KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

You don’t have to pay an Advance Man to do your prospecting. There are plenty of other resources available to you:
- Phone ahead. Get information including the size of the group, the time of day, location of the presentation, your place in the day’s program. All of these factors can affect your audience’s receptivity.
- Contact audience members. If possible, draw out information from them about the group to help you prepare your audience profile. If the group is very small, try to have at least a brief conversation with each person before the meeting to anticipate objections or questions that may be raised, and how you can answer them before they rise to object.
- Research the group. Learn what they already know about your subject, what biases and attitudes they bring to the party, and what their level of expertise is. This will tell you whether technical language and concepts can be used in your presentation or whether your material needs to be delivered in simplified language and business-related anecdotes. And it will also tell you whether you will need to educate your listeners as well as persuade or suggest.
- Know their interests. Find out how their immediate and long-term concerns will relate to your topic. For example, if you’re proposing a major change, research the history of the organization and how the change may fit into their current activities.
- Get there early. Arrive hours in advance, if possible. If you have to speak in another city, get there the day before. Take time to check things out. Make sure everything’s compatible with your software, and that the equipment you’ll be relying on—the microphone, overhead projector, and so forth—actually works.
- Track down the influencers. Find out who’s most important to win over, whether because of their position in the company or their personality—are they argumentative just to make a point, competitive, or jealous? Seek out these people and try and give each a brief preview of your presentation and get their input before you speak. This will show respect and also give them an investment in the outcome of your presentation.
- Dress the part. Find out if the office is formal or casual and dress accordingly. Just keep in mind that business casual is different for every company. Some may see it as meaning jeans and sneakers; others consider casual to mean jacket, no tie.

(Excerpted from Loud and Clear by Karen Berg. Read more here: https://tinyurl.com/wm2tod4)