Tuesday, June 2, 2015

5 Ingredients Of A Winning Speech

A good speech could be described similarly to a shish kebab:

1. The hook. Something to grab the attention of your audience from the get-go. A dramatic physical action, a provocative quotation, stunning statistic, or shocking headline.

2. The point. Single brief message stated in the positive voice. "The people who get ahead today are the ones who..." Make sure your presentation answers three questions, "So what?" "Who cares?" and "What's in it for me?"

3. Three chunks of steak and a little sizzle. Steak is the hard data your listeners need to know to make a decision: costs, market conditions, competition, timing, support, sales, whatever is pertinent to move forward. Stick to three key points. The sizzle can be a prop, an interaction, a humorous anecdote (not jokes), or audience involvement (asking someone to remember a word or number, or anything that gets one or all of them to do or say something).

4. At the end, restate the point. "The moral of the story is..."

5. Close with something that requires audience participation and a call to action. Leave your listeners with a concrete step they need to take to "make it real." Ask them to jot down a key phrase, or give them a tea bag and tell them to review material over a cup of tea later - anything that makes them take some sort of action.

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