speech on their
own. Conversely, if you have good content, refine it to
great content, and bring it to life with outstanding
presentation skills, you’ll be more than impactful and
unforgettable, you’ll be rare. ###