7 Tips for Building Your Business through Public Speaking

Public speaking is time consuming, and may pay little or nothing, particularly if you are a professional, not in the business of giving speeches.  Getting contacts, referrals, clients and new speaking opportunities will make your time pay off.  To assure maximum return on effort, consider the following tips.

1. Know your audience.  Speaking directly to their needs and desires causes them to want to keep in touch with you, whether as a client, referral source, business associate, or kindred spirit.

2. Before the presentation, ask questions and read anything available about the target group, to determine:

• What they know about your topic
• How they feel about the topic
• Will their attendance be voluntary or mandatory?
• Demographics:  Income, interests, speaking style; if you remember when Obama was running for president, speaking to an inner city population, he used a relaxed style; to a group of professionals, he sounded more erudite.

3. On presentation day, circulate before you begin:

• Build rapport and get the audience on your side
• Reduce stress, allowing you to focus on individuals as you speak.

4. Use activities:  People retain 20% of what they hear, and 90% of what they say while they are doing something.  Activities plant a message into the mind.  Pick a crucial message, for instance:

• “Everyone here today can loose the weight they want to.”  Ask everyone to turn to their neighbor, shake hands and say, “I can loose the weight I want to.”  This plants positive expectancy, increasing interest in using your services to achieve weight loss. Find dozens of activity ideas by searching on line for workshop activities.
• Plan real life examples to fit the audience – Make them feel “that could be me” within the example.  If needed, make up examples.

5. Demonstrate instead of talking about what you do.  For instance, “I help people to loose weight.  Who will volunteer to share a concern regarding weight loss…?”  If no volunteers, ask an eager sort.  Then demonstrate your skills.  Make sure the demonstration can be pulled off.  Rehearse, planning for many responses. If not comfortable in rehearsal, alter the focus.  Ask for a volunteer to state 3 things that keep them from loosing weight.   Then plan your responses to what they are most likely to say.

6. Bring presentation helpers to “work the room”.  They can hear reactions while sitting in the audience, or standing in various spots around the room.  A comment made under the breath can be defused.  If positive in nature, it can be brought to everyone’s attention.  If something is unclear, they can clarify it for the whole group.  The more clearly the audience understands your message the more likely they’ll want to keep in touch with you.

7. Get contact information:

• Sign Up Sheet- Have helper (or you) complete contact information as people arrive—name, address, phone, email. Assure that the info is legible and complete.
• Pre-registration- You may be able to negotiate with the host to do this, particularly if you are speaking gratis.
• Circulate a sign up sheet during the talk- This works well if the audience is receptive and eager.  Otherwise, they may opt out.
• Timely follow up from sign up sheet.  Within 48 hours, you or your assistant will make contact, and offer an introductory service or other as planned.   Provide your notes made about particular audience members regarding their needs, comments, facts to help personalize each follow up.

In conclusion, know your audience, use the right bait by planning customized activities, examples and demonstrations, and you will hook the fish.  Real them in by using your complete and legible sign up sheet, within 48 hours after your presentation.  Following these steps, you’ll always be lucky at fishing.