EVERY SPEECH A SUCCESS: 12 THINGS YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW
TO MAKE SURE WHEN YOU SPEAK YOU'RE ALWAYS WELL RECEIVED
by Dr. Jeffrey Kant
The other evening I dragged myself out after a long day to
hear a well-known business authority give a speech on a
topic of interest to me. I was hopeful... even, though
dilapidated, expectant. But, oh, how angry I was by the time
the "expert" finished. Along with any number of other
members of the audience, I would gladly have lynched him if
I could. What went so terribly wrong?
It was the way the man comported and presented himself. He
failed to understand that his speech was not primarily an
opportunity for him to overawe the audience with his
towering intellect... not his God-given chance to preen and
posture... not a moment to condescend and offend by
thoughtless arrogance. Rather, it was an opportunity, as the
English novelist E. M. Foster knew so well, to connect with
people. Through this connection, and not the oozing
pomposity so amply displayed, would come what the best
speeches assure: an opportunity to influence and improve
other people and to gain a full measure of respect from
them.
What does it take to achieve this very beneficial result?
#1 Know Thy Audience
Rapport with your audience helps ensure your successful
reception. And you get this rapport by understanding who
you're talking to. Achieving the level of understanding you
need is not difficult either. One certain way is to request
and scan a year's worth of publications of the organization
you're addressing. Look for the names of people in the
audience who are making a difference. Read their articles;
familiarize yourself with their projects. Who are the people
doing the praise-worthy things? Note them down. Then ask
the program organizer how many of these people will be
present. Ask, too, to be introduced to them before you
talk. Tell them how glad you are to meet them... and praise
their specific work. This spade-work helps ensure a positive
audience -- before you ever stand up at the podium.
#2 Get Yourself Covered In The Organization's Publication
Before You Talk
Not only should you know people in your audience. They
should know you. Indeed, they should think of you not just
as an interruption in their busy lives, but as a person of
consequence whose words and opinions are well worth hearing.
Media coverage helps ensure this result. That's why you
should either:
## get yourself interviewed by the publication before your
speech. (Don't forget the include a photo.) ## publish one
of your articles beforehand, or ## at the very least make
sure that the advance publicity that's being run helps
increase your perceived value and desirability. The reason
celebrities spend so much time perfecting their images is
because they know that they can influence how people
perceive what they do by how they feel about them before
they do it. You can, too!
#3 Get The Names Of The VIPS Attending Your Speech
Within every organization, in every audience there are some
people who are widely regarded as important, exceptional
people, whose work is well regarded, who have achieved, by
dint of long effort, a position of prominence. Such people
deserve your recognition. Unfortunately, outside speakers,
whether out of arrogance of ignorance, all too often
withhold it... as our business "expert" did the other night.
He got up, looked neither left nor right, and just started
spitting out his canned presentation. He never uttered a
word indicating that anyone other than himself had either
considered or had anything of importance to say about his
topic. This is an egregious mistake.
If you want your speech to go well, learn something from
Winston Churchill, certainly one of the greatest speech
masters of all time and one of the century's most successful
individuals. "If I had it to do all over again" he said at
the sunset of his life, "I'd praise more people sooner."
Learn! Find out about the Dips attending your speech. Get a
list of these people and ask the organizer to annotate it
for you. You should have a list of at least five or six
names and something meaningful about each. Don't forget to
add the organizer's name, too; he/she has spent a lot of
time getting this program organized but will almost always
be far too modest to put his/her name on this crucial list.
Make sure you're not either too disorganized or egocentric
to include it.
#4 Meet A Few People In Your Audience Before Your Talk
Starts
Whenever possible, mix with members of your audience before
your talk starts. You want to find out why they've come,
what they hope to learn and achieve from your remarks, and
any personal information about them they care to share...
including their names. Good speeches demand rapport between
audience and speaker. Unlike my "authority" (who never
deigned to meet anyone, shake hands or even pleasantries...
much less find out anything more substantive), speakers who
care about both the satisfaction of their audience and how
they themselves are received, do as much as possible to
foster crucial audience rapport.
Whenever possible, have one of the organizers escort you
around a room. If, however, you must introduce yourself,
don't shyly hang back. Go up to people, introduce yourself
as the speaker and ask a few direct, sincere questions along
the lines indicated above. Arriving thirty minutes before
the start of your program gives you enough time to meet
several members of your audience and still enables you to
withdraw in plenty of time to make a dramatic entrance, seat
yourself on the platform, etc.
The important thing is that you keep a few notes about the
people you've met, their names, of course, where they're
from, what they're interested in, anything of importance
they may have told you. As you'll see, you'll have need for
such information shortly.
#5 Get The Names, Too, Of The "Little People"
As Bobby Kennedy used to say, "Never forget the little
people." One day when I was dining in a hamburger place in
my neighborhood with a friend, I saw that this message had
made a big impression not only on me -- but on his eldest
son, too: Joseph P. Kennedy, III, our congressman. After
wolfing down a couple of burgers, the young congressman had
made bee-line for the kitchen where he greeted both cooks,
the waitresses and even the boy doing the washing up. And it
wasn't even an election year! I give full marks to this kind
of behavior... and know how valuable it will be towards
making your speech a success.
Find out the names of the people who have organized your
event, run the registration table, set up the chairs,
handled the refreshments, etc. These are the bedrock of any
organization. Maybe you know this... but how much better it
is to thank these people -- by name -- in your remarks.
After all, they get far too little praise. And if it's this
praise that helps oil your reception, so be it.
#6 Write Your Introduction
Too many speakers leave their introduction to chance -- with
disastrous results. Too many other speakers, who understand
they need to take charge of their introduction, pack it with
a bunch of meaningless data, like where they went to school
thirty years ago and how many dozens of articles they've
written. In truth, neither neglecting your introduction --
or packing it with the egotistical details -- makes any
sense at all.
Instead, tailor your introduction to the people you're
speaking to. What about you would interest them? What have
you do, are doing to make their lives better now? What have
you done in the past? In short, don't be introduced with
details about where you've been; have the moderator provide
details about what you've done... and why it's important
both for your audience and for the state of the world.
#7 Begin Your Talk With Compliments And Presents
When you were growing up, your mother told you it was always
the right thing to do to take a little present when you
visited. The advice was right then and it's right even
today, when good manners are too often derided as both
unnecessary and elitist. In truth, boors -- even if
knowledgeable about their subject fields -- deserve the poor
receptions they get.
Preface your substantial remarks by singling out both Dips
and organizers from the audience, the people who have made
real contributions both to the field you're in and today's
program. Use your standing as the speaker to pull these
people out of the shadows, to get them on their feet, to
bring them to the front of the room... to receive the kudos
to which they are entirely entitled. Tell the audience
exactly why you have called on these people, precisely what
they have done, and why they deserve the round of applause
you're now leading for them. Of course these people will be
a little embarrassed by the attention, but, let me tell you,
they'll love you for remembering them... and getting their
friends and colleagues to remember them, too. Being the
leader in orchestrating praise is no bad way for you to
start getting into the hearts and minds of your audience.
Note: are you an author or publisher? Then bring along a
little present, like a copy of your latest book. Don't
present this wholesale. Give out one, two at the most. And,
if you're the author, make sure they're autographed. This
is not only a graceful recognition for key people but good
publicity for you, too. Create, too, an award of merit and
have a designer create an attractive certificate suitable
for signing. When I became Count of Raban, I created the
Companion age of Raban and have delighted worthy people here
and abroad by enrolling them, en publique, as members of
this order and presenting their award suitably framed and
ready for hanging. As I said, you cannot err too far on the
side of rewarding merit and recognizing the good works of
other. The word "excess" does not apply here.
#8: Select Two "Weather vanes" From The Audience And Play To
Them
While it's impossible to ascertain how every people in your
audience feels about your talk, you can use a little trick
to gauge audience reaction. While you're sitting on the
platform scanning the crowd, select two people to play to.
One should be an outgoing personality with a sunny
disposition. Such people are easy to find; they're often the
life of the party, buzzing around, greeting friends,
smiling, cracking jokes. Yes, they're easy to find! At the
other extreme, find someone with a dour, even angry look.
These people often sit quietly, stolidly before you begin
saying nothing to anyone. These are your weather vanes.
You can tell you're doing fine, if the happy face stays
happy. Are your jokes registering? Have your key points hit
home as indicated by a heading nodding emphatically about
what you say? Then things are going well. But if your
sterner weather vane breaks out in a smile, much less a
hearty belly laugh, and starts encouraging you with body
language, then you know the entire audience is eating out of
your hand.
#9: Don't Follow Your Introductory Recognitions And
Compliments With Some Mediocre Cliche
Having started well by recognizing key members of your
audience who deserve recognition, don't blow it by resorting
to some tired line like, "I'm glad to be here this morning."
Instead, face your audience directly and say, "I'm here for
one reason: so that when we're finished you're know six
precise ways of cutting your insurance bills and pocketing
thousands of extra dollars this year." In short, lead with a
client-centered benefit. Tell them not just what you're
going to tell them (the old formula) but what they're going
to get and why they're going to be better off. Believe me,
if your talk delivers the goods, then your audience is
certainly going to think well of you. No wonder. You're
making their lives better!
#10 Throughout Your Talk, Directly To People In Your
Audience
How often have you gone to a speech and felt completely disengaged fro
the speaker? This largely happens because he makes no effort
to connect with you... or with anybody in the audience. A
good speech, on the other hand, leaves you feeling that the
speaker was there for you, talked to you, cared about you.
The likelihood of your audience feeling this way will be
strengthened when you bring real people from your audience
right into your talk.
Before you started, you canvassed members of your audience,
meeting them, learning why they came, the concerns they had,
what they wanted you to help them achieve. Now's the time to
use this information. "You know Joe Williams was telling me
only this morning..." Or, "Mrs. Parks from Main Street is
very concerned about this issue, and so am I. That's why I
want to tell you..." Believe me, not only will these people
pay closer attention and really feel you're speaking to
them, other people who know them will, too, as will those
who share their concerns. You are not just another speaker;
you are connected to the truly vital concerns of your
audience. No, they may not always like what you say in
response, but they'll appreciate the fact you made an effort
to hear them and respond.
How much better this is than the way my business "expert"
presented his information the other evening. He dished out
fact after fact, statistic after statistic, so wrapped up in
the data and the scaffolding of his argument that he forgot
that the only reason he was being asked to make his
presentation was to inform and influence the audience. Such
breathtaking arrogance is, of course, its own reward, for
long before this man had stopped his audience had written
him off as entirely irrelevant to their lives and entirely
unworthy of their consideration.
#11: Don't Take Questions During Your Speech
Part of what makes a speech successful, as should now be
clear to you, is the deliberate creation of a particular
mood, the mood that helps influence your audience. Questions
and other interruptions undercut and even destroy this mood.
That's why they must be held until you've finished, not
least because in every audience there's some joker who's
been waiting a lifetime to confront a speaker with his inane
observation and so grab a moment of limelight. Let me be
very clear about this: speeches should always be organized
so that this creature's objective is firmly thwarted.
Note I am here talking about speeches. It is quite otherwise
if you are presenting a workshop or training session. In
such cases questions, as a means of furthering audience
participation and involvement, should be welcomed and
encouraged.
#12: Close On An Upbeat Note
During the darkest days of World War II, Winston Churchill
regularly came before the British House of Commons to report
on the war. Often what he had to say was of the most severe
and disheartening kind. Yet he knew one thing that you must
learn, too: all speeches, but particularly those that deal
with matters of grim consequence, must never end on a
depressive note. They must always point to the possibility
of a better future.
Human beings... none more so than Americans... are not made
to take information that's unrelievedly depressing. We need
to know that while things are bad now, indeed very bad, they
will be better... if only we stay of good heart and work
hard to make them better. If your speech deals mainly with
doom and gloom, then you owe it to your audience -- and to
how they will perceive and remember you -- to end by telling
them that if they follow sensible procedures (of the kind
you have, we hope, advanced) then things will be better. If
you do this, they'll not only be prepared to hear and accept
what you've said... they'll be glad they had the opportunity
to hear it all from you -- not merely a fine speaker, but a
superior human being.
**********************************
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is a well-known speaker
and marketing authority. Now you can profit by using his
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his quarterly Sure-Fire Business Success Catalog -- by
calling (617) 547-6372 with MC/VISA or writing 50 Follen
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