The meeting Information form is one of the most valuable tools I have ever used when customizing my presentation for any specific group.
You will find this form in the meeting information form section of your manual.
I send this form to the client before I go to speak at their event.
After they fill it out, they send it back to me with the answers to the questions that I asked the client on this form – this allows me to tailor my speech or workshop exactly for their audience.
And I can be sure that my presentation will speak to them EXACTLY where they live and do business.
I want to arm you with a lot of information-- I want to give you what I use, so you don't go blind and that you will be prepared.
This is what I send them…things to know your audience who are they, their age, the gender and cultural mix, income range, educational level.
What do they do?
Why are they attending the presentation?
Are they attending voluntarily or is it mandated by superiors?
Have they had a positive or a negative response to you in the past?
You want to know that as well, so you don't make the same mistakes.
The meeting form should have the following information:
The name of the company or organization, the date, number of people that's going to be involved who will attend what is the demographic makeup of the audience the age sex income education, cultural mix, all relative information.
Should the message be targeted to one group and preference to the other?
So yes, which one are you talking about?
What frustrations do they experience in their work?
There's a reason that I'm trying to get to that.
When you custom design your speech, this will quadruple your referral business and your repeat business.
This is how I in six years, I’ve built a multimillion-dollar business in the arena with no experience, because the competition wasn’t willing to take the time to do this.
How do you want your people to feel when they leave the speaker's presentation?
Whatever information they give me, I will design my presentation -- achieve that objective.
You want to acknowledge them.
You want to stroke them when you're giving a presentation when you open up, and you want to find out about them.
So that you start off in the beginning, stopping them and acknowledging them…
I told an audience… You left the competition in the dark all across the country and meeting room after meeting rooms and real estate offices after real estate offices.
The words were ringing out. It's a done deal.
“Give yourselves a round of applause,” I told them.
They were acknowledging themselves. “Hey, he's recognizing us. He's stroking us.”
Hey, he's calling us number one.
You want to make that meeting planner or the person who invited you there to look good.
Oh, am I clear in terms about getting to know your audience?
When you send out your form to companies, sometimes you have to be very persistent and remind your client to fill this form out and send it back to you.
At times, a meeting information form ends up on their desk for two or three weeks before the event and you have not received it.
It is worth making a couple of phone calls to re-emphasize the importance of their attention to this form. Ask them to please fill out the form completely and in detail.
Ask them to fax the form to you rather than mail it.
This reinforces the sense of urgency for its completion.
You want to say “look, I want this to be the best presentation you have ever heard, and I need your help. Please send me this information.”
After you receive the form from them, You may want to arrange a phone conference to get additional information along with the information you get from this form.
Talk to people you know, who are a part of the same industry.
Read newsletters and get all the information you can so that you're well prepared when you stand up before that group.
Operations associations, organizations and other groups are looking for and will rehearse speakers who put a priority on customizing and tailoring their presentations.
In the next lesson, I will show you how to take this process one step further so that when you get to the event, you will be able to reach your audience.
See you next week
