The Art of Public Speaking Chapter 5 Review Questions Answers

Recently, public speaking has become a large part of my life. In the last year solitary, I have spoken at an boilerplate of four to v industry conferences, universities, and startup accelerator events per calendar month.

People often ask me why I do it, and more frequently, how I do it.

The "why" is elementary. Public speaking is a highly constructive (though often underutilized) platform for any good content marketing and sales strategy. Chances are your directors and C-level executives are manufacture experts, and industry experts are highly sought after for public speaking engagements. And public speaking (if you lot exercise it properly) gains you and your brand additional printing and industry credibility, which makes information technology easier to sell your products and services.

The "how," on the other mitt, requires a more in-depth explanation.

You Have To Give Before You lot Can Get

Public speaking is an incredibly valuable sales tool. It'southward so valuable, in fact, that I only charge for most 50% of my speaking sessions considering they help me generate and so much revenue. That said, there seems to be a lot of misconception out there about how to effectively sell at speaking engagements.

Many of the tech companies and inventors I advise have read the words "public speaking" and "sales" together at some indicate and assumed that their speaking sessions need to exist structured as sales pitches to sell their products. Simply the almost powerful feedback I've e'er received after giving a speech was from someone who said "Thank yous for not trying to sell u.s. annihilation. Every other speaker here has just been peddling their products without giving whatsoever real value."

The primary goals of public speaking are to:

Enlighten and engage an audition.
Brand your audience retrieve.
Found interest and credibility in your brand.
Build and nurture relationships that can later plough into sales.

It may audio counterintuitive, only public speakers should avoid directly selling or pitching any product or service during their speaking sessions.

The sales generated from public speaking engagements are more indirect. They are the outcome of heightened make sensation and increased brand following. But yous volition only encounter a lift for your brand if you are giving your audition something that makes them trust you and desire to learn more almost you and your product.

You lot should think of your speaking sessions as a style to initiate a new relationship. You then have to nurture that relationship by giving, giving, and giving some more before you ever consider asking for anything in return.

That's right, in order to exist an effective public speaker yous have to requite something away. Your audition has to come abroad from your speech communication with something of value.

Some examples of what y'all can offer your audience include:

Advice on a topic your audience cares nearly
Statistics that enlighten your audience
A story that touches them on an emotional level and makes them await at the earth differently

This means you have to give your audience quality content -- don't bore or annoy them. Only then will they care almost what else you have to offering.

Gary Vaynerchuk wrote a not bad article with more than insight into this strategic approach to sales that's worth a read.

Perfect Your Content And Delivery

An audience's perceived value of you is determined 100% by your speech communication and how it is delivered.

Information technology should become without saying that you need to spend time and focus on perfecting your speech communication and its delivery. All also ofttimes I accept seen speakers who tried to finalize their speeches or presentations fifteen minutes before an event and suffered because of it.

A poorly delivered speech is a huge waste material of time for you, your company, and almost importantly, your audience. Why invest in a strategy and spend resources on public speaking if yous aren't going to do it effectively?

To develop a ane hr presentation, it usually takes me about three days:

One day to draft the content and presentation
Some other day to practise the delivery and brand revisions to the content for meliorate menses
And one more mean solar day to exercise the final presentation

Exercise is key for a expert presentation. Just similar athletes and musicians practice the same moves and songs over and over again, you should be practicing your presentation until you have it memorized.

To be an engaging and effective public speaker, your audience needs to experience like you are having a personal conversation with them, non that you're reading from a script and talking at them. This ways that you need to empathize who your audience really is. There's a big difference between how entrepreneurs, concern professionals, and college students communicate so information technology's important to speak to your audience in a personalized style they will connect with.

Other methods I employ to connect with my audience include:

Telling a story
Making jokes
Using metaphors

For more than tips on how to develop your presentation and content delivery strategy, bank check out this list by Joe Pulizzi.

When It'southward Time To Sell, Maintain Your Brand Experience

With public speaking, you ordinarily demand to have multiple conversations with people before you lot can initiate the sales process. Personally, I accept spent more than six months and 30+ speaking sessions to institute credibility with a given audience before initiating sales conversations with them.

This process can have some time, so be patient and pay close attention to your audience to determine the right time to movement into a sales engagement.

With this arroyo, information technology's as well important to recollect that y'all've developed a strong brand epitome and perceived value with your client through your speaking sessions and you lot must maintain your brand experience throughout the sales process.

I believe there are five principles to keep in mind to sell products or services later speaking sessions:

Bulldoze multiple interactions. Develop your presentations with standalone content such as statistics and graphs so your attendees can leverage the content again in the future.
Differentiate yourself. What do y'all offer the customer that nobody else does?
Make your value easy to understand. Don't tell your customer what your product does, tell them what they can do with it.
Maintain your feel. The client is used to hearing the way you communicate in your speaking sessions so make sure to give them a consistent experience during the sales process.
Repurpose your content. Reuse phrases and images from your oral communication and presentation in articles, blog posts, promotional materials, email templates, and over the phone.

Public Speaking Is a Marathon

With and then many people out at that place wanting to demonstrate their idea leadership to enhance their brands, public speaking can be quite competitive.

Personally I have nearly 100 local competitors and several one thousand global competitors in my specific niche (content marketing). And then what'due south my strategy for maintaining a stiff public speaking presence?

Every bit I've already mentioned, I do an boilerplate of four to five speaking sessions per month and but accuse for about 50% of these sessions. Ii or three of these monthly appearances are usually local to me and i or two of them are global. Near 65% of the time I am invited to speak merely the other 35% of the time I make an effort to speak at strategic events that will help me proceed to develop my personal make.

The main benefits of this strategy are:

Y'all gain more experience.
You learn how to work with dissimilar audiences.
You lot can perfect your content.
You drive more traffic to your website and social media channels.
You lot gain more than followers for your brand.

Public speaking is similar a marathon -- yous accept to maintain a steady footstep in order to win the race. This is why information technology's so important to maintain a regular schedule of speaking sessions at strategic events that will generate constant visibility for your brand while you go on to evolve as a public speaker.

This article past Neil Patel will requite you some more insight into the marathon strategy for public speaking as well equally how to choose the right speaking events for your brand.

All of the concepts we have covered will help you finer leverage public speaking to take your content marketing and sales to the next level. But yous'll have to put in some time, effort, and commitment to succeed in this channel.

Are you using public speaking to sell a production or service? Is it working for you? Why or why not? Permit us know in the comments below.

get the free hubspot crm