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Have you ever had to give a speech?

Do you remember that feeling? A knot in the stomach, sweaty palms and a panic attack!

Not a very pleasant experience. And yet, I’m sure your speech was a success because 90 per cent of a typical audience want the speaker to succeed.

Yet according to The Book of Lists, speaking in public is one of our greatest fears.

Much of this anxiety is due to a lack of confidence in writing and preparing a speech rather than in the delivery.

Giving a presentation can be a great way to build your business, influence public opinion or kick-start your career.

It is an excellent way to stand out from the crowd and make a real difference in people’s lives.

What are the secrets of writing a powerful and persuasive speech for any occasion?

Here are 10 tips for turning a good speech into a great one!

1. Have a plan and set some objectives & outcomes.

There is nothing worse than not knowing what you want to achieve. Do you want to educate the audience, inform, inspire, motivate or touch their emotions? Always work out what you want to achieve before beginning the speech process.

2. Have a formal structure – beginning, middle and end.

Audiences love structure and the best speeches stick to this tried and true rule. As they say: “tell them what you’re going to say, tell them and then tell them again”.

3. Avoid having too much content.

Hands up those that are guilty of this sin. I know I am. I have lost count the number of technical presentations given by CEO’s, managers, scientists, engineers, geologists and other professionals who have just put too much content into their presentations. Far too much for an audience to absorb – remember even the best audiences face information overload after 20 minutes.
How do you overcome the content crisis? See Tip # 8.

4. Define who your audience is and use the most appropriate communication
channels to reach them.

Analyse how your audience likes to take in information – do they like to be visually stimulated or do they enjoy just sitting back and listening. Or do they like to get involved, to touch and feel in a kinaesthetic way. Work out the best mix of visual, audio and kinaesthetic and use this in your speechwriting.

5. Research your speech using a range of sources.

Be a keen observer of the trends your audience is likely to be interested in and keep a file of interesting articles and information. If you are time poor- a few quick questions when meeting an audience just prior to a speech, such as “what are the issues facing your business/industry/association at the moment?” can really help target your presentation and build rapport.

6. Use personal stories, examples and metaphors to make intangible concepts
tangible.

In many cases you are trying to sell ideas and concepts in a speech. These are intangible and often difficult for the audience to grasp. Personal stories, examples and metaphors make the invisible visible.

7. Have a strong opening and closing.

People remember the opening – first impressions count! The closing is important as it should reinforce the key message you want the audience to go away with in their head after they have heard the presentation. Ending with a ‘call to action’ can be a powerful way to get your audience to act on your message.

8. Add value and extra detail through a handout.

Here’s a tip: if you want to provide detail – put it in a handout! You can get far more content across in the written form than in a speech. Always refer to this in your presentation but hand it out after your speech so the audience is not distracted reading through it while you talk. There is nothing more soul destroying for a presenter to see the audience leafing through written notes rather than looking at you!

9. Use short words and plain English.

The short words are always the best words. Avoid jargon. Use active words instead of passive. This has far more impact in the minds of your listeners.

10. Evaluate and review on a regular basis.

There’s nothing more powerful than to hear back a speech you’ve written. If you are writing a speech for someone else always try and hear the speech or at least get some feedback. Recording and listening back to a presentation is the fastest way to improve your skills.

If you’re looking to get more organized for a presentation, consider purchasing a presentation folder. While it might seem like a small part of any presentation, being well-organized can do wonders for the overall appeal of your project. Clients know that organization is the key to success, and nothing pleases them more than an individual who understands this.

They Make You Look Professional

Professionalism is the key to success in many different lines of work. In short, organization leads to professionalism, which shows that you’re absolutely serious about the task at hand. If you’re interested in impressing potential employers and clients, then you need to make sure that your appearance is nothing short of immaculate. Remember, when you make a presentation, you’re asking a client to entrust their money to you so that you’ll use it wisely – so don’t let them down!

Appeal To Your Clients

They come in many different shapes and sizes, and it’s up to you to choose the right one for your presentation. It can be especially useful to choose folders based on whoever is receiving the presentation. For instance, getting presentation folders that match the colors of the company, or perhaps adding the company logo to your presentation folders might at first seem silly, but many potential clients see it as enthusiasm towards their business. You want your client to realize that you really want this job, and this is one way to show them just that.

In many situations, you may find yourself issuing multiple documents to your potential clients. Purchasing and using multiple presentation folders helps foster the idea that you’re very put together and reliable. When the client sees how easily they can go through your data and ideas, they’ll almost certainly be impressed. After all, organization breeds clarity!

A high level of organization can even put you on the level of some of the bigger companies. A common complaint of smaller firms is that they’re less trusted and thus get less work. Part of the problem is that potential clients see smaller firms as less organized and overall inferior. You can easily neutralize this stereotype by using presentation folders to promote an aura of confidence and organization that’s sure to impress your client. Don’t lose out to the big shot companies – show your client that you’re worth their time and their business!

Are They Cheap

Folders with specific presentation uses are quite simply one of the most efficient investments you can make. Typical presentation folders cost only a few dollars, but the impact they make on your business and presentation can be worth so much more. Presentation folders convey the can-do attitude that so many potential clients are eager to see, so spend a few dollars on some high quality folders – you’ll be very thankful that you did.

The massive impact presentation folders can have on any interaction with potential clients is simply staggering. Remember that a powerful presentation requires confidence, the air of professionalism, and a high degree of organization – all of which are easily obtainable with a very cheap investment like presentation folders. Customized presentation folders can be found online, so shop around and see what you can find!

Using current negotiation models, people feel they are giving up more than they want in exchange for receiving less than they deserve. As part of standard practice, negotiation partners going into a negotiation calculate their bottom line – what they are willing to give up, and what they are willing to accept – and then fight, argue, cajole, or threaten when their parameters aren’t met. People have been killed for this. But there is another way.

In 1997, Bill Ury and I had to read each other’s books in preparation for working together for KPMG. A week before our introductory lunch meeting in Santa Fe, I read his book Getting To Yes (where BATNA – Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement – originated), marked the areas I disagreed with in red, and sent the marked book back to Bill. There was a lot of red: his book teaches how to get what you want (potentially win-lose) rather than how everyone can walk away satisfied (win-win). After comparing our models and a very interesting discussion about the different outcomes between a win-win and a win-lose negotiation, he agreed with me and we worked with KPMG using a win-win model.

BELIEFS

Win-lose is an incongruity. Using benchmarks for ethics and integrity, if one person loses, everyone loses – hence there is only win-win or lose-lose. Yet in the typical negotiation process it’s hard to find a win when the ‘things’ being bartered are not ‘things’ at all but representations of unconscious, subjective beliefs and personal values (termed Criterial Equivalents in NLP) without either negotiation partner fully understanding the underlying values these items represent to the other: a house in the country might represent a lifetime goal to one person, and just a place to live to another; a $1,000,000 settlement might illustrate payback for a lost, hard-won reputation to one person, and extortion to another. When much younger, I spent a fortune on a 14K gold waist chain, believing that this decadent indulgence defined me as ‘making it.’ Seriously.

It’s possible to take the negotiation beyond the ‘things’ being bartered, away from the personal and chunk up to find mutually shared values agreeable to both – and then find ‘things’ that represent them. So it might be initially hard to agree who should get ‘the house’, but it might be possible to agree that it’s important everyone needs a safe place to live.

FOCUS ON SHARED VALUES FIRST

Try this:

1. enter the negotiation with a list of somewhat generic high-level values that are of foundational importance, such as Being Safe; Fair Compensation;
2. share lists and see where there is agreement. Where there is no agreement, continue chunking up higher until a set of mutually comfortable criteria are found. A chunk up from Fair Compensation might be ‘Compensation that Values Employees’
3. list several possible equivalents that match each agreeable criterion. So once Compensation that Values Employees is agreed upon during a salary negotiation, each partner should offer several different ways it could be achieved, such as a higher salary, or extra holidays, or increased paid training days, or a highly sought-after office, or higher royalties;
4. continue working backward – from agreement with high-level, foundational criteria, down to the details and choices that might fulfill that goal, with all parties in agreement.

Discussions over high level values are often more generic, and far less likely to set off tempers than arguments over ‘things’: if nothing else, it’s easier for negotiation partners to listen to each other without getting defensive. And once values are attended to and people feel heard they become more flexible in the ‘things’ they are willing to barter: once Compensation that Values Employees is agreed to, it’s possible to creatively design several choices for an employee to feel fairly valued without an employer stretching a tight budget.

Think about negotiations as a way to enhance relationships rather than a compromise situation or a way for someone to win. There is nothing to be won when someone loses.