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EVERY SPEECH A SUCCESS: 12 THINGS YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW TO MAKE SURE WHEN YOU SPEAK YOU'RE ALWAYS WELL RECEIVEDThe 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 AudienceRapport 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 TalkNot 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 SpeechWithin 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 StartsWhenever 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 IntroductionToo 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 PresentsWhen 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 ThemWhile 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 ClicheHaving 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 AudienceHow 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 SpeechPart 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 NoteDuring 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. |
