THE PERFECT PRESENTATION
There’s one surefire way to earn more money as a speaker and get resales and referrals, and that’s to deliver the perfect presentation. The kind of presentation that amazes your audience and delights your hosts.
In this section, you’ll learn what goes into the perfect presentation. You’ll learn the importance of preparation and how to prepare for success. You’ll learn how to present a seamless talk, and how to open and end with a bang.
The Care Ingredient
First, before you do anything, you’ve got to care about the subject and care about how the subject can have a positive influence on other people. This is really, really important.
There are subjects that I think are important, like customer service. I teach it as part of my larger business programs. But I never get really excited about it. I never promote the subject and it’s not on my website because the people who take customer service courses are usually clerks and lower-level telemarketers, and they are really not my market. I want salespeople and managers.
Usually, my talks go well with this market. Why? Because I care about the change I can make in their lives. Once you care, connecting with the audience and engaging them becomes much easier.
The Length Of Your Talk
There was once a meeting planner who phoned a professional speaker in order to book him for an upcoming event. The planner’s first question was “How much do you charge?”
The speaker replied, “It depends on the length of the talk you want me to give and the amount of time it takes for preparation.”
The meeting planner then asked, “How much would you charge for a thirty-minute talk, and how long would it take to prepare?”
The speaker replied, “For a thirty-minute talk, it would require six to eight hours to prepare, and the fee would be $5,000.”
The meeting planner was surprised. “How much would you charge for a half-day talk, and how long would it take to prepare?” he asked.
The speaker replied, “For a half-day talk, it would take about three to four hours to prepare, and it would cost $4,000.”
“What about a full-day talk? How much is that?”
“That would only cost $3,000.”
“How long would you require to prepare?” asked the meeting planner.
“Oh,” said the speaker, “if it is a full-day talk, I can start now.”
The Shorter the Talk, the More Difficult
The point of the previous story is that the shorter the talk is, the greater you must prepare. You have to prepare in order to precisely narrow things down for the time constraints given.
If you have all day to speak, you can fill time with stories, examples, and various subjects around your talk. However, if you have only twenty minutes, you must focus on the key elements required to get your message across.
How to Prepare
Preparation is important.
I always spend a lot of time in preparation because preparation is ninety percent of good speaking. It is really important that you prepare — and then prepare some more. Don’t leave a single ingredient to chance.
Remember the acronym CANEI, which means continuous and never-ending improvement. Read everything you possibly can on speaking. You should have a whole library of books and recordings on speaking. This will save you years of work in learning how to speak well.
Go and listen to other speakers. Ask questions and ask for advice. Ask what things most influenced them. Listen to audio programs in your car. There are countless audio programs on how to speak well. Listen to them over and over again.
Get critiques on your speaking and give critiques when you attend other speakers’ engagements. Take notes and give your input. All of this will accelerate the speed at which you get better.
During an interview I did recently, they asked me what the key is to success in speaking. I told them that it is preparation. Ninety percent of all speaking success is preparation. Prepare thoroughly. Think it through, write it out, and go over it. You practice and review, and practice and review. Make sure you’re well-rested, but nothing is more important than preparation.
Here’s what I do to prepare.
Do Your Homework
Before you go and talk to an audience consisting of professionals, you must find out everything that is going on in their industry and market. Are things going well, or are things in a downturn? Is the company growing or declining in the current market? What are the business and political trends that are affecting them?
Here are some other things to look out for when planning and preparing a speech.
Find Out What the Local Environment Is Like
Find out what is going on in the city which you’re speaking. In several cases, I’ve spoken in cities where the local team either won or lost a championship recently. It’s important to be aware of this and to bring it up in your introductory remarks. If you don’t, the audience will be preoccupied with the sporting event, and you’ll feel like an outsider, unable to connect with your audience.
Keep In Mind Who Else They’ve Heard Lately
You should also learn about what else your audience has heard recently and their experience with speakers. Who else has spoken to them, and what about? How did they react to the other speakers? Did they like what they heard, or were they disappointed?
In longer events, it’s important to find out who’s speaking before you. What will they speak on? Not only will this help you transition smoothly from the previous speaker, but it’ll also make sure you don’t find yourself repeating something the audience has already heard.
Start with the End In Mind
If you recall the “objective question” I mentioned earlier, if you could interview the audience and ask, “What did you learn from my talk and what are you going to do differently as a result?” what would you want their responses to be? The more specific this answer is, the easier it will be to structure your talk around this point and achieve your goal in the time allotted.
Now that you know how to prepare your talk, it’s time to learn how to present it.
Planning a Smooth Delivery
For every occasion, a speaker has three talks. First, there is the talk the speaker plans to give. Second, there is the talk that speaker actually delivers in front of the audience. Third, there is the talk the speaker wishes he had given as he reflects on the way home.
The very best talk you can give is when all three turn out to be the same. Now that you’ve done your preparation, here are some tips on how to achieve this objective.
Move Seamlessly from Point to Point
Design your transitions from point to point so that it’s clear to your audience that you have finished with one point and are moving on to the next. This will keep them engaged and clear up any potential confusion over your material.
Go over your subject often and continue to be on the lookout for ways to improve the quality and smooth delivery of your ideas.
Practice — It Pays Off
Practice and preparation are worth their weight in gold.
A few years ago, I was booked to give a talk to an audience of potential clients. If they were sufficiently impressed, I knew I could get booked for future work. I therefore spent an excessive amount of time preparing, and more importantly, practicing and rehearsing my speech. In the end, I reviewed that speech fifty times before I gave it to the huge audience at the convention center.
All the practice and rehearsals paid off. The speech was recorded. It was distributed worldwide and was eventually viewed by tens of thousands of people in multiple languages. Some years later, this speech was ranked as one of the twelve best speeches ever given out of more than a thousand to this particular firm over a thirty-seven-year period.
Practice, practice, and practice your speech. It’ll pay off.
Put Your Points on Index Cards
If you’re using a podium, consider putting your key points on three-by-five-inch or five-by-eight-inch index cards in large letters. Write out key sentences, ideas, and phrases, and use these to jog your memory as you speak.
You may think this will make you look incompetent, but this is far from the truth. I have seen quite accomplished and highly respected speakers stand in front of audiences with several index cards in their hands, using them as props during their talk. The audience never objects. They all know that this is how the speaker keeps his thoughts organized. They also recognize that the speaker has researched and prepared thoroughly to get to this point.
Give Your Talk to Small Groups First
A final way you can ensure you give a smooth delivery is to give your talk to smaller, friendlier groups multiple times before you get in front of a larger, less personal audience.
I once attended a board meeting that was to be followed by a major dinner. One of the board members began speaking thoroughly on a particular subject. Because his thoughts were well-organized, we listened to him as he spoke and developed his argument, point by point, for twenty minutes. At the end, everybody was impressed with his thoughts and ideas.
That evening, in front of 500 people at the dinner, he stood up and gave the identical speech he had given at the boardroom table. In retrospect, the board meeting had been his final dry run for what became a very important and consequential talk to a large group of important people.
Now that you know how to plan a smooth delivery, there is still one missing ingredient. How can you structure your talk to hook and engage your audience?
A Simple Structure for Short Talks
Here is a simple three-part structure you can use to design any speech. You can use it for a quick one-minute presentation or a thirty-minute talk.
Part One
This is the opening. You simply open with what you’re going to say in your speech.
For example, “Thank you for being here. In the next few minutes, I want to tell you about the three problems facing our company today and the actions we can take to turn them to our advantage in the upcoming year.”
An opening like this sets the stage, prepares the audience, and gives your speech a path to follow.
Part Two
The second part is where you deliver on the promise of the opening. You talk about the subject of the talk. It can consist of one, two, or three points. If you’re pressed for time, it should only include three key points developed in sequence.
For example, “We are facing technological disruption, changing market conditions, and a lack of trained staff. Let us look at each of these, in order, and consider methods of dealing with them effectively.”
Part Three
Here you summarize what you just told the audience. Don’t expect your listeners to remember everything you have said the first time they heard it. Summarizing and repeating is useful and enjoyable for your audience.
The PREP Formula
Once you have your points, you can use the “PREP” formula for each point in your presentation.
P: Point of View
State your opinion, idea, or fact at the beginning.
R: Reasons
State your reasons for holding this point of view.
E: Example
Reinforce your point of view with an example.
P: Point of View
Restate your first “P” to emphasize your idea and to come full circle.
Here’s the PREP formula in action:
(P: Point of View) “More people are going to make more money in the next ten years than in the last hundred years.”
(R: Reasons) “The number of millionaires and billionaires has increased by sixty percent in the last five years, and the rate of increase is accelerating.”
(E: Example) “In 1900, there were 5,000 millionaires in America and no billionaires. By the year 2000, there were 5,000,000 millionaires and more than 500 billionaires. By 2007, according to BusinessWeek magazine, there were 8,900,000 millionaires in the United States and over 700 billionaires worldwide.”
(P: Point of View) “There have never been more opportunities for you, the creative minority, to achieve financial success than exist today — except for those that will exist tomorrow and in the years ahead.”
Now that you’ve learned how to prepare your points, you may be thinking, “But how do I start?” That’s what you’re going to learn next.
Summary
- The shorter your talk, the more you have to prepare to deliver a focused message.
- Do your homework so that you know the demographics of your audience.
- You can prepare for a smooth delivery by taking some critical steps while preparing your speech.
- There are three parts to every good talk — opening with what you’re
- going to say, presenting your ideas, and summarizing your ideas.
- The PREP formula is a powerful method you can utilize to present each of your ideas.
