The post you WISH you could send to your boss
WARNING: Rant ahead
Faithful readers know that I may have a spicy point of view sometimes, but I don’t rant. I might teeter atop a soapbox once in awhile, but I don’t rant.
Not so today.
This post is the one you wish you could send to your boss. Or even write in an email if you didn’t think IT was watching.
Dear Executive:
Your webinar presentations suck.
Please know this isn’t an edict about your personality, your ability to run a company, or reference to your mother. You’re not a bad person.
In fact, despite your achievement, we’re sure you even still think of yourself as a learner. In many ways we’re sure you are.
Now it’s time to learn how to make better webinar presentations.
What your webinar producer wants to say to you:
Just because you can pull off a room in person doesn’t mean you can skip rehearsal. That audio issue you had? Avoidable.
What your design team wants to say to you:
Your slides suck. You used a bullet point to say, “Use digital storytelling with images.” ‘Nuff said. If you have to apologize and explain the chart, you failed.
What your audience wants to say to you:
Don’t tell me to be interactive and then talk at me.
Don’t use a speaker phone because you want to present from a conference room phone like when you have a team conference call. They sound awful, especially over VoIP.
Your energy sounds like you missed an afternoon nap.
And just because you can pull off a room in-person doesn’t mean you can just show up and do the same thing you’ve always done and expect the webinar to be great. You should have listened to your webinar producer and designer.
Love,
Those who really do want you to rock your webinars
Okay, back to shiny happy Roger next time. For now I dare you to forward this.
Katie Stroud
Excellent! Thanks for the template!
Wim @ Sales Sells
Great stuff again Roger,
I think virtual presentations ask for a particular mindset and attitude. We can’t use body language, so what’s left in our toolbox is content, format, wording, voice and mindset. We need to use every of these tools with the greatest focus and care to maximize our impact.
Hope I can attend the webinar with SellingPower next week. Looking forward to it!
All the best,
Wim
TheVP
Wim, you’re so right. It’s not hard, but it is different…and that’s kind of the point of the rant: that one needs to approach it that way. Thx for the great feedback!