How do you generate applause at a business presentation?

I was working with a CEO recently on the plans for his big concluding conference speech. As we honed the various moments of light and shade that were designed to trigger memories of some serious underlying messages, he said: “We might get some applause there”. I responded saying: “You will get some applause there”. He didn’t quite seem so confident, but he didn’t know I had just appointed myself ‘Applause Leader’.

Most of us don’t, of course, expect to receive actual applause in a typical business presentation, though it’s always great feeling if a spontaneous burst is forthcoming when something special has been achieved.

At staged conferences, however, you probably do expect applause at a series of key moments. It’s with the ‘in between’ situations such as so called ‘town hall’ meetings, big announcements and special occasion speeches that it becomes a bit tricky. The audience can be faced with a ‘Do I or don’t I applaud’? feeling and you might even end with one of those awkward moments when one person tentatively starts to applaud, realises no one else is joining in and it trickles away rather quickly.

Comedians have a range of lines to handle these situations, such as: “all or once or not at all”, followed by “now you’re just clapping out of sympathy”. Magicians, meanwhile, will typically say: “when I first saw that, I was so amazed that I didn’t applaud either”. This both covers the silence and helps to ensure some fairly rapturous applause as he builds to an even more impressive climax.

So it’s OK for entertainers - they are doing it every night, they know what’s probably coming up and they make their handling of it part of the rhythm of their performance. How, though, does a business presenter ensure that applause comes at all and then comes in the right places and to the right degree?

Two planning points:

1. Decide whether you would like applause – is it appropriate to the situation? If you decide it is, appoint one of your team as ‘Applause Leader’, who can start the clapping at the end of your presentation and possibly at other agreed moments. If the Applause Leader, who is ideally positioned at the back of the room, does this enthusiastically it will become infectious and everyone will join in. It’s only when the applause comes tentatively that it risks trickling away. Once you start this process, as long as you don’t overdo it, the applause should become progressively warmer – because audience members realise they have ‘permission’ to applaud.
2. Create an applause ‘cue’ as the closing point to your presentation.  Whether or not you want or expect applause, you need to reach a short, sharp crescendo that sends your audience away with your key message. This will clearly signal the fact you have finished, while also triggering applause, especially if you have planned for that.

All you need to do then is to be sure to ‘accept’ the applause when it comes. Don’t be coy and turn away or even leave your speaking position too soon. Keep looking forwards, smile and spread your eye contact with a series of small nods. If applause – or laughter – comes earlier in your presentation don’t ‘tread’ on it – pause to let your audience show their appreciation.

For magicians only

The footnote that follows will mean nothing unless you are a magician. If you do happen to be from the magical fraternity, it’s a little gem that relates back nicely to this discussion.

Back in the 90s, I was attending a get together in Clerkenwell that I think was the launch of Guy Hollingworth’s wonderful book ‘Drawing Room Deceptions’. Many eminent magicians were present and several got up to do an impromptu trick or two. When David Williamson’s turn came he experienced one of those ‘trickles’ of applause that we all need to avoid but which can be turned to advantage by a skilled entertainer. Far from being phased, Williamson saw it as a gift, especially when he realised the identity of the person responsible. “I’d like to thank you for that short burst of applause; it sounded like four claps, but in fact it was only three”. The short burst had come from none other than Alex Elmsley!

Business presenters know the folly of expensive basement developments

I have a prediction to make. In ten or twenty years time we are going to look back on the current craze for building big, expensive basements in our homes and ask: “what were we thinking”?

Why do I say this and what on earth has it got to do with my pet subject, Presentation Skills?

Well, some years ago I was asked by a training company to nominate my favourite feature for a meeting room in which people are going to spend a long time learning or doing business. “Plenty of natural light” was my unequivocal response, “there is nothing worse than sitting in a darkened room for a sustained period – you can feel the energy being sapped away progressively”.

Similarly, it’s simply not very nice living underground. That’s why the old TV series about gracious living was called ‘Upstairs, Downstairs’. I am reminded of this when visiting neighbours in their big Georgian houses overlooking the park. Some have put kitchens in their basements, but they don’t really use them in the way that the rest of us do. They tend to gravitate to the ‘ground floors’ which were, rather brilliantly, built to a height that gave the servants just enough headroom downstairs, while the big windows above let in lots of light and are positioned so that you don’t even see the road – just the greenery beyond.

So good luck to those now living a ‘Downstairs, Upstairs’ life, but I think you are going to regret going to all the trouble and expense. Back in the business world, two quick tips:

1) Where possible go for a room that is as light and airy as possible. Happily my old caveat of ensuring that you can still see the screen properly has largely disappeared with the emergence of giant TV screens and high-powered projectors.

2) Bear in mind that there is a big difference between a room that holds, say, 12 people and one that can do so comfortably for a sustained period.

Nobody’s job is ‘too boring’ to make a compelling business presentation

I was coaching a team of senior logistics executives once and eventually the time came for the one person who didn’t really want to be there to make a presentation. He was an engineer whose job essentially had been to construct data warehouses in far-flung destinations. By way of pre-amble I asked him what was his general feeling about giving presentations. “A necessary evil”, he replied, “that I don’t enjoy”.

He ran through his presentation as quickly as possible. It was based entirely on showing us screen shots of a complicated budget approval form. It wasn’t much fun for anyone and my feedback included: “none of what you showed us was actually a presentation aid; if you have to use that stuff, at least tell us where to look; and please, when you run through the ‘Benefits’ list at least show some enthusiasm there”.

I made a point of cutting my feedback short and said: “Let’s forget about your presentation for a moment. You have presumably been to these far-flung locations. What did you tell your loved ones when you got back”?  “Actually”, he replied, “they were quite upset with me as I hardly contacted them at all, because it was almost impossible to get a phone signal. I knew they would never believe me so I started taking photographs of the telegraph poles to show how archaic the communication systems were. I had plenty of opportunity to do that because the traffic was an absolute nightmare; we sometimes sat going nowhere for an hour at a time. The only upsides were that the people were absolutely charming and food was unbelievably delicious”.

Suddenly, by getting him to think how he relates the situation to his family rather than to a procurement committee we had the building blocks for some storytelling. We had local colour and indications of inside knowledge. We also the potential for a central plank for the presentation – a striking image that would be memorable and maybe even sum up the whole situation. At the moment, though, it was just a snapshot stuck on the guy’s phone as an excuse for why he had appeared to be ignoring his family. 

“Show me one of those pictures”, I said. As he reached for his phone a smile was beginning to spread across his face. What we then christened the ‘Mad Telegraph Pole’ had more wires coming, going, criss-crossing and hanging loose than you could even begin to count. Then, to my delight, he reached his own conclusion: “actually, this would be a good way of explaining why I have asked for so much in the infrastructure budget”.  Bingo!  To my even greater delight, the man who just a few minutes earlier had been declaring the process a ‘necessary evil’ said: “I’m quite looking forward to doing this presentation again”.

We hear a lot about the need for storytelling, but few go on to explain what to actually do about it. As I have said before, it is often the apparently trivial things that can provide invaluable material. Here’s another tip: Forget for a moment the people you are planning to address; how do you talk about it to your loved ones?