Be a Powerful Speaker

Giving a speech is an opportunity for you to get an audience to see their world differently. It's your chance to influence the way they think and get them to take action. These points are designed to help you be a more powerful and confident speaker.

1. Take a stand.
Make a provocative statement or ask challenging questions. Get their attention by presenting a strong point of view, thoughtful analysis, perspective and judgment. If it's the same old, same old they've heard before you'll lose them and never get them back. Don't waste their time by telling them how happy you are to be in Cleveland or saying something nice about the person who introduced you. Nobody cares.

2. Make it clear why this is in their interest to listen.
You must understand what they care about. What are their needs, fears, dreams and desires? How do you want your audience to think, feel or react? What action would you like them to take as a result of what you are telling them?

3. Be interesting.
A friend of ours is a minister and she came to me for advice on how she could improve her sermons. She thought about peppering her homilies with jokes. I reminded her that she's not a comedian and her flock does not come to church to be entertained. They are looking for meaning. Jokes are great if you're really funny. More than likely, you're not. Stick to what you know and what's important to them.

4. Tell meaningful stories and evoke real feelings.
Stories connect to our imagination. The audience can envision what you are talking about. The image the story lasts far longer than the words that they heard. Even better is emotionally moving your audience, getting them to feel in their hearts what your message is about. Do you remember how you felt the night Barack Obama was elected president? I don't recall a word he said to the crowd in Chicago, but I'll never forget the feeling I had.

5. Keep it short.
The Gettysburg Address is only 256 words. I'm not saying that your speech should be that brief but much longer than 20 minutes and you might start losing your crowd.

6. Don't read your speech word for word.
And don't try to memorize it either. Instead, be conversational with your audience. If you need three-by-five cards to remind you of the salient points, fine, but talk to them and don't lecture. Don't wing it. Practice it. A lot. Good preparation will go a long way in reducing your anxiety.

7. To PowerPoint or not to PowerPoint.
If your presentation is informational, PowerPoint might be helpful. But if your speech is visionary, if you're trying to walk your audience through your idea of the future, then don't use PowerPoint. It will just be a distraction. If you are using PowerPoint, keep it tight.

Entreprenerus: how to be a powerful persuader.

Here are my thoughts on how entrepreneurs can be powerful persuaders and effective communicators.

Understanding your target audience or customer. Who are they? How do you effectively communicate in a way that they can understand?

Persuading and influencing. Appealing to peoples’ practical and emotional needs. How to understand explicit and implicit wants. J.P. Morgan once said that people have two reasons for everything they do: the good reasons and the real reasons.

The importance of an empathetic approach to communications. People need to feel understood. Address their values, needs, wants, desires and fears.

Listen to what’s being said and not said. People will tell you what they want but sometimes it’s important to listen between the lines. Be intuitive. What are this person’s real needs—not just the presenting ones?

Ask good questions. People often reveal more than they realize.

Tell great stories. Stories build an emotional connection between you and your listener. Facts are important, but stories capture the imagination.

Be aspirational. Connect with the listener’s desire for a better life.

Create a feeling. People often don’t remember what you said, but they always remember how you made them feel.

Differentiate. Demonstrate how your product or service is different from anything else in the market place.

Ten Ways to be a Great Communicator

By Bob Berkowitz
Principal
The Dilenschneider Group
bberkowitz@dgi-nyc.com
(212) 922.0900

Know your audience and why you are talking to them. People need to feel understood. Address their values, needs, wants, desires and fears. When people feel you get where they are coming from, you get the business.


What are their explicit and implicit needs? JP Morgan said that people have two reasons for everything they do: the good reasons and the real reasons. For example, someone might say they are going to buy a Mercedes because they are well made and safe. Those are the good or explicit reasons. The real reasons may be because it makes them feel good; or that it tells the world that they are important, powerful and affluent. They have arrived. Those are the real or implicit reasons. Ultimately, they are all right.


Listen between the lines. Be an intuitive listener. What are these people’s real needs—not just the presenting ones? They will tell you everything you need to know, if you stop talking and listen.


Tell great stories. Stories build an emotional connection between you and your listener. Facts are important, but stories capture the imagination.

People often don’t remember what you said. They always remember how you made them feel. Those who make others feel good about themselves win people’s confidence and business.


Ask good questions. People often reveal more than they realize. With the information you glean from the answers, you’ll have a much better idea how to effectively communicate.

Differentiate. How does your product, idea or service differ from everything else out there?


It’s not what you say, but how you say it. You can have the greatest message in the world, but if the listener does not understand you, it’s a waste of time. It’s your responsibility to make sure the listener gets it. You have to either explicitly or implicitly answer the listeners’ question: what’s in it for me? Make compelling arguments for your position.


Be aspirational. Connect with the listener’s desire for a better life.

Be brief. Brevity is not only the soul of wit but of good communications.

Can you make someone great who really isn't?

The short answer is no. That said, I've had a few clients who have asked me to make someone into something they are not.

I'm reminded of the movie "All That Jazz." It was a bio-pic of the late choreographer, Bob Fosse. In one scene, Fosse (played by Roy Scheider) was particularly harsh in his criticism of one of the dancers in a show that he was choreographing. Finally, she burst into tears. Fosse turned to her and said "look, I don't think I can make you into a great dancer. I'm not even sure that I can turn you into a good dancer. But if you listen to me, I can make you a better dancer."

As a media and message trainer, I feel confident that I can help virtually anyone be a better communicator. But great? Maybe, but you better very good to begin with.

We can all be better at communicating. I've never met anyone who couldn't improve. It's hard for me to imagine being successful in business (or in life) without good communications skills.

The good reasons and the real reasons

JP Morgan once said that people have two reasons for everything they do: the good reason and the real reason. Morgan was right. That's why I say you need to be sensitive to the explicit motives of people and the implicit ones. For example: we all need clothes. They protect us from the elements and address our needs for modesty. Those are the explicit needs. But if I buy an Armani suit, I am addressing my implicit needs. Maybe I'm trying convey my fashion sense, or my taste. Perhaps I want to send a message that I'm affluent, stylish, powerful or that my sartorial choices lean more European than American.

Another example might reveal something about consumers by the choice they make in cars. Let's say the decision is between buying a Toyota Corolla or a Prius. Both are practical and inexpensive cars. But the Prius might tell you something more revealing about the driver: his values, interests in the environment and energy conservation, maybe even his political leanings.

All of this comes under the heading of listening between the lines. It means hearing not only what people say they want but picking up on what they really want.

Communication is not the most important ingreedient in a succesful marriage.

I cringe every time I hear a so-called relationship expert trot out some tired old cliche like communication is the key to a good marriage. Really? How about if one partner tells the other what a jerk, idiot, incompetent buffoon they are? Are the "communicating?" Yes. But it is the communication of destruction.

In any communication, be it intimate or in business, you have to think of a way of speaking to the person on the other side of your message so they understand what you're saying. Hostile name calling results in the listener either shutting down or retaliating.

Who is on the other side of the conversation? What are their needs, wants and desires? What are their values?

When you understand those needs, you can craft a message that can be heard and understood.

People forget what you say, but not how you make them feel.

That's what Warren Beatty reportedly once said. I think there's a lot of truth to it. Look at your own life. Think of those who inspired you, made you angry, hurt your feelings or made you feel proud. The words may not be quotable, but the feelings that you associate with that person are unforgettable.

We tend to be attracted to those who help us feel better about our selves--not in a disingenuous or patronizing way, but sincerely help us see the value in who we are.

Conversely, we stay clear of negative, angry or hostile people.

Successful politicians understand this. Those that preach the gospel of optimism...FDR, JFK, Reagan are the ones we tend to recall fondly.

I remember working for a television network that ruled by fear. That seemed to stifle creativity or the desire for people to so something out of the norm--all because they were afraid.

When customers feel understood, they are attracted to those selling them products or services.

The feeling you have will long out last the words that you hear.