Public speaking ranks right up there with death in terms of the things we are terribly afraid to do. Whether it’s the fear of being watched closely by others, or the insecurity and self-conscious feeling of slipping up during the presentation, these six tips will help you give a polished, professional speech that you (and your audience) can be proud of!

1. Know your audience. This is the single best piece of advice for delivering a presentation that really hits home. What are their interests? Their backgrounds? Why are they coming to hear you speak or present? What ideas do you have to share with them? Approaching your speech as more of a “me-to-you” discussion rather than a full-blown broadcast will make it more manageable (and less stressful) and easier on you.

2. What do you want your audience to do as a result of your speech? What’s really at the heart of your presentation? By concentrating on the end result rather than slogging through the beginning, you can create a powerful punch that drives home your message instead of rambling on and losing your audience’s interest (or missing the point entirely!)

3. Share a story. In public speaking circles, this is called a “hook” �” something that gets your audience’s attention and makes them sit up and listen. Start off by asking questions or sharing an experience you had. People like to be active, rather than passive listeners. By giving them something that they can identify with, you’ll find that these people are, in essence �” just like you! And that makes giving a presentation a whole lot easier. Just be sure your story has a beginning, a point, and an ending. There’s nothing quite as bad as telling a story to an engaged audience and then forgetting why you told it!

4. If you’re selling a product, focus on the benefits instead of the features. People would much rather hear WHAT a product can do for them than HOW it does it. Narrow down your product’s features until you get to the core of how it solves a problem. If you need help with figuring out the difference between a feature and a benefit, ask yourself “So What?” For example, if you’re selling a vacuum cleaner that has a hypoallergenic filter, put yourself in the customer’s shoes and ask yourself “so what?” The answer would be something like, “It picks up dust, mold and pet dander”. Again, so what? Answer, You’ll feel relief from runny nose and sneezing plus itchy, water eyes. Now THATs a benefit!

5. Don’t lean too heavily on media to make your message clear. PowerPoint presentations are great for making specific points, but they can be overwhelming �” or downright boring. Instead, give your audience something to DO by providing them with fill-in-the-blank flip charts or “team activities”. These help reinforce and emphasize your message in ways that a computer presentation simply cannot.

6. Above all, make sure your speech ends in a way that reiterates the beginning. Too often, speakers get carried away with the details and leave their audiences asking, “What was the point of all that?” People naturally digest information in “chunks”, so focus on the big picture rather than all the pieces. If the details are just as important, save it for an after-speech handout that the audience can take with them and read over at their leisure.

If you keep these six tips in mind, you’ll not only have an easier time overcoming your fear of public speaking, but you’ll have a very appreciative audience who will in turn be more receptive and eager to try your product or service. Go get ‘em! All Managers Are Customers Too Whatever business you are in, you will find that there is one key cause of your success.

How your customers experience your business and service.

Many departments and companies have processes in place for assessing their services to their customers. However very often the measures in place don’t reflect what the customer perceives to be important. They don’t reflect the true benefit and often processes which suit the business, are not customer-friendly, however much they suit the internal needs. What has the customer experienced? In addition, the key for an excellent customer experience is in the relationship between person/department/company and their customer. I had a new washing machine delivered recently. It arrived the day and time slot the company stated. Great! If the company measures ‘did they deliver when they stated they would’ they would have a 100% service. The managers will be proud of themselves!! However, what they didn’t measure was my satisfaction. The delivery driver was the most miserable person I had met in ages. He obviously wasn’t passionate about his job. He left muddy footprints on my carpet. So was I happy? No! They may have delivered on the right day/time but my overall experience was poor. Will I be using the same company again? I doubt it. Do the managers of the company know? No! They think they are providing a fantastic service because they are only measuring their processes, which suit them internally. One of the keys to creating an excellent customer relationship is the interface between the customer and their point of contact within the company. One way to avoid this issue is to ask your employees what gets in the way of making the very best of relationships with their customers. What do they need more of (as well as less of) to deliver exemplary customer service?

Another valuable way to approach this is to ask your people what they find works well for them when they themselves are customers, as we all are, elsewhere. What was good about it and what did they think could have been done better. Also, ask the customer! What was the experience like for them? You could ask them to complete a questionnaire. However, a great way would be to ring them a few days later. Finally, experiencing the customer journey through their experience is probably one of the most value-creating actions that can be taken.

For employees to watch, listen and even act out the experience of one of the customers they would normally be serving, is a very enlightening role they can play.

This can be achieved by taking them out of their usual working role, for a while, and getting them to watch or listen to what happens when their customer starts the interaction. They then really share the experience and start to notice how things could be different.

If that can then be brought into a discussion forum where several share their experiences and propose changes, there are the ingredients for continuing progress and change.

Most employees want to do a great job. They want their customers to leave satisfied, thrilled even, wanting to do business again in the future.

Enabling your people to spend time getting all the pieces in place for their customer, really understanding how to meet their needs fully and even exceptionally is a way to get them motivated and excited to be part of your team. It builds team spirit and morale.

Using the capabilities of your own people, to give better service through sharing their thoughts and ideas, is a valuable exercise – and one, which creates untold value in your business for the future. It is easy to establish such a way of working. Be the person to instigate such an activity. Make sure you implement some of the ideas suggested. Track the benefits as a result. You will be seen as the manager who ‘makes things happen’.

Andrew Rondeau transformed himself from a $4 an-hour petrol-pump attendant to a highly successful Senior Manager earning $500k every year. Discover How to Maximize Your Income and Minimize Your Effort by receiving Andrew’s free e-Course and report: http://www.greatmanagement.org/

Have you always dreamed of being a successful inspirational speaker on professional development? There are a large number of people who have had this dream and succeeded at it. Individuals like John C. Maxwell, Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar, and Jim Rohn are all motivational speakers on professional development. These individuals, and others in the industry, engage in a number of activities like authoring books, holding conventions, and similar events in order to share their insight as a leader and expert in the field of professional development. If they can do it, so can you! Here, I will share some secrets on how to be a successful inspirational speaker on professional development.

If we have to become a successful inspirational speaker on professional development, then we must see to that we have some information that has value, the information we convey must motivate others so that other’s benefit from your message. No one is a born a inspirational speaker, it is only some who are lucky to be gifted with this quality can become. Your speech must encourage and revitalize every individual to reach out to success and not holdback anyone from reaching their goal.

Having a special niche to become an inspirational speaker is the next step to ensure success towards becoming successful inspiration speaker. Every one of us are interested towards something that is more exciting to us. Your interest becomes a passion and this passion may be generally by different activities that we do like books that we read, people we meet, conferences or seminars that we attend. There are varieties of topics one can begin with to increase their public speaking but choosing a special niche is important. It is sure that one can become a successful inspirational speaker and reach crossroads in life if he puts all his efforts in the initial stage.

Another way of becoming a successful inspiration speaker on professional development is to make sure that you prepare yourself as preparation is very much necessary especially if you want to make your speech a motivating and inspire others. Don’t forget that Preparation is the key to success to become a inspirational speaker. This will not only build your confidence but also establish you as a successful speaker. Turn your speech into a motivational message by creating an outline of all your ideas.

If you want to be an inspirational speaker on professional development, there are many things that should be kept in mind. The items mentioned in this article are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to your own professional development.

Remember no one who is a successful inspirational speaker was born that way; it’s your turn to become a successful inspirational speaker now just visit the website http://www.newonlinelife.net and become a successful inspirational speaker now!

Dr. Richard Baiz has nearly 34 years experience as educational administrator, governmental lobbyist, official entrepreneur and corporate consultant. He loves to share his comprehensive plan to become a successful inspirational speaker. Do you want to become an Inspirational speaker the visit the website http://www.newonlinelife.net now!

Know that public speaking is the number one human fear. So if you have ever been or are a bit nervous about giving presentations in public, realize you are not alone. Most people have the same problem. Continued below is our Top 10 tips to making presenting easy and comfortable for both you and the audience.

Tip No. 6: Delivering visuals

So now you have a nice, clearly designed visual. How do you mechanically deal with that visual? What do you do physically to present it to the audience? Should you look at the visual? Should you talk to the screen? Should you not talk to the screen?

We suggest that you keep the following things in mind when it comes to delivery with visuals: As soon as your visual is presented on the screen, whether it be from a laptop, or from a slide projector, or even from an overhead projector, your audience will immediately focus one hundred per cent of their attention on the screen.

So you effectively disappear from the room. You vaporize. You could drop your pants, you can blow your nose – it doesn’t matter, because until everyone in the audience has figured out for themselves exactly what all that information means, you’re effectively not there.

Tip No. 7: Effects

Keep in mind: if there are too many bells and whistles, if there is too much movement, if there are too many sounds, if there are too many things going on, people will be more interested in figuring out how to do that with their own presentations then they will be in the actual knowledge you are presenting.

And that’s if your dramatic appliqués are good. Most of the time, effects just add confusion, or worse yet, disconnection. Make sure that your message is more important and of value to the audience than the design features of your presentation.

Tip No. 8: Pointers

We still see some people using the old wooden pointer. We have seen people actually snap that wooden pointer in half. We have also seen people play collapsible pointers like an accordion. The point is, you don’t need a pointer.

An effectively designed and delivered presentation eliminates the need for pointers of any kind. Your data should call attention to themselves. Laser pointers seem to be very popular these days, but very rarely does anybody in the audience like them. In fact, they are pretty annoying to most people and even a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon can’t hold those things still.

Tip No. 9: Hardware

One of the things that you definitely want to make sure is that you show up early to your presentation. Make sure all of the equipment is in working order, the overhead projector, the laptop whatever it is you are using. Check everything out yourself. Just because the banquet manager came in ten minutes ago and told you everything was working last night doesn’t mean it is actually going to work.

We can’t tell you how many times, and we’ve traveled everywhere from India to Indiana teaching seminars, somebody told us something was working, and it did not.

So for that reason you have to show up early and make sure everything is working. Make sure that you can actually work it. Make sure that you actually see it working. It is up to you and it is your responsibility because when you start your presentation you can’t say say, “Well you know, somebody in the banquet department told me just a few minutes ago that this was working.” Don’t be embarrassed. Don’t be caught off guard.

Tip No. 10: The Q&A process

This process can be very, very difficult because when you are making a presentation, you are in essence in control. You have designed that presentation. You have created some excellent visuals. You know your presentation well enough to know what’s coming next.

The problem with Q&A is that it is the unknown. You don’t know what is going to happen. Somebody can throw you a question out of left field. Perhaps someone can make you look bad. There is so many unknowns that we need a system to be able to deal with that unknown, and be sure that you look good in the process.

One of the first things you need to know is what to do when somebody asks you a negative question. Many of us were taught to repeat the question back to the questioner. Do you suppose there might be something else we could do other then repeat a negative question? If you repeat that negative question, what are you doing? You are in essence confirming that it might be true.

Now actually repeating a question is not always a bad idea. It gives you time to think. It gives the rest of the audience a chance to hear what the question is. But if the question imparts a negative, there is another way.

Instead of repeating the question verbatim, try this: Listen closely to the question so that you are hearing not just the words, but the essence of the question. Ask yourself what is at the kernel of the question when all the negative, inaccurate, untrue or personal agenda items are stripped away. Then rephrase the question around that kernel, signaling to the audience that you are actually searching deeper into the topic that the questioner did!

Because Q&A typically is the last thing that happens in a presentation, it is so important and vital you end on a positive note. We can’t tell you how many times a presentation which started off well didn’t end that way, because it all fell apart in Q&A.

About the Author

J. Douglas Jefferys is a principal at PublicSpeakingSkills.com, an international consulting firm specializing in training businesses of all sizes to communicate for maximum efficiency. The firm spreads its unique knowledge through on-site classes, public seminars, and high-impact videos, and can be reached through the Internet or at 888-663-7711.

Know that public speaking is the number one human fear. So if you have ever been or are a bit nervous about giving presentations in public, realize you are not alone. Most people have the same problem.

In a survey from the Book of Lists, people were asked, “What are you most afraid of?” Public speaking was the number one answer. In fact, fear of death was sixth on the list. In other words, you are not alone.

So we congratulate you on taking the first step to improving yourself in this area. Let’s talk about the Ten Tips and how they can begin to help you right away.

Tip No. 1: Eye contact.

When the majority of people are up in front of a group they start their physical activity by rapidly scanning the room with their eyes. They spray the audience with their vision. Look: adrenaline is already shooting through your body, you’re anxious and nervous. Spraying the room with your “aerosol eyes” simply compounds the problem. It makes it worse. Very quickly your brain becomes overwhelmed with all of this visual input: different faces, different colors, different clothes, different countenances.

What you need to do is find an anchor and to lock in on one individuals eyes. You need to slow down, get your bearings. You will then have a chance to channel your nervous energy.

In other words: look at just one person, look at their eyes, speak to one person at a time. Then pause, and find the next individual. Instead of speaking to a group… have a series of one-on-one conversations with the individual members of the audience. And if your eyes aren’t locked, your jaw must be!

Tip No. 2: Gesturing:

What do you do with your arms, your hands or your feet and the rest of you body? Typically men put their hands in their pockets. We often see the fig leaf position, or the ‘phone booth’, in which presenters hug themselves with both arms.

You will also see people do all kinds of nervous fidgeting with their hands, with their arms. They really don’t know what to do. What we suggest is that you do use your arms and hands, but that you use gestures to specifically emphasize the things that you are talking about.

If you are speaking about a big opportunity, let’s see how big that opportunity is. If you are speaking about an increase, let’s make sure that your gesture reflects that specific increase by its altitude from the floor.

Use emphatic gestures and use gestures to describe things. Then when you are not using your arms or there is no need to, simply allow them to drop naturally to the side into what we term the neutral position.

Tip No. 3: Inflection and volume

Have you ever been to presentation where the presenter spoke in a monotone, “It’s- great-to-see-everybody-Thank-you-very-much-for-coming-today-I-have-some-exciting-news-for-you.” BOOOORING!

You want to increase your volume, and increase your voice inflection, which means the variance in the pitch or the tone of your voice. It is more interesting, more exciting to listen to a presenter that has passion and feeling in their voice. Speak to your audience with belief and you will soon see they will share that belief.

Tip No. 4: Humor and jokes

We receive a lot of questions about this. “Should I start with a joke?” Should I loosen things up with some humor in the beginning?”

Let me ask you…How many people do you know who can actually come into a room full of strangers and pull off a joke? It is what we call a Break Even / Lose proposition. If it works you haven’t gained much: if it doesn’t work you can lose your audience for the entire presentation. It’s risky business.

It’s a high stakes gamble. We suggest if you like using humor, feel out your audience first. If you feel humor might be appropriate, use humor. But using humor up front can be very, very difficult. You are at your highest state of nervousness, your audience is sizing you up and remember first impressions last forever. Many audiences feel that using humor or jokes in business signals you are not taking them seriously.

The type of humor that is most effective is self deprecation. Make fun of yourself. We are not suggesting you call yourself an idiot or the audience may say to themselves “He sure is” and you’ve lost them. Just don’t take yourself so seriously. A lot of times we will joke about the fact that our writing isn’t that good or my ability to draw is awful. Typically if people have been with us in a two day seminar, they already know that. So go ahead and make fun of yourself. It is a safe form of humor to use.

Tip No. 5: Designing visuals

How many times have you been to a presentation where the presenter is literally confused by her own visual? They look up at the screen and they say, “Well what you have here is, well, gee, I’m not sure, well what I meant is…” – what is that presenter doing? They are essentially saying that they haven’t taken the time to simplify and become familiar with their own visuals and now they expect you to look at it and understand it.

The point is to keep your visuals simple in design. You don’t want an unsolved mystery up on the screen. Make sure that it is very clear and keep in mind that people read from top to bottom and left to right. Design your visuals to be read that way.

Make those visuals easy to understand. Your talk doesn’t need to be simple, but the visuals you use to cue your audience to hear what you’re saying do.

About the Author

J. Douglas Jefferys is a principal at PublicSpeakingSkills.com, an international consulting firm specializing in training businesses of all sizes to communicate for maximum efficiency. The firm spreads its unique knowledge through on-site classes, public seminars, and high-impact videos, and can be reached through the Internet or at 888-663-7711.

It is no secret that motivational speakers who are successful can really enjoy a wonderful career as a result. Besides being able to be your own boss, you get to make money doing what you love-speaking in front of and sharing your experiences with others. The perks of a career in motivational speaking are plentiful and well-known, but what is not always so obvious is what makes some motivational speakers into the top motivational speakers in the country. Let’s explore some of the techniques that have helped to make these men and women into such great motivational speakers.

First of all, it is important that even the best motivational speakers remember the fundamentals of public speaking. These include moving your eye contact and field of view around the room, so that you can connect with the entire audience. Also, it is obviously important to use hand gestures and humor to establish a rapport with the audience, and help them to remain entertained by what you are saying to them. Although elite motivational speakers almost always have the fundamentals down, a lot of the reason that this is true is because they reinforce these fundamentals through practice.

The best motivational speakers are experts at tailoring their messages for a variety of groups and events. For instance, it is only reasonable to expect that you will not always have the same type of audience from event to event. You may speak for educational professionals at one event, a retired persons group at another, and then high school students at yet another event. Each of these particular groups of people have to be approached in a different way for you to reach them with your message. That must be taken into account when you are writing your speech, and also when you are delivering your speech.

Also, some events call for a different approach to speaking style. For a group of students, for example, it may behoove you to adopt a very casual style, and to also include some humor during your speech. For other speeches, you may want a more formal approach, although in general, motivational speakers use a casual speaking style.

The number one thing to do to join the ranks of top motivational speakers is to practice. By practicing your craft, you will only get better at what you do. Also, when you speak, your audience will be able to tell that you practiced beforehand.

About the Author

Read more information about all types of professional speakers, including Sales Motivational SpeakersMotivational Keynote Speakers at http://www.speakersbureautraining.com and and Motivational Keynote Speakers at http://www.speakersbureautraining.com