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August 2003 |
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"Can I Start My Speech With A
Joke?" Rarely. |
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“I like to
break the ice with a joke.”
We hear that
all the time. But how does a joke break the ice?
Usually
jokes thicken the ice because they are neither funny, nor
relevant. And sometimes the joke is offensive, turning
off substantial portions of the audience before the
presentation begins.
We have a
pretty strict policy against using jokes to begin a
presentation. But if you must use a joke, then make sure
it passes the Speechworks Acid Joke Test.
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Find The Keys To Your Communication "Game" Attend Speechworks's
Persuasive Speaker I. |
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Vic Braden, in his classic book "Mental Tennis",
gives a great lesson in how to improve at tennis
that applies equally well to communication
skills. Here's what he writes:
When it comes to improvement, most players start
thinking in terms of thousands of changes, and
of course the whole idea becomes overwhelming.
But in fact, frequently all you have to do is
solve one or two problems and you become a whole
new tennis player. Think about that: If you
straighten out one single stroke, your can
improve your game enormously.
The same is true with communication skills.
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Start Sales Presentations With Listener Focus. Save The Bells
And
Whistles For Later. |
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When one of
our top sales people first started into sales, he took his
friend the superstar software salesman to a baseball game with
the naïve notion that he could learn how to sell successfully
over a beer and a hot dog at the stadium.
Here’s the
advice our person received: “Listen to your customer. The
customer will tell you how to make the sale.”
And that was
it. The rest of the game they talked baseball.
And that
little bit of advice is still the best advice anyone ever gave
about sales.
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Can
Jargon Make You Stupid? Nah.
But
It Makes You Sound That Way. |
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Big words
don’t make you sound big brained.
In fact, just the
opposite is true, according to new research done by Daniel
Oppenheimer, a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology at Stanford.
“By making
a text sound more difficult to understand, you are only
going to annoy your reader and leave him or her with the
negative evaluation of you and your work,’ Oppenheimer
says.
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Generate Cash With Speaking Skills Training. Ask About
Communication Situation Coaching. |
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A Vice
President of a large retail chain feels that her executives
communicate great with customers but poorly with each other.
She wants her executives to communicate effectively in three
key speaking situations: presentations to the board of
directors, one-on-one meetings, and Q&A settings.
Speechworks
designed a communication skills coaching program aimed
specifically at helping these retailers excel in those exact
situations. |
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