“Four years ago we had a dream. Today I’m going to tell you how we made that dream come true.”

Madhu is a VP and that was the first sentence of his presentation.  The audience reaction was visible and immediate:   enthralled.

However, when Madhu started our Mastering Virtual Presentations workshop, that wasn’t at all what he planned to open with.  

He started his presentations the way that EVERYONE starts their presentations:

“Hello.   How is everyone doing? Today I want to talk to you about…”

There are MILLIONS of corporate presentations made around the world every single day, Monday through Friday.  99.999% of them start off this way.  With the immortal words: “Today I want to talk to you about ….”

This is THE most BORING way you could start off your presentation.

It sends a clear message to your audience:  

I am yet another boring corporate presenter.  I am just like ALL of the others you’ve ever heard. Please feel free to go ahead and multitask. This is not going to be special.

Many in the audience will already be reaching for their keyboards, even during the opening sentence.

Your first sentence makes an enormous difference. The first sentence in every Shakespeare play immediately plunges you directly into the plot.  From the very first opening moment, you’re engaged keeping up with the action.

Shakespeare assumed (rightly) a very intelligent audience.  He didn’t bore them with a gradual build up to the plot.  He plunged them right in to the action. His live plays were standing room only and they still stand the test of time like no other.

“In truth, I know not why I am so sad,” says Antonio in the opening line of Merchant of Venice.  You’re instantly engaged, leaning in to find out.

“Who’s there?” asks an alarmed Bernardo to open Hamlet.  Suddenly, you’re a little alarmed and need to know too.

The great novelist Elmore Leonard starts one of his best sellers with, “There was a desert wind blowing that night.”  And you’re right there, feeling it, thoroughly plunged into the scene of the story.

These are openings like no others.  You know you’re in for something special.

When you apply this principle from literature to corporate presentations, amazing things happen.

Here are some examples from professionals and execs I’ve been coaching. First I’ll give you their original opening, then I’ll give you what that transformed into.

Old way: “Today I would like to talk to you about the benefits of our Accessibility Program.”

Turned into: “There are one million blind people who want to use our products, but are unable because they don’t have access, and so they’re buying from our competitors.”

Old way: “Today I want to talk to you about the importance of handling adversity in your role.”

Turned into: “I was 40 feet below water and drowning.”

Old way: “Today I want to give you our quarterly business review and take you through the numbers.”

Turned into: “You’re going see a lot of numbers. There’s only one you should pay attention to.”

Old way: “I’m going to present the results of our training pilot so you can decide if we should roll it out to the whole organization.”

Turned into: “We came out of the dark ages of training and we refuse to go back there.  Let me tell you why.”

There are a million ways to do this. I’m going to give you a tip to get you started:

Simply forbid yourself to start your presentation with “Today I’m going to talk about...”

Never again.

That alone will force you into being creative.  

Drop them right into the middle of the story.

Pull them in with a little suspense.  Make them want to find out. 

Watch what happens with a strong opening.  You’ll feel the audience lean in a little closer, give you more of their mental energy.  With that great a beginning, that strong of a connection, it can only get better from there.

You can shift your audience’s entire experience just by changing the opening of your presentation.

Just imagine what would happen with your presentations after our Mastering Virtual Presentations workshops. It is no exaggeration to say you’ll never deliver a presentation the same way again after experiencing what you’ll learn. 

And feel free to send me your best opening sentences.  I would love to see them.  I love great openings!

Be the cause!