How to Get a Standing Ovation During Your Next Speech?

Every executive wants to deliver speeches that impress audiences, but most corporate presentations are downright dull.

Here are three tips to help you beat the blahs and earn applause the next time you take the stage:

1. Focus on outcomes.

Presentation not tied to specific outcomes will be ineffective. Do not script a speech right away. Instead, first answer the question, “What exactly am I trying to accomplish?” For example, is it to sell, strengthen morale, defend an organization or offer a vision of the future?

Then ask, “What do I want my audience—employees, customers, investors or the public—to know, think, feel or do?”

Only when those are decided can you determine the information, arguments and supporting elements that will help your speech achieve your desired outcomes.

2. Harness the power of numbers.

Statistics can be especially effective in speeches, because they crystallize abstract concepts into something concrete and tangible.

The key is to find statistics most relevant to the argument you’re making. It’s also important to put the statistic in context to ensure your audience understands the point you’re making.

3. Embrace analogies.

Like numbers, analogies help us understand the world. We make comparisons all the time to make the unfamiliar familiar and help us see the familiar in new ways.

Analogies can be used two ways in presentations:

·         To illustrate. Analogies can provide a lively, memorable way to say something that might otherwise be mundane.

·         To persuade. Analogy has a key function in persuasion by stating a likeness between two things and then getting an audience to agree to something that might not be obvious.