Keep Your Audience Engaged and the Energy High

By Warren Greshes, CPAE

So much of what will determine a salesperson’s success is based on their attitude, commitment, enthusiasm and energy.  The way they feel about themselves, the company, the clients and the products and services they sell.  If they don’t believe in who they are and what they do; don’t expect the customers to believe it. 

Because of that, a killer sales meeting should be bursting with energy and enthusiasm.  Now, I know that’s hard to do; especially when people are cooped up in a hotel or conference center going from one session and meeting room to another, but there are certain little things a great meeting professional can do to keep that energy and enthusiasm at a high level.

• Make sure the room fits the audience.  The wrong size breakout or general session room can absolutely suck the energy right out of your audience.  Have you ever been to a sporting event where the stadium or arena was packed vs. being only half full?  The difference in energy both on the field and in the stands is staggering. 

As a speaker, I would rather speak in a room that’s too small for the audience and is bursting at the seams, rather a room big enough to seat 600 for a crowd of 300.  Your speakers and presenters feed off the energy of the audience and visa versa.   

• Put your speakers in the right time slot.  High energy speakers to open, close and in the dreaded right-after-lunch spot.  After dinner speakers should be light and humorous.  I am a high energy speaker.  While I use a lot of humor and consider myself a good story teller, I should not be put in the after dinner slot because of the content level of my talks.  I am not the light and airy type, yet I’ve had many companies who’ve wanted me in that slot (to answer your question, I either turn it down or convince them to put me in another slot).

In addition, watch where you place the afternoon break.  I’ve found that while audiences have less energy near the end of the day than at the beginning, their lowest energy level is right after lunch.  Try to place the afternoon break closer to the end of lunch than the end of the day.  Give your attendees a chance to get their second wind sooner rather than later.

• Don’t let the presentation materials become the presentation.  While Powerpoint is a great presentation tool, too many presenters use it as a crutch, rather than as an enhancement to their presentation.  Making a room full of salespeople read slides is pretty much the same thing as slipping knock-out drops into their water glasses.

• Motivation and inspiration is great; but motivation and inspiration with content is even better.  While salespeople want to be motivated, inspired and entertained; they also want to be informed.  Most salespeople are bottom line people.  They want to know “What 2 or 3 good ideas are you going to give me today, that I can implement tomorrow in order to start growing my business by the day after that.”