When doing a presentation over the phone, you would want to “connect”. Have you ever been chatting with a group over the phone and you hear….nothing but dead silence?

How do you know they are engaged? How do you keep them from multitasking to do other work? Let’s start with the assumption that you are regularly asked to conduct meetings or presentations over the phone to a dispersed group. Here are some telephone presentation tips you can do to keep the group engaged:

  1. Give a clear outline of what you will cover in the call or time together. This gives the control from you to them as they now know exactly what will be covered.
  2. Keep to three points maximum. Without the advantage of body language you can’t read if they are connected or not to what you are saying. Couple that with the fact that they are all most likely multitasking, it means that comprehension is cut in half. So keep it simple and easy to follow.
  3. Each time you move off of one point-give the roadmap. Provide them the roadmap of what you have covered and what is next so people who have tuned out will know exactly where you are at. This stops questions that make you repeat what was said.
  4. If you can, send out a quick outline to the group who will be on the line with what you will cover. This includes the roadmap for the discussion. Invite them to email you ahead of time with any questions they may have. This helps you keep the discussion focused, see who is engaged, and because you are allowing them to “play” with the schedule upfront their brain now says they have to buy in to the discussion at hand.

Try out these four tips to keep people engaged and focused when talking over the phone.

Join us on the next Outcome Thinking Seminar to learn more.

a man making a presentation phone call