KEY POINTS:
HAVE you ever seen a rock concert where the singer holds out the microphone in the middle of a song? The audience sings the lyrics, while swaying madly to the music.
Your audience should be so adoring, eh?
Well, if you can't be a rock star, you can certainly create impact.
But won't your speech itself create that impact?
The brain has a tough time taking in new information. As you step up to give your speech, your audience has to process an enormous amount of information -
the name and credibility of the speaker, the importance and validity of the information - and stay focused on what you've got to say.
To get the impact your topic deserves, you have to remove all the hurdles in the audience's brains.
The three core steps are:
* Pre-warming the audience.
* Carefully picking the time of day - depending on your topic.
* Creating pre-speaking credibility.
Pre-warming the audience
Audiences don't always know what you're going to cover. This makes them unsure and out of their comfort zones.
The more they're out of their comfort zones, the longer they will take to adjust to whatever you're presenting.
The way out of this dilemma is to provide specific information to audience members in advance.
Let's say you have a website with information. You can direct them to your website, but that would be a mistake - as it would be to send them a folder full of information, or a booklet.
Most audience members are way too busy to look at such things.
But if you send them the website, folder or booklet and get specific, the results change dramatically.
So if you direct them to your website, make sure you point out a specific article that they need to read. If you send them a booklet, get them to read specific pages.
Carefully picking the time of day - depending on your topic
The worst time of the day to give a presentation is about 45 minutes after lunch. But it depends on the type of speech you're about to give.
The only (yes, only) speech you should ever give 45 minutes after lunch is a "hands-on" speech. This means you give basic instructions, and the audience gets into discussion mode.
A speech that involves minimal listening and consists mostly of instruction is fine to give after lunch.
But what if you're doing most of the talking? Then you'll want to position your speech between 8am and 11am.
This is when the audience's brains are running at full power. After a good night's rest they're ready to absorb what you have to say.
The more the day lumbers on, the more information settles into their brains. And this makes it harder to absorb more information.
Fight for your morning slot. It's well worth it.
However, you could be the last speaker of the day and still be a super-hit, provided you're a comedian. Seriously. Some of us are exceedingly good at making people laugh with our stories. We can give a perfectly good business speech and have the audience rolling in laughter.
If you're such a speaker, there's no time better than the last slot of the day.
This is because the audience is now filled to the brim with information and looking forward to some "infotainment".
Creating pre-speaking credibility
Most people who introduce speakers are bad at introductions.
They're either too soft, too muffled or they read from a prepared sheet and go on forever.
If you wait to be introduced to an audience minutes before you speak, you've waited too late. You want to make sure your audience knows about you days, even weeks in advance.
Most audience members will do their research if they're pointed in the right direction. They should know everything they possibly can, and a good chunk of this information needs to get to the audience long before the event.Which means you should have the event publicised with the right information, well in advance.
Most speakers don't pre-warm their audience with specific information. They don't carefully choose speaking slots.
They don't create enough credibility before they show up.
If you want to be the rock star at your presentation, make sure you do your homework.
And you'll see the audience happily "singing" along!
These steps apply to internal presentations, too. Even if you're well-known in your organisation, your audience may not know of new information such as awards, books you've written or milestones achieved.
If you get this information across in advance, you're more likely to make an impact, whether speaking within or outside your organisation.
Sean D'Souza is chief executive of Psychotactics and is an international author and trainer.
www.psychotactics.com
