Great Speaking Coach

Public Speaking Tip: Tell 'em, Tell 'em, Tell 'em--NOT!

It's time to bury "tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them." This old saw is, in a word, WRONG!

Remember that audiences these days have all around them streaming media, voice and text messages, websites, video games, feeds, and on and on. They are savvy and quick to get the message from many sources at once. Repeating your points three times in the course of one speech is the surest way to bore them to death and turn them off. Ken Levine, the Emmy Award winning writer, writes according to the belief that the audience is smarter than they are too often given credit for.

Replace this out-of-date rule with a fresh, audience-friendly perspective: Preview, The View, Review.

It's up to you to make each of these elements new and interesting.

Preview: Whet the audience's appetite, just like a great hors d'oeuvre awakens your taste buds at a meal. Use attention getting openings that put the audience first. A well-crafted story works as long as the story is relevant to the call-to-action.

The View: This encompasses your two or three key points and helps drive you to the call-to-action close. Narratives, colorful references to popular culture and multi-media are great ways to keep the audience engaged. When they're engaged they'll hear and remember your points.

Review: Caution is needed here--do not say, "so in wrapping up let me recap what I just said." You must craft your review to support your call-to-action close which is coming up. A review that deeply and strongly answers the question "What's in it for me?" is very effective as a precursor to the call-to-action. You want to make the audience eager to wonder "what's next," not sit there thinking, "what's new?"

Read some examples of great Previews here...

Speaker Movement on Stage: Three Ways to Move

The keynote speaker is moving rapidly and frequently across the platform. Joe told me that while watching the speaker directly the movement wasn't an issue. Watching the speaker on the projection screens was a different story. He seemed to practically jump off the screen and into the laps of the audience. Should speakers whose presentations are being projected modify their movements and gestures?

The huge size of simultaneous projections makes the speaker visible to those far from the stage. While this is a good thing, you'll be remembered for your message if you keep in mind how different your image looks when viewed on the screen.

To ensure that your movement around the presentation space works whether the audience is watching you on the stage or on the screens keep in mind these three principles polished presenters know:

1. Movement and gestures should match the content. When you're setting a quiet, dark or downbeat scene, be sure to stand still. When your content brings to life a busy street, a party or other lively event, your own movement and gestures should be energetic and animated.
2. Avoid rhythmic and repetitive movements, such as pacing from side to side, three steps each time; or revolving your hands over and over; or rocking back and forth on your heels. These movements and gestures are very distracting.
3. Videotape an early rehearsal and take a close look at your movements and gestures. If something looks "too much" on the small screen, you can be sure it will be too much on a huge screen. Scale it back a bit.

Whatever you do, please don't stand rooted like a tree to one spot. That's equally distracting and will not enhance your reputation as a speaker people enjoy listening to.

What's your experience with projection screens? Whether you've been in the audience or on the platform, weigh in with your perspective. Click on the comment link below and let us know.

Speaker Stories: Unique and Engaging

No one was returning my phone calls. I came to the realization one Wednesday afternoon that it had been two days since I had heard from any of the directors on the board that led the organization where I was the Executive Director.

It seemed strange. Two of them called me all the time. Also I had some questions and had left messages with other people. Our busy season was coming soon and the silence was unusual.

Within a day I had my answer. The board had been meeting behind closed doors to decide if they would terminate my services. Once they decided they would, they had to figure out how to do it and what they would tell me.

My first reaction was to protest that 10 months wasn't enough time to get into a job that had been held by my predecessor for 40 years. I railed against the president who constantly told me "retail is detail" (we were not a retail business), the lawyer who said one thing and did another, and the woman who had befriended me only to cast the vote that tipped the balance against me.

Looking back years later I know that these were things I couldn't control. My downfall came from doing things poorly that I could control. First and foremost was to listen and really hear what was being said. If the president's mantra was "retail is detail" then I should have understood that to him, I could never provide too many details.

This story serves several purposes. It conveys the message that people must take responsibility for their own actions, including listening and understanding what they are hearing. It tells the reader or audience who I am, that I have learned some hard lessons in my life, and through these lessons I have earned the privilege of speaking to them.

That is why you must tell stories. In three minutes of speaking time, with some well-placed vocal variety and movements, the audience will get these messages more effectively than if someone read a boring introduction and then I gave them a lecture about how they should behave.

There are 8 types of stories business speakers can use to convey their messages. Download your complimentary copy of my Great Speaker's Guide to Business Storytelling

I would end this story with the following:

How about you? When you think about your work, ask yourself "how effectively do I work on the things I can control? How well do I listen and do I really understand what I am hearing?"

Tell me how you use your own life stories to get a point across. Or post a question. Just click on the comment link below and let me hear from you.

Speaking Tips from Jerry Seinfeld

"No matter how many times you've done it in the past, it's got to be polished or it goes away," Jerry Seinfeld explained prior to a live performance at an Atlantic City nightclub. "The act just picks up and starts walking away."

Jerry Seinfeld looks for performing opportunities to keep his performance skills and energy at their highest level. You can take this advice and apply it to your business speaking and experience your own star-quality speaking success.

Notice he talks about polishing as a continuous process. You don't prepare once, practice a few times and then go in front of the audience. You craft your content, add your style elements, practice out loud with all movements and vocal variety, and then you keep polishing. When one presentation is complete, you work towards the next one, polishing and getting better. Jerry is never finished, and a business presenter is never finished.

I think continuous polishing is especially critical for business storytelling. The impact of a story depends on putting the words together just so and the vocal effects and movements added in just the right places and with just the right emphasis and balance. You only keep your story fresh and powerful when it is flawless and yet comes across to the audience as spontaneous and from your passion. Polishing gives you practiced spontaneity--the quality of being in the moment as you are living the story while the story flows smoothly due to careful practice and polishing.

Ask yourself what contributes to Jerry Seinfeld's popularity and wealth. Maybe it's his continuous polishing . If that's good for him, it would be good for you. What do you think? Comments are welcomed through the comment link below.

Great Public Speaking - It's a Habit You Can Develop

Did you know that 90% of your daily activities are habits? The ways you start your day, perform at work and behave in public and at home are mostly the same ways you have been doing these things for years. This has huge implications for your presentation style.

Most of my executive and sales clients tell me "I'm preparing my presentations this way because that is the way we/I have always done it." Then they emphasize that they are only doing what people (their audience) expect.

Just because you do something out of habit, that doesn't make it the right thing to do. Would you like a boring speaker to justify his or her boredom-inducing presentation by saying "too bad, that's the way I always do it." When you're in the audience, you hate boredom. So it is only reasonable that you should not do the same to your audiences.

My own recent experience dealing with a bad habit has been an eye-opener. I'm a dressage rider and one of the things I'm struggling with is bouncing too much when we do sitting trot. Judges hate watching me and lower my test scores because of it. Yet I don't feel that it is uncomfortable. That's just the way my horse and I trot together. It is a bad habit yet it's one that feels comfortable for me.

You know that habits feel comfortable and are hard to see in your own behavior. That's why I rely on my trainer and on videos to see my bad riding habit. I'm working on fixing it. You can also fix your poor speaking habits by using a coach to help you see your bad habits and to replace them with audience-friendly ones.

"The way we always do it" is not justification for doing something the same way forever. Get an outside view of your presentation habits and expert advice to help you replace bad habits with god ones. That's the cool thing--you can learn new habits to replace the old--then you will be allowed to say, "that's the way I always do it" and everyone will be glad you do.

Thoughts,frustrations, questions? All are welcome and can be posted by clicking on the comment link below.

Sales Strategies for Speakers

Ever heard of the "dummy curve"? It's an idea I learned from Sandler Sales Institute and it resonates with my principle Put the Audience First.

The dummy curve concept says that when you're new to sales you don't have depth of product and service knowledge. So you go to a customer or prospect, ask a few questions about how things are going, and then sit back and listen. You learn a lot about the customer's pain because while you're listening, the customer is talking--and talking and talking.

Once you're immersed in product or service knowledge, you start doing all the talking. You tell the customer all  about what you offer. When you do ask a question, you use the answer to take off on another soliloquy. The whole sales presentation is all about you.

Sales presenters too often believe that they should put everything they know on their slides, then stand in front of the prospect and repeat it all. Every time I see the first half dozen slides in a deck that "tell the corporate story" I think--where's the customer's story?

The more you tell your customer or prospect what you know and understand about them, the more they will know that you have put them first. They feel important to you; they experience pride as you praise their successes. They will respect your analysis of their problems once you've given them confidence that your focus is on them.

As a smart sales presenter you have depth of product and service knowledge and keeps it to yourself. The genius of the dummy curve concept is that you become a dummy once again, deliberately, so you can listen while the prospect talks, and talks and talks.That's the ultimate in Putting the Audience First.

What's your worst sales presentation story? Your best? Take a couple of minutes to post your sales stories through the comment link below.

Sales Presentations--Sleeper or Seller?

You're in a shopping frame of mind. You're buying a new car, or a nice watch, or some golf clubs. Maybe a new service, such as a calling plan for you cell phone or for investment advice.

So you go to the store eager to see it, touch it and feel how it fits. Now suppose the sales person ask you to just sit down and watch some slides. He'll tell you everything that the slides already tell you while you sit and sit. Your energy fades, your desire wanes and pretty soon you just have one thought--"get me out of here!"

Is this what you do to your customers when you deliver a sales presentation? I am sorry to say that every single one of my thousands of coaching clients starts with slides packed with information about their company and their product. They insist that they must "tell their story" or the customer won't get it.

That is ridiculous on several levels. First, have you met a customer today who isn't extremely capable of interpreting fast moving multi-media, while at the same time holding a conversation or sending text messages? Do not insult your customers by assuming the worst about their capabilities to get your message.

Second, listening to you set the scene, deliver the facts and recite the benefits is worthless to the customer. They want to experience the product or service on their own, in their own way. While it's easier to understand when you're selling a product--after all there is something to hold onto-it's harder with a service. Yet you can tell a story where you put the customer in as the hero who experiences the value of the service--get them as close to the experience as they can get. Once you've captured their imagination you can give them other information.

A sales presentation is not about you and your company. It is only about how your customer can have a better life by using your product or service. Don't forget this, or you'll be on the speaking trail forever, without ever making a sale.

Click on the comments link just below and share with us your experiences using slides during a sales presentation. What kind of slides work the best? The worst? What was the biggest moment of discovery for you during a sales presentation?

Great Speaking - 3 Tips to "Act as If"

As I continue to read The Success Principles by Jack Canfield I keep finding wonderful connections between my desire to help business speakers enjoy speaking success and his tips on how to enjoy overall success.

One principle is called "Act as If." Canfield urges that you act as if you have achieved the success you are aiming for, by dressing well, being sociable and changing your attitudes about money. While you may still need to work on actually accumulating money, you can think rich rather than poor or middling.

The same goes for presentations. Act as if you have a presentation coming up in a few days. Act as if the audience can help you increase revenue and propel your career. Act as if you are the most spellbinding storyteller. Act as if you have confidence in front of any audience. Act as if you're not stuck in the rut of presenting the same way everyone else around you does.

Put these tips in a prominent place so you can "Act as If" you're the presenter you really want to be.

1) Know your typical audience. Are they technical types, managers above you, direct reports? What's your area of expertise and what do you typically communicate to this audience about your area of expertise?

2) Create 5 slides that capture the essence of your expertise. Notice I said 'essence', not every detail. You know the details deep within and they should not be on your slides. Let your slides hint at your story and your speaking tell the whole story. There should be a starting point, two or three intermediate points and a call-to-action.

3) Speak your content out loud to yourself. Do this every day. Five slides should give you enough material for a 20-30 minute presentation. Daily practice of up to one-half hour will give you a huge advantage when the time comes to get in front of a live audience. Even if your final presentation to the audience is modified to suit the particulars of the situation, your practice will help you be hours ahead.

Let me know how your "acting as if" helps you improve your own public speaking skills. Click on the comment link below and post your thoughts.

Speaking Fear- Make it Disappear

Nervous on the platform? Sweaty hands and shaky knees keeping you from taking your rightful place in the spotlight? Dry throat and trouble breathing stopping you in your tracks to the front of the room?

What's the antidote to these presentation nerves? I'll tell you what it is but first I am going to tell you what it is NOT.

You do not reduce your speaking anxiety by imaging the audience in their underwear. Think about what you might see--hairy legs, muffin tops or beer bellies, racy, lacy lingerie or boxers covered in red hearts. Do you think these visions will relax you? I don't know of anyone who can imagine these and not get hives or suffer a brain dysfunction. We do not want to go there!

The antidote is so simple and uplifting: imagine the audience in their very best clothes, with expensive leather briefcases, the finest jewelry and the latest in elegant writing instruments. These exceptional people are hanging on to your every word, nodding often and laughing in all the right places.

Jack Canfield calls this "disappearing your fear." You remind yourself that you are the one creating the fearfulness,and that you have the power to disappear the fear. You do this with detailed visions of the best of all worlds. When you picture yourself standing tall and confident in front of a well-dressed, attentive audience, you give yourself the power to live up to that vision.

What's your antidote to presentation nerves? Please click on the comment link below and let me know.

Communications Company Leader Fails 'Communications 101'

Can a communications company fail because of well, poor communications skills? That is the case with Gary D. Forsee, former CEO of Sprint Nextel, who resigned on October 7, 2007. Forsee described himself as a leader capable of executing plans. What he was not capable of doing was bridging the gap between the different cultures of Sprint and Nextel.

So success isn't about creating plans and executing them. It's about creating plans that accurately reflect the people who are doing the work, and how they feel and think about their work. Success comes from painting a picture of the future that all participants can imagine.

This is called a springboard story. The leader crafts, with artistry and imagination, a vision of the future. The vivid words and varied oral qualities of the delivery tap into the subconscious brains of employees. By tapping into the subconscious, rather than staying on the quantitative, fact-based planning plane, the leader allows the listeners to imagine a picture of the future and their own place in traveling towards that future.

Are stories and imagination just "soft" tools that have no place in multi-billion dollar corporations? It seems clear from Gary Forsee's missteps that stories and communication that taps into the subconscious brain would lead to far better "hard" results.

What's your opinion? Post your thoughts through our comment link below.