Showing Expertise to Your Audience

Expertise
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

As you are standing up in front of an audience, you are there to teach them something. At the same time, you don’t want to approach them in a way that is overwhelming or too assertive. You want to feed them information that is helpful and valuable but not so voluminous that they walk-aways without taking anything with them.

Sharing the perfect amount of information

If you share the right amount of information (not to mention the perfect amount of information), everyone will benefit. Your audience members will benefit because they will learn information that they can apply to their own businesses. You will benefit because you will succeed at sharing valuable information with others that will, in turn, make you valuable, credible, and trustworthy in their eyes. 

You want to find just the right balance (or mix) of information that will get your audience members to start to think about what you are saying, apply it to their own business, and pass the information on to other people whom they know and trust. The reason that the balance is so important is that you need to make your audience comfortable and the nuggets that you give to them need to be the right ones so that they continue to keep you and your business at top of mind.

Determine what is too little and avoid that

There are several different ways in which you can inadvertently give your audience members too little information. One of the distinctive ways is by using generalities (being vague) rather than speaking in specifics. Another way that you might give too little information is by not communicating properly at all. Your communication strategy must be well organized, clear, and open.

Another way to avoid sharing too little information is by being very well acquainted with your audience. You want to connect with their wants and needs and you need to have a strong sense of what they are looking for. When you share information, that information must be valuable and it must focus on them, not on you and your business. Too much clutter will prevent you from achieving your goal, which is to reach your audience in a profound and lasting manner. 

Establish what is too much information and avoid that too

At the opposite end of the spectrum is too much information. You also want to avoid giving your audience too much information because if you do that, they will walk away from you without remembering anything at all. In that case, your effort will have been to no avail. If you are using a tool in your presentation such as PowerPoint or SlideShare, you will want to make sure that you don’t put too much information on each slide. The purpose of the slides is not to read every word out loud. They should serve as a launching tool for you. The concepts are there and you elaborate on your own.

In any given presentation, it will actually work well for you to give them two or three main concepts, which are important and memorable. Your ultimate goal is to get your audience members to walk away with something valuable. Among those concepts, you will want to put them in priority order as well. Most likely, you will find that the approach works well.

Sharing the right amount of information

Once you have determined what is too much and what is too little, you will know exactly what the right amount of information is. The rest should be easy. You will stand up in front of your audience and you will share with them the information that they need and want. That information will enable them to bring their own businesses to the next level and they will be more than willing to share it with others.

Conclusion

The information that you present should be compelling but not overly complex. It is important to remember that you are sharing the information for the sake of the audience and you want to create an environment that is conducive to giving them exactly what they want and need and causing them to walk away at the end completely satisfied. You must know your audience well, customize the information that you are sharing for them, make sure that what you are sharing is relevant, and connect with them on an emotional level. An important thing to establish, aside from what has already been mentioned previously, is credibility. Without credibility, you really won’t be able to do anything.

CompuKol Communications Publications on Amazon

We are pleased to provide you with the insightful comments contained herein. For a complimentary assessment of your online presence, let’s have coffee.

Let's Have Coffee CTA 2

Let's have coffee

Author

  • Michael Cohn

    Michael Cohn is the founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of CompuKol Communications. He has decades of experience in IT and web technologies. Michael founded CompuKol Communications to help small businesses and entrepreneurs increase their visibility and reputation. CompuKol consults, creates, and implements communication strategies for small businesses to monopolize their markets with a unique business voice, vision, and visibility. Mr. Cohn earned a Master’s degree in project management from George Washington University in Washington, DC; and a Master’s degree in computer science and a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, NJ.