You set the stage for any negotiation with information. That’s called positioning. The way you present that information, and its content, shape the persona the other negotiator has of your negotiation power, resources, and abilities. #Disinformation plays a vital role in shaping that persona – using it strategically can help you negotiate better.

Disinformation is used in planning wars, corporate espionage, and in the planning stages of negotiations. Think for a moment about the term #FakeNews. What comes to mind? That phrase has become a form of disinformation.

The following is how you can use disinformation to improve your negotiation efforts.

Creating a Disinformation Campaign:

To create disinformation campaigns, start by disseminating information in small cycles first – you want the target to become familiar with it. That’ll make him more susceptible to believing it and the information that follows. Over time, expand it, its believability to the truth, and its cycles. To have the greatest effect on the target, have information disseminated in places that they frequent (e.g. social media post, news outlets, radio, etc.). Doing so will impact their belief as to the validity of the information (i.e. I see/hear it everywhere – so it must be true).

Psychology of Disinformation:

For disinformation to be viable, tie it loosely to the beliefs of your target. People become swayed more easily if they have a preconceived belief about something they accept as already being truthful. So, if you associate your disinformation with their currently held beliefs, they’ll accept your information more readily. The trick is to make your information just within the outer realms of their beliefs. That’s the setup to having them stretch their beliefs as you later present insights further outside of it. Your efforts should become geared to having them expand their beliefs to the point of easily accepting the new insights you present as the truth.

Combating Disinformation:

As you know or may have discovered, disinformation is a powerful mental tool. Thus, while employing it, you must be mindful about its deployment against you.

To improve your plight when disinformation is used against you, ask yourself the following questions.

1. Consider the originating source of the information. Ask yourself, what belief is this information attempting to form in my mind or in the mind of my supporters?
2. How was the information delivered? Did it arrive through a source that has proven to be believable in the past? Is that source being manipulated?
3. What new paradigms is this information attempting to create and who benefits from it?
4. To what degree are others attempting to alter my perception for the benefit of who they’re serving?
5. What happens if I ignore the information?

Posing such questions to yourself and your confidants will help you evaluate the information and its potential validity. I’m not suggesting you become paranoid. What I’m suggesting is you not readily accept information at face value as the truth. There are too many ways to get disinformation into today’s environment. Guard the door that keeps it away from you.

Disinformation is used in all realms of negotiation. And, there is a multitude of ways that it’s used. Therefore, the better you become at utilizing it, and knowing how to thwart its use against you, the better you’ll become as a negotiator… and everything will be right with the world.

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

Making a trade show presentation can be intimidating, particularly if you’re presenting to a room full of industry insiders at a convention rather than speaking with visitors at your trade show booth. Whatever your situation, these tips will help you speak successfully and impress anyone who hears you.

Know Your Company, Your Product, And Your Trade Show Booth

This tip seems like common sense, but knowing your facts becomes more difficult when you are under pressure. Discussing your product with someone at a convention is nothing like making a sales pitch in a regular retail store. You need to know everything completely, and be prepared to answer a wide variety of questions. Plus, you’ll need to handle distractions without becoming disoriented or distracted yourself. You will make your trade show presentation against a backdrop of noise and the speeches of others if you are presenting on the convention floor. These noises are incredibly distracting for you and your audience, so you need to be more focused, confident, and knowledgeable to compensate.

If you have the honor of presenting in a closed room, you have almost certainly earned your right to be there because you’ve been judged as a good speaker. People will come specifically to hear what you have to say. That’s a lot of pressure, even for someone who is a naturally good speaker. Ensure that you know your facts, or the stress may drive them right from your mind.

Practice Your Trade Show Presentation Beforehand

Although many gifted and seasoned presenters can give a spontaneous speech just moments after stepping into the booth, the rest of us benefit from a whole lot of practice. If you expect to be interacting with customers, see if you can get friends and family to act as visitors to the trade show booth. Have them ask you probing questions, and ensure that you can answer everything quickly, effectively, and in a way that is favorable to your company. Try to replicate the convention atmosphere if you can: turn on loud music or have the conversation in a public place if possible.

When you are presenting to a larger audience, the stakes go up. Luckily, it’s also easier to practice. You can write almost your entire presentation ahead of time, allowing you to practice it in full. See whether the convention center will allow you to practice in the room you’ll ultimately use.

Speak Up And Be Confident

If you know what you’re talking about, and you’ve rehearsed what you’re saying, there is no reason to be shy or meek when giving your presentation. You have every right to be confident. And when you are confident, more people will listen to you, and you’ll appear more trustworthy. With solid knowledge, lots of practice, and healthy confidence, you’ll wow the crowd at any convention. You’ll promote your business, develop your reputation as a good speaker, and help turn leads into customers.

Those who want to establish themselves as experts in their field are encouraged to find speaking and teaching opportunities. Getting out in front of an audience is a time-tested way to demonstrate one’s mastery of the required skills and it is an excellent way to promote your enterprise and drum up business. Useful presentation techniques will make you feel more confident about your ability to communicate effectively.

Keep it simple and tell a story

The best speakers know that the more complex the topic, the more important it becomes to make that topic easy for an audience to understand. Distill a complicated message into fewer words. Include a personal anecdote or story that illustrates a key point you are trying to make. Stories and anecdotes make your presentation more compelling by placing the message into a context that is relevant to the listeners and helps them to make sense of the subject.

You are the star

You are the speaker and the stage belongs to you. Do not allow slides to upstage your talk. How do you do that? By not posting your entire talk onto slides and using them as a crutch. Avoid presenting an avalanche of text-heavy slides that you read from. Instead, speak to and connect with those who come out to hear you.

On your slides include important charts and graphs, key statistics, major talking points and relevant visuals that support and advance your message. Practice your presentation often and get to know your material, so that you are not overly dependent on slides.

Engage and involve your audience

Most of all, give the right talk. Know what the audience expects you to address. The person who schedules your talk can help you choose a topic and give you the heads-up re: big questions that audience members may want answered. To keep your audience engaged, pose a question or two at some point in your presentation. Also, be willing to answer questions as you go along and make your presentation more of a conversation with the audience.

We deliver

While good content is essential, that alone will not win over an audience. Body language and delivery also matter. Audiences size up and judge a speaker within the first three minutes of a presentation. Be sure to project confidence, expertise, good humor and approachability. Smile, make eye contact and use a pleasant, yet authoritative, tone of voice. Show appropriate enthusiasm and passion for your subject matter. Let the audience know that you like being up there speaking.

How to get to Carnegie Hall

Practice your talk and practice some more. It takes a lot of work to make a presentation look effortless. Skilled presenters give the impression that their clever ad libs and convincing responses to questions are all ex tempore, but nothing could be further from the truth.

The fact is, successful presentations are built on lots of preparation and rehearsal time. Wordsmith what may sound too complex or unclear. Carefully curate the text and images that will appear on your slides, so that they smoothly integrate with the talk. Anticipate questions that may be posed and formulate good answers. Read your talk out loud and record your voice, to make sure that you pace your delivery appropriately.

An effective presentation should inform, educate and entertain. Make that happen when you simplify your message and de-clutter your slides; interact with the audience by asking and answering questions throughout your talk; and practice a lot, so that you will be relaxed and confident as you present. Hit your mark and the audience will regard you as an expert. Mission accomplished.

Thanks for reading,

Kim