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Your speeches and presentations should impress and persuade

Written by: Stephen Manallack

Article Overview: Too many speeches and presentations are dull, depending on endless powerpoint and not enthusing the audience. But with relative ease you can ensure the audience is catching every point.

Your speeches and presentations should impress and persuade

It is time for entrepreneurs and professionals, especially accountants, to focus on better speeches and presentations. Even when you are talking to colleagues or meeting with one client, your presentation skills matter. Getting the message across matters in a world where business is not just about numbers.

For so much of the business and professional scene, there has been a real lack of effective communication and a shortage of good public speakers. Too many business and economic presentations are cold, statistical and do not grab an audience.

This is such a wasted opportunity, and it can have a negative effect on business. We know, for example, that liking who you do business with is important in many cultures. If a customer needs to evaluate your character, whether they like you, whether it would be good meeting with you in future and so on, a big part of their decision can be influenced through better communication.

When a business loses customers, in 70% of cases it is because the customer did not like the human side of the business. So this is a reminder to that you need more than numbers and more than professional information – you need to get the message across, build relationships and become better communicators.

Increasingly clients and audiences come to personal meetings, conferences, seminars and lunches looking for people who have passion and intensity. They want an experience, with emotion, meaning, laughter and something to remember. We are people, not numbers.

How long is it since you saw a speaker (outside of the professional speakers) with energy, with the “fire in the belly” presentation that keeps us on our toes. When you show the fire, you have me; when you lack fire, even though your message may be of the utmost importance, I am lost to you, my mind is somewhere else.

Tom Peters, successful author of “In Search of Excellence” and a veteran of the speaking circuit, says “There is only one golden rule – stick to topics you deeply care about and do not keep your passion buttoned inside your vest. An audiences’ biggest turn on is the speakers’ obvious enthusiasm. If you are lukewarm about the issue, forget it!” The key from this quote is that whether you are talking to one person or one hundred, you must show that you really and deeply care about accounting.

None of this suggests you should shout and rave like some speakers, because often the most powerful way to communicate your passion is through a whisper. The key is to find a message and commit to a message that you feel you just have to say – a message you really want your audience to grasp.

When you are doing a presentation to any group, it is wise to assume that their attention spans are short, so you have to make sure every three or four minutes that you change tempo or introduce something fresh – you can keep them awake by changing the volume or tone of your voice, or by holding up a prop, moving around the room, telling a joke or a story. This makes the time go fast for an audience, and for you. And they get the message.

Remember that great speech by Martin Luther King when he told a million people in Washington DC that “I have a dream…”? It is said that on that day he threw away the script and spoke from the heart. Had he said instead of “I have a dream…” that he had a detailed plan for the implementation of social and economic equality between the races, then he would have never been remembered.

We often train people to have a three step approach to their presentation or speech – first, tell them what your point is; second, tell a story or joke to illustrate the point; three, restate the point. That in a sense is what Martin Luther King was doing with the “dream” device, which he just kept extending and using.

In my own presentations on communication, one simple way I do this is with humour:

1. I make my point that in order to communicate you must listen.

2. Then I illustrate the point with stories about my grandmother when we were six brothers and sisters at home, trying to make us quiet by asking questions like “what are the things on the side of your head for?” “Why do you only have one mouth but two ears,” she would ask. One time grandma asked us to think about why the words “listen” and the word “silent” are made up of exactly the same letters (long pause after this, so the audience can work it through).

3. Then I restate the point by saying that long before I embarked on a career in communication, my tiny grandmother knew that in order to communicate you must listen. I have never forgotten that silent and listen use the same letters (neither will the audience).

Why does this work with audiences? Because instead of talking about the boring structure of communication, I am sharing some of my family history with them, creating stories of the noisy dinner tables and the little grandmother. Personal stories, a little humour at your own expense – the audience will love you.

A mistake common to many speakers is to talk for too long. Audiences, large or small, simply do not like it, so why take the risk? In fact, if you have been given 45 minutes for your presentation, try to finish in 40 – they will be grateful. I think generally people like you to be friendly and to get to the point as quickly as you can.

Another mistake is to let the presentation or speech just gradually wind down. The ending should be dramatic. It could be a personal story, humour, a challenge or motivational. You could end with a touching personal story or a well chosen quote (Gandhi, Churchill, Gates, Mandela are ideal sources).

For most business presentations, the subject matter is too serious to end with humour (they will think you are not taking it seriously) so it is good to end with an inspiring quote that makes the audience think.

I’m sure your business and entrepreneurial ideas are exciting. There is no reason on earth for any of your speeches or presentations to be less than electric.

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