How to “trick” people into staying for your entire presentation

As a speaker, there’s nothing worse than seeing someone walk out of the room before the end of your presentation. It is distracting. It hurts your ego. And it means there is one less person in the room to buy whatever it is you’re selling.

Not that it’s ever happened to me.

Your presentation might need work. More interesting content. Better stories. A more energetic delivery.

Keep the audience glued to your every word and they’ll stay glued to their seats.

Or, you can trick them into staying in their seats.

Here’s what you do.

At the beginning of the presentation, you or the host tells the audience that you have a gift for them at the end of the presentation. It’s a surprise. It’s something they will want. It’s valuable. “. . so at the end of the presentation, make sure you are in your seats so you can get your free gift.”

You can have fun with it, too. “Confess” that it is a bribe to keep them in their seats because the last time you gave this talk, “we had to lock the doors”. Or whatever.

Now, the gift can be anything. A copy of your book, a CD with several reports or checklists or forms, a DVD with a video of another presentation. Something your audience will like and appreciate. Something that will make them glad they stayed in their seats to get. And something you probably want them to have anyway because it validates you and the services you offer.

Years ago, I was in a business where I did a lot of presentations to the public who were invited off of newspaper ads. At the beginning of the presentation, we told them we had a surprise for them at the end of the presentation, it was really cool, and they should stay in their seats.

They stayed in their seats.

When the presentation ended, we revealed the surprise. We said that before they came into the room, we had randomly taped lottery tickets to the bottom of ten chairs and they should look under their chair to see if they had one. This was shortly after the lottery had been legalized in California and getting a ticket was new and exciting.

For ten bucks, we made sure we had a full house from start to finish. Of course my presentation was brilliant and they would have stayed anyway, but hey, a little insurance never hurts.

People love gifts and they love surprises. If you want them to stay seated (or stay on your webinar or teleconference) until the end of your presentation, promise them a gift at the end. Or, you could just tell better jokes.

Marketing is simple. Lawyers are complicated. If you want to make the phone ring, here’s help.