I was doing an hour presentation for a group of fifty small business owners and HR directors a couple years ago. Not only did a local broker show up, he made a point to try and make us look as stupid as possible during the presentaton. He had a number of his clients in the room and did not like a young buck presenting to his clients.
After raising his hand for the fifth time in 15 minutes, I was growing tired of it and so was the audience. Being new to public speaking, this wasn't what I expected on my go around. Fortunately, what I did next worked. I stopped and called him out in front of everyone. He turned red and did not say a word for the remainder of the hour. The presentation was successful and I pulled some new clients from it (unfortunately, none were his clients!).
The key was not to be a jerk. I just said, "Tom, I know you run ABC Benefits, this presentation is intended to be more of a general overview instead of getting into the finer details. If you have any specific questions you would like to discuss after the presentation, I would be more than happy to speak with you."
Well the seminar went great today. When I told numbnutts that I knew who he was, he said that he thought that we were attorneys and he was looking to network, and then he left.
Only had about 8 people in attendance, but I got a few really good appointments out of it, so time will tell.
