A System for Writing a Business Speech or Presentation

Great business speakers write their speeches according to a system. The benefits are twofold:

1. You have a repeatable process that takes you from start to finish

2. You include all content elements that are important to the audience

My Speech Development System works perfectly for every speaker, every speech or presentation and every audience.

Imagine a road traveling from left to right, or from your Attention-Getting Opening to your Call-to-Action closing thoughts. Along this road are scenic highlights and diversions that make it more fun or interesting or compelling to travel to the destination.

The destination is your Call-to-Action close. Just as you bound out of the car at your destination and take part in the delights of the place, so does your audience leave the speech or presentation with an eagerness to do something they haven't done before.

The opening of your speech is like revving your engine, putting the car into drive and getting on the road. You have a glimmer of what lies ahead and you're eager to get going.

Along the way you have stopping points for rest and refueling. These are the roles of your Key Points. The Key Points make it clear that the destination is meaningful.

Just as on a road trip, you will want some diversions or special sights to make the destination even more desirable. In your speech or presentation, these are your Leading Materials. Notice that I do not relegate these delights to the category of supporting points.

Instead of passing by a key point and then saying, "by the way, what we just passed was such and such and here is why it is important" you will entice the listener towards acceptance of your key points by offering interesting nuggets in advance. Those nuggets are Leading Materials and they are the real meat of your speech or presentation.

In the next post I will write about the second step in Great Speaking--the planning stage. You'll learn how to identify the Call-to-Action, the Attention-Getting Opening, the Key Points and the Leading Materials. Stay tuned for other posts when I'll describe the research stage and then practicing and rehearsals.