Public speaking in business – preparing to deliver a proposal

by: Ellen Egan

Public speaking is important in every business setting.  Very often in business, you will need to deliver a proposal or a pitch to a potential client.  In these situations, you will want to do more than just display your technical expertise, you will want to persuade your audience to take some action. Certainly, you will want to include some technical information to inform your audience about the product or idea you are presenting.  but, keep in mind that the ultimate outcome you want  is to sell a product or an idea.  By preparing your presentation properly you can achieve your objective of informing your audience and encouraging them to take action.

There are four important questions to answer in your preparation:

1.  What is your purpose?

2.  Who is your audience and what are their needs?

3.  What is your main message and how can you best support it?

4.  What definite action do you want the audience to take?

It is important to start by defining your desired outcome.  Do you want the audience to buy your product or service? Do you want them to take a specific course of action? Are you looking  for agreement or approval? Be specific about what you want your proposal to accomplish.

Analyze your audience.  I have written a blog series and several articles about the importance of audience analysis and the steps to do this successfully.  Audience analysis is the cornerstone to successful presentations.

Design your main message around the wants and needs of your audience. Frame the features and benefits of your product, service or idea around the wants and needs of your audience.

Be sure to tell your audience exactly what you want their course of action to be.  This is where presentations often fall flat.  The presenter doesn’t tell the audience the action they want them to take.  Be very clear about this.  Tell them exactly what you want them to do – it will be much easier for them to do it.

The classic advice in delivering a proposal is

1.  Tell them what you’ve got.

2.  Tell them what it’s going to do for them.

3.  Tell them what you want them to do.

If you prepare for your presentation with these ideas in mind, you will be on the road to delivering a successful presentation.

If you would like to learn even more about effectively getting your message across Click Here

To your success,

Ellen

Can we manage public speaking anxiety?

By Ellen Egan

For those of us who have felt public speaking anxiety, we know that at the time it can feel as though it takes over all your thoughts.  You may begin to wonder if there is actually any way to manage this anxiety.  This is especially true if you find it is having a detrimental effect on your life because you are changing your college courses to avoid giving a class presentation or you are not advancing in your chosen career because you are avoiding delivering important internal or external presentations.

On the day of a speech or presentation, you will need to have a routine for managing anxiety. Make a routine which puts you in a positive frame of mind and allows you to maintain a relaxed state. Study some of the many books on public speaking to discover how to address your audience confidently and maintains audience interest in what you are saying.

A few tips

1. Accept some anxiety. I have a bit of nervous excitement before a performance — I call it excitement rather than fear.    I think most performers say that a  little anxiety actually makes you a better performer.  It is normal and common to feel this way, so relax and accept that you will feel a bit of fear/excitement.

2.  Estabilsh your goals.Instead of avoiding every presentation, why not set a goal to become a great public speaker?  With a bit of study and practice, even those who fear presentations can become excellent public speakers. You know, Michael Jordan had to practice and practice and practice before he became a proficient basketball player.  Who knows, it might even become something that you enjoy doing.

3.  Keep it all in perspective. Your speech does not have to be “perfect”. This is just one aspect of your life and one set of the many sets of skills that you have.  Keep this in perspective by simply making it a goal to improve your public speaking.  Then if you improve a little bit each time, you will find that you have actually made great strides over time.  The main thing is to learn, practice and get comfortable enough in front of an audience  so that public speaking fear does not stand in the way of your goals.

To your success,

Ellen

What has to be perfect in public speaking?

By Ellen Egan

Often when people are nervous about something, like public speaking, they feel as though they have to make sure that everything is perfect before they can take the risk of trying.  So, the reason that they give themselves for not practicing is that they don’t have an outline yet. Or, the outline isn’t yet perfected.  We all know that its best to research your topic before presenting, but you can make “not having completed the research” into a hurdle that gets in the way of committing to delivering your speech.

Start small.  If your goal is to improve your public speaking, start small.  Give a 5 minute presentation to a small group of people (e.g. a local business club or your school’s PTA).  The more comfortable you become with these smaller presentations, will make committing to a larger presentation even easier.

Practice your presentation beforehand.  Practice your presentation with a small group of friends, family or colleagues before the “real” event.  This practice session will build your confidence and highlight any areas that you need to strengthen.

What needs to be perfect?  If you are nervous before delivering your speech, instead of focusing on what needs to be perfect – focus on your breathing.  When people are nervous they often tend to have short, shallow breathing, which then contributes to their feelings of nervousness.  Try something right now.  Focus on your breathing and take deep, full breaths from your diaphragm (your stomach comes out rather than your shoulders lifting up).  Take about 10 deep breaths and notice how calming this is.  Now, imagine doing the same thing whenever you are nervous.  it will bring a sense of calm and it will also bring more oxygen to your brain (which is always a good thing).  As you focus on your breathing before and during your presentation, your nervousness will subside, you will have enough breath to project your voice properly, and you will feel and appear calm and in control.

To your success,

Ellen

What Not to model in public speaking

by Ellen Egan

I have mentioned in previous posts that if you feel uncomfortable with public speaking or would like to improve your public speaking, I recommend finding a public speaker that you admire and use them as a model.  Study aspects of their presentation (body language, outline, eye-contact, humour, etc) and copy them.  You will find what feels right and what you want to take on as part of your own style.

I haven’t spoken much about what Not to do as I prefer to focus on what you should do.  It’s a focus on the positive rather than giving energy to the negative kind of thing.

One of my favorite sites is www.TED.com as its all about inspirational and interesting presenters and presentations.  I’ve recommended it as a place to look for models.  Check it out.  So, the other day, I was watching a presentation by the chef, Jamie Oliver.  He was speaking about the tragedy of the result of poor nutrition in America (and the world) and his goal to teach children about eating properly.

If you want to know what Not to do in terms of the mechanics or techniques of public speaking, then watch Jamie Oliver.  In this presentation he paces back and forth across the stage, turns his back on the audience, denigrates himself, mumbles and does several other public speaking no-no’s.

But,  I loved Jamie’s presentation (so did the audience – he got a standing ovation) and it was very powerful.  Why?  Because he did the one thing that overcomes every “wrong” thing that he did.  He spoke with incredible passion.  When I say incredible passion, I mean that he felt so strongly about what he was saying that it seemed to pour out of every cell in his body.

With that sort of passion, the audience can’t help but jump on the bandwagon with you and come to the same conclusion that you present. 

Find some aspect of your topic that you can get passionate about and build your presentation around that.  If you’re speaking about spark plugs, build your presentation around families needing reliable cars.  Or, begin practicng in a different setting, with a topic you are passionate about. Talk about baseball with the local cub scouts. You get the idea.

And, when you have a moment, check out Jamie’s presentation.  You’ll see, he got several things wrong, but he sure got the passion part right – and I totally agree with him on the nutrition as well.

To your success,

Ellen