SAVE | EMAIL | PRINT | MOST POPULAR |  RSS | | REPRINT
|
Presentation Crimes: Speaker Snafus
May 14, 2008
The Meaningless-Filler Gratuitous-Phrases Vocabulary List
By Peter E. Cohan
Have you ever been listening to someone else's demo and found yourself annoyed or distracted by their wasted words and meaningless fillers? Here's a real-life example:
So, um, if you, you know, kinda look here, you know, you'll sorta see how we've done our new wizard…
If you find this annoying, you are not alone.
Damage (Out of) Control
What's the impact of this kind of delivery on an audience? Here's what your customers in the audience may be thinking:
• Staff Members: "What's he trying to say?"
• Mid-Management: "Can't he speed it up—I've got another meeting."
• Senior Management: "Get to the point. I'm leaving if this goes on."
Colleagues on your selling team may also be concerned:
• Technical Staff: "She's making our beautiful architecture sound lame!"
• Sales Staff: "She's taking far too long. We're losing them."
• Senior Management: "We've got to find someone else to do this."
Loose, sloppy vocabulary can weaken your position and dilute your message. Such language, rather the lavk there of, can damage your credibility. Wasteful and imprecise words can move someone from neutral to slightly negative—it can even cause a supporter to drop down to neutral or worse.
Double Trouble
There are two types of words and phrases to avoid:
1. Spurious Spacers (um, like, you know)
2. Weak Wimpy Words (kind of, sort of, maybe)
Spurious spacers are typically less destructive, but are still annoying. The next time you are in the audience at someone else’s demo or presentation, keep track of how many times the presenter says one particular spacer, such as "like" or "you know." Don't be surprised if you find the number of uses of the spacer is nearly double the number of sentences delivered. That's a lot of wastage.
Wimpy words are the worst. They increase perceived complexity, obfuscate clarity and can directly reduce the value of your solution. Customers want to work with vendors who can get the job done. They aren't interested in vendors who can kind of deliver the software or sort of complete customization.
The List (a Starter Set)
Here are a few entries to get you started on compiling your own list of words to avoid for your team:
Spurious Spacers
"Um…"
"And stuff…"
"Like…"
"Actual…" and/or "Actually…"
"Really…"
Weak Wimpy Words
"You know?"
"As you can see…"
"Kind of…"
"Sort of…"
"Like…"
"Gonna…"
"Wanna…"
"Hopefully…"
"Possibly…"
"Maybe…"
"Might be…"
"And again…"
"As you saw before…"
"Needless to say…"
"Really really…"
"Know what I mean?"
Other Crimes and Misdemeanors
• Proof by Intimidation. Wherein the presenter makes it appear that only an idiot won't understand. Example: "It is painfully obvious to the casual observer that the following is clearly true…"
• "This will allow you to…" Allow me to? I need permission? Consider using "enable" rather than "allow." For example: "This capability enables you to accomplish the task in three mouse-clicks."
• Insultingly Fictitious Names. Mary Manager, Dave Developer, Larry Legal—These tell the audience that your example data is fake. And also indirectly suggests that your product or service is similarly suspect. Replace these insultingly fictitious names with realistic ones or, even better, use real data when appropriate.
• Company-specific Jargon and (OMG) Acronyms. Volumes could be written about how jargon and uncontrolled acronyms have negatively impacted demos and presentations. Internal company vocabulary is often peppered with TLA's—three letter acronyms—and your customers typically have no clue about their meanings. Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC—even their name was an acronym!) was stunningly effective in their generation and misuse of acronyms. They were even guilty of MLMNA's (that's Multi-Level-Many-Nested Acronyms, or acronyms within acronyms).
• Rising Inflection. A painful habit is the tendency for some presenters to turn statements into questions by ending sentences with a rising inflection. This can be very confusing? And annoying?
• Revolving Point-of-View. It is equally painful to listen to a demo where the presenter moves between first person, second person and third person, resulting in a monologue that could have come from a Marx Brothers movie (Groucho, not Karl). Example:
Now, I'll show you what she would do next. First we click here, then she would see this screen, and then I'll choose this option which will take the user to the report wizard.
Help From the Looking Glass
One of the best ways to improve and reduce one's use of meaningless fillers and gratuitous phrases is to take a good look at yourself in a video or other recording. Few things are as humbling as hearing your own voice and noting your own (bad) habits.
The strongest among us are able to identify our own errors and to take steps to reduce the use of wasted words. Many people find that if they focus on reducing the use of a single word or phrase, they can make excellent progress by themselves. A terrific self-help vehicle is to record your voice while delivering demos or presentations using the recording capabilities in WebEx, Live Meeting, PowerPoint or similar tools. You can then play it back in the privacy of your own headphones.
Many others need help from a third party. Presentation skills classes that focus on the behavioral aspects of presenting are available nearly everywhere. Most of these vendors include video-recording and coaching on your delivery, with a particular focus on your verbal and physical mannerisms.
Finally, the bravest among us can solicit the help of our colleagues to track our meaningless filler and gratuitous phrase transgressions. It is easy to ask another member of your sales team to count the number times you use "actually" or "like" in your next demo, and it's actually frightening to see how many times you use these words.
Eliminate the wasted words, sharpen your delivery and enjoy the rewards of more successful presentations and demos.
Copyright © 2007 The Second Derivative—All Rights Reserved. For other articles like this, as well as tips, best practices, tools and techniques, join the DemoGurus Community Website at www.DemoGurus.com. For more information go to www.SecondDerivative.com.
Sales & Marketing Management Magazine
This article is brought to you by Sales & Marketing Management, the leading authority for executives in the sales and marketing field.
|
|
SAVE | EMAIL | PRINT | MOST POPULAR | RSS |
|
|
| Back to Presentations Index |
|
|
