He fluffed it. Mumbled, lost track, rambled – and I bet that came as a surprise to him.

As a professional academic, he is accustomed to extemporizing in the classroom and when taking questions at academic conferences. He is also accustomed to both formal and informal public speaking, and all the signs are that he did it fluently. Now, whether he realizes it or not, he has to come to grips with a new kind of public speaking.

There are two main approaches to public speaking, and one is much easier than the other. The difference between them seems so insignificant that you can overlook it completely – as President Obama did.

This is the easy way: Stand Up

And then, you’ll intuitively do two sets of things:

Physically:

• Stride about
• Gesture at things – whiteboards, slides, laboratory tables
• Physically demonstrate things

Mentally:

• Talk to the back of the room
• Scan your audience for signs of response
• Create openings for that response

What happens – almost by mistake – is:
You use your energy and enjoy the interaction

In an academic environment, you have the right conditions: you are standing up, whether in the classroom or in the conference hall – or at least it is so appropriate to stand that it is an easy option to take.

What happened to OPresident bama was (1) he was sitting down, and (2) interaction would have been inappropriate. Neither of these seem at all important, but in fact his whole public discourse mode had been destroyed.

Sitting down pre-empts the whole approach.

It reduces personal energy, robs you of the ability to scan your audience (even when appropriate), and makes you feel quite literally as if you’re getting nowhere. Giving a presentation sitting down, is hard.

So, remember: whenever possible and appropriate: stand up!

Now think about how to address your audience.

You’ll be glad you did!

Your purpose in making this presentation is to engage the audience. That is, pique their interest, whet their appetite, and get them thinking seriously in terms of making a purchase.

1. Do this by speaking directly to them – use “you”.
2. And tell them to do something – use imperatives.
3. In fact, alternate these forms this way: “you” – “do” – “you”.

You’ll find this grabs your targets’ attention, motivates them to do something, and encourages them to identify with what you’re offering – to see themselves reaping the benefit. If you do this several times during the presentation, they’ll be ripe for the call to action at the end!

Did you notice? I’ve used this formula twice already in this presentation – it’s not intrusive but it feels very logical.

Let’s look at some examples.

1. You mentioned X project …
2. Take a look at this program/product …
3. It’ll get you right ahead

1. I know you already have this product/service …
2. Just give our special a try
3. You’ll really like its speed and ease of use

1. How well is X working for you?
2. Think about …
3. … and the advantage you get is …

You get the idea.

I bet you can think of better formulae for your own product
Go ahead and think of some
You’ll see your presentations gain purpose, relevance, and power as a result!

It is a simple trick: practice as you go. Practice as soon as you draft each new section, each new gimmick, or even, each new sentence.

Whether you are giving an informal presentation or a carefully scripted one, simply stop writing and read or try your latest piece out loud, complete with intonations and gestures. Several things will happen:

• You’ll get a sense of how long it takes to say it
• You’ll get a sense of whether it’s working
• You’ll find yourself falling over bits
• You’ll notice opportunities

This is great. It will help your timing, give you ideas, and save you wasting time flogging a dead horse. But the most powerful bit for strengthening the content is stumbling as you say it out loud.

What seems perfectly fluent as you write, often has problems – and your subconscious knows this. It will try to tell you by tripping you up, and it will do this as you give the presentation, or as you practice it: it’s your call!

What does your subconscious know?

• It knows there’s a piece missing.
• It knows there’s a flaw in the logic.
• It knows you’ve got something wrong.

That’s why you must practice as you go, to catch the problem early while you have time to put it right. And that’s why you must take notice every time you stumble.

Never try to force the issue. If you make the mistake more than once, change the text.

• Try changing the word you’re too proud of.
• Try putting the whole thing into a more comfortable speaking order.
• If that doesn’t work, try mentally explaining to someone what’s going wrong, and what you really want to say. That will pinpoint the problem.

What’s in it for you: you’ll finish up with something that is easy to get your mind and mouth around. You will deliver with flare and confidence, and you will definitely seem to know what you’re talking about!

Premature, you think? Not at all: you need to take delivery into account early on in the preparation because it affects your speed and timing, and you will plan your presentation around your own norms and comfort.

Here is how you will deliver: you will speak up. This will have major benefits:

1. It will make you seem more confident
• and thus compel audience attention
2. It will ensure your audience hears what you say
• and thus put them on your side
3. It will slow you down
• so people can take in what you say
• and you don’t need to find so much filling
4. It will, in itself, increase your own enthusiasm
• and thus make the audience really like you

Now, this doesn’t just happen - so, how are you going to make sure of it?

Firstly, take vigorous exercise regularly. That gets your blood flowing and your eyes sparkling, and makes you attractive and energetic. Your voice will naturally get louder.

Secondly, plan to speak to people in your audience. Select people around the back and edges of the room and look them in the eye. That will make you project your voice intuitively. It just happens.

Thirdly, as you launch into the delivery, think of singing: straighten up, fill your lungs, and let it out. You know how singing feels. Get that feeling into your head.

Now you’re confident, I hope! You have a rescue plan (the summary), and you have a great ending to work towards (the triumphal exit). And you have a vigorous delivery. You are already irresistible!

• They drop the end if they run out of time
• They treat the end as a final exhausted/desperate hurdle
• They fade away with a weak comment and pleading smile
• They stop suddenly

You are going to do better: you are going to make your conclusion a triumphal exit! This is what will happen as a result:

1. The end becomes the part your audience remembers with satisfaction
2. It crowns a good presentation or rescues a weak one
3. It becomes the focal point, the punch line, the clincher, zinger that you look forward to

In fact, it becomes the goal around which you build the whole presentation, and intuitively you start aiming everything at it – it changes your whole approach!

Here are some ideas:

1. Choose a great ending slide and cue it into your second last sentence, e.g.
• a great photo/illustration (or return to your opening slide – which better have been good)
• a pithy statement or quote ppt slide
• a witty (and positive) cartoon
2. If you started with a question – answer it punchily
3. If you offer a solution – tell them to think how much time/trouble/expense they will save
4. If you offer an advantage – tell them to think what an impact it will have on their bs/sales
5. If you offer a choice – ask them (rhetorically) what it will be (recap with benefits)
6. If you’re reporting on something you’ve done – urge them on to the next step

Now – here’s what’s in it for you:
When people listen to a presentation, they remember the beginning and the end best. If they are going to make a fairly immediate decision, studies show that the most recent input is the most persuasive – so if you want to make sales, make a triumphal exit!

Think about the structure before you start thinking about what goes into your presentation. This will put you in control. These are the benefits: (a) it will give you a strategy to make the best use of your material that will translate into compelling delivery, (b) it will give you a sense of purpose that will be heard in your voice, (c) and it will let you track and maintain the timing, which will translate into audience approval.

The simplest structure has three parts:

1. Greeting
2. Nitty Gritty (1 – 3 points)
3. Triumphal Exit

As soon as you’ve accepted this, you’ve won an advantage. You have three different functional areas and you can start allocating ideas, information and spin appropriately. You start to know what you want to do with your material.

More than that, you start realising you can be picky about which material you use because now you have functions for it, you quickly discover you can’t use it all. Only the good stuff stays.

Better yet, you can see that each piece only needs a short time – so you can keep it light. No need for padding!

Finally, you can allocate specific time-limits for each piece and stay in control as you deliver.

No longer are you alone and paranoid, looking to fill a yawning void. Now you have a great way forward: your organization and control will be impressive, your knowledge and use of your material will be compelling, and your relaxation and confidence will be magnetic!

The single most powerful strength factor is confidence, and there are a lot of things waiting to undermine that. One of those is a list of dos and don’ts, so let’s start by creating a safety net instead. That is, a rabbit you can pull out of the hat when everything goes wrong, when

1. you run out of time before you’ve finished
2. the equipment doesn’t work and you have no visual aids after all
3. people have disrupted the presentation and everyone has lost the thread
4. you finished early and now have to fill the time

Your safety net is a verbal summary, lasting about 30 seconds. It will consist of the three most important or attractive points you intended to make in the presentation, and their benefits to the client. Prepare this in advance and practice it until you can reel it off with vigor, counting off the points on your fingers (that will give you movement which will enliven your performance). Practice until you can do it without stopping to remember bits, without referring to notes, and looking people in the eye as you speak.

All things being equal, this will function well as a normal closing statement. But if things go wrong, you can always jump to it to retrieve a difficult situation.

Knowing you have this safety net, you will be more relaxed about the rest of the presentation. We’ll talk about ways to give that a lift over the next few weeks.

Here’s a summary of this tip:

1. It will take a load off your mind and give you energy for your presentation
2. It will always function as an excellent close
3. But you can use it at any time and take back control

All rather daunting, and it seems to me, that they are merely manifestations of a state that other people find compelling and attractive, but they are not the state itself. Yet if they are to be used as individual tools, they will lack conviction unless you’re coming from that state. And if you are coming from that state, you won’t need to remember any tools.

The state is relaxation, and it is born of comfort with yourself. A hard way to get there is through achievement. Another hard way is by overcoming something. An easier way is simply to accept that the bar is generally pretty low because most people are crippled with cruelly magnified self-doubt.

Here’s the secret:

If you can allow yourself to believe that most self-doubt is an imaginary monster under the bed, you release a whole lot of energy for confident posture, interested attention, creative responses, natural laughter, and plain fun.

It is you as you always dreamed you could be!

You, confident, attractive, a natural leader—people will be drawn to you like magnets. They will want to know what you have to say. And because we are talking marketing here, let’s remember that they will also want to know what you have to sell. And they will want to buy from you because everyone has a sneaking hope that your charisma will somehow rub off on the product and on them too.

All this because you managed to leave that childhood monster behind. So remember: beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.

One of the few to mention the last impression is Dan Tudor, one-time sports caster for an ABC station in California and now marketing guru. He suggests we ask ourselves

What is the last thing my prospects usually hear from me?

Whether or not we can answer this, I suggest we develop it by asking

What should be the last thing my prospects hear from me?

That will vary by business, probably, but let’s consider some possibilities. Here are some that generate good feelings and certainly can’t do any harm:

• It’s been a pleasure meeting you
• I look forward to talking/working with you again
• I’d love to know what you decide about …

You could try incorporating a call to action:

• Call me if you have any further questions
• Call me if I can help in any other way
• Talk to X about what we achieved for him

I feel we should be able to leave a chic flier/tri-fold/small brochure to complement the business card we produced at the beginning. How about coupling that with a call to action and a compliment that offers the prospect of further validation:

• Take a look at this material and give me a call – I’d love to know your opinion on …
• Think about this idea and give me a call next week – I’d like to know your thoughts about …

Or how about finishing up with a one-line reminder that suggests we’re capable of taking a competent lead as soon as we’re invited to do so:

• Remember: we can get you up and running smoothly
• Remember: we can increase your site conversions by 40% and more, or you don’t pay us!
• Remember: we can co-ordinate this project for you better than anyone in the business.

Remember: using imperatives, calls to action, and purposeful language, gives the impression that you are confident, knowledgeable, and competent. How could anyone not want to do business with you?

First, let me tell you how it works: people’s minds retain only what they can make sense of. If you can get them to retain what you say, you give yourself the best chance that they will remember you when mulling over their decision, and come back to you when the decision is made. The single most important thing for them to retain is your name, personal and business. If they have your name, they will remember you, and they will find you again even if they lose all documentation.

So how do you make them remember your name?

Remember, all of us have names, or company names, that pose difficulties. For example, my first name is very unusual and difficult to say if my lips are paralysed with anxiety or cold. My second name is Italian but sounds Irish. Any name with a rare or foreign component poses difficulties to the listener. Any name with an ambiguous component poses difficulties to the listener. Every member of our group has a name that poses difficulties. That makes our names difficult for our prospects to fix – and we need them to fix our names instantly!

How do we do this? We say the name slowly, carefully, and slighly louder than usual. Use the old trick: address something on the wall behind your audience. That will make you project your voice without shouting. This takes practice: for many of us, it is hard to say our own names properly!

So try it. Let’s say you’ve just been introduced by someone else. Whether or not they have mangled or mumbled your name, repeat it matter-of-factly, thus:

Pippin Michelli. How do you do/good to meet you/whatever – let me give you my card.

Or let’s say you’re making a presentation and have NOT been introduced. Get your audience’s attention first by giving a cue that the information is coming up. For example:

(cue) My name is (info, volume-up) Pippin Michelli, (pause, cue) my company (info, volume-up) AdSummus LLC [8 WORDS] (pause) gives your target market the website it needs. [16 words]

Or, without the asides:

My name is Pippin Michelli, my company AdSummus LLC gives your target market the website it needs..

Your assignment: practice saying your name and your company’s name louder, slower, and more clearly than comes naturally to you. And remember to pause afterwards to give your audience assimilation time.