Remember when we started our last webinar and I asked you to write down the topic that was occupying your mind?  Over 90% of you said it was something other than our presentation that we were starting.  I delivered a live session last week in Toronto to about 30 sales people, and every single one of them were thinking about something else… not one of them claimed they were thinking about our workshop. 

Now, let’s think about your customers.  When you arrive to deliver the presentation of your life, they’re finishing up an email or preparing for a meeting later that day.  Even though you can’t think about anything else, your presentation that’s about to start is probably third or fourth on their minds.  How do you shift their attention?

In our webinar, I had all of you answer the Elephant in Denmark riddle.  It took about three minutes and shifted your thoughts from that phone call with a customer or discussion with your spouse to the riddle.  Then, and only then did I attempt to get you focused on our webinar.  It takes middleware – something like my riddle in between their distracting thoughts and your message. 

One of your action items was to think of a few methods to shift your audience.  In our webinar, we discussed the following ideas:

• Use a quiz, riddle, or some type of simple poll.
• Tell a story that is relevant.
• Don’t use PowerPoint / Prezi, etc. during the opening.
• Walk them out of the conference room for a quick tour.
• Show the survey results that you sent before your session.

 So, what have you developed?  What “middleware” ideas do you have that will help you shift your customers’ attention from their world to your presentation?  Looking forward to hearing your ideas!