Tag Archive for: public speaking

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Public Speaking tip – Define your image

When you first begin to prepare your presentation, you defined an image that you wanted to present. “What do I want them to remember of me?”

Who are you? How will you be remembered after this presentation?

Everything the audience sees needs to reinforce that image – clothes, facial expression, stance and gesture.

At its most basic this means projecting confidence and sincerity. Unless you decide otherwise, the audience needs to know that you are comfortable with your message and that you believe in it.

If you are also using this presentation to present yourself as the face of your business, or as a candidate for a position, then take that into account as well. You need to be seen as trustworthy, competent, at ease with your material.

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The Sales Presentation

Volumes have been written about the skills needed for successful sales presentations. Advice abounds about how to present benefits, not features; how to conduct product demos; how to use influencing techniques; how to establish rapport; how to close; and more.
Top sales performers embrace not only these sales skills but, most importantly, this fundamental of effective presenting: focus on the audience. They are clear that a sales presentation should be a dialogue between salesperson and audience. Most sales presentations typically involve small enough numbers of people to facilitate this.

more => http://bit.ly/g8lwH7

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Quotation

Laurence Clarke Powell said ... “Write to be understood, speak to be heard, read to grow...”

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Friday freebie

How will your audience respond to your speech or presentation?
What will they take away with them and remember?
What will they remember of you?
Why will they think “Wow what a fabulous presentation!”?
And how will you create the "fabulous presentation"?
Get a range of ideas and thoughts from the contributors to this free eBook. Just email me, and I will send you the eBook.

The Power of Pauses

Public speaking is just that - speaking, right?

And we focus on what we will say and how we will say it; on how we will stand and how we will move and how we will use eye contact, but always we focus on the saying - the speaking.

Sometimes we forget the value of silence.

Maybe it's because we have had drummed into us the dreadful crime of using an um or an ah, or a y'know to fill the silence while we think. So we focus on fluency, on continuing to talk, and on the next point and the next ... to the conclusion.

And sometimes, in the midst of all that focus, we forget the power of the pause.

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the power of the pause!

It can refocus audience attention. (Remember how it felt in school when suddenly you noticed that the room was silent and the teacher was looking at you?!)

At the least it interrupts the flow of that continuous speech we were using so that that audience attention is refocused on what we have to say next.

A pause will then add power to your next point ... because that attention is so newly focussed.

A pause will build your confidence, simply because of the power, but also because you had the gumption to stop the flow of speech.

If it is a pause to let you think, then the audience should recognise that and value that you are giving your best to your presentation.

A pause is a powerful way to change tack. You can change from a supercharged, rapid fire delivery style to one that is quieter, slower, more reflective. Again the power is in the change of attention, and in the fact that you have given your audience variety. But the pause has also allowed you to add power to the change of direction.

For all of these reasons ... and there are many more ... you take your public speaking to a higher level when you use the power of the pause.

Tips on Public Speaking – Using Your Voice to Wow Your Audience!

 How you deliver your speech is even more important than the content of your speech. The way you use your voice during a presentation will either grab and keep your audience's attention or put them to sleep.

It is estimated that when a voice-trained person delivers a speech, the audience retains 83 per cent of the information. In contrast, when an untrained person delivers the same speech the audience will only retain 45 per cent of the information.

An interesting voice will have a varied pitch and variations in pace and volume. A speech which is delivered in a monotonous voice is very dull indeed for the audience.

There are various characteristics that alter a person's speech, such as clarity, volume, pitch, tone and speed of delivery. Let's look at those characteristics now. => http://bit.ly/gjseYw

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6 Techniques to Make Your Presentation Unforgettable

It’s great to find yourself at the front of the room, speaking clearly, shuffling confidently through your perfectly-chosen slides, seeing looks on the faces of your audience members that seem to say “Yes, I am listening. No, I cannot turn away.”

If only it was always that easy…

It can be helpful to think about attention in terms of presentations in three ways ...=> http://bit.ly/9XkHuQ

The biggest mistake in sales presentations

So what do you think is the biggest mistake in sales presentations?

* Selling features instead of benefits?

* Talking too much and not listening?

* Not knowing the product?

In a recent presentation, Ron Karr, of Karr Associates, Inc. and author of Lead, Sell or Get Out of the Way,asked the audience, “What are you selling?” People responded by calling out their products and services. Ron went on to say that one of the biggest mistakes in sales is selling the “how” instead of the “what.”

“You’re selling outcomes!,” declared Ron. ... read more =>

Are your messages being heard?

From Kevin Leahy ...

Here are some of his suggestions for improving front-line communications and building rapport and trust.

... and there are - seven of them - all very relevant to communication, and just as applicable to public speaking

Read the article here => http://nyti.ms/hzsS5J

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The zen of speech?

It is with words as with sunbeams, the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn

--Robert Southey