May/June 2011 Newsletter
The Value of Rehearsing Out Loud.
The more time I spend helping people become better speakers, the more I realize that the best way to improve is simply to rehearse out loud. Rehearse your speeches out loud. Rehearse what you plan to say on a conference call out loud. Rehearse how you’re going to answer a client’s questions out loud.
Out-loud rehearsal makes you sound smooth.
I was in a workshop this week with a group of sales people who had to learn to give their company’s “elevator pitch” quickly and simply. They had received in advance the exact three points that they were going to say. The exercise was simply to deliver the 30-second message.
If You Want a Message to Penetrate, Repeat Two or Three Catch Phrases.
If you want to make sure that your message gets through to an audience, considering taking a lesson from the great marketers. They settle on a catch phrase and repeat it over and over, hoping to penetrate the public’s mind.
Many great speakers do the same thing.
One of the great recent advertising campaigns is from MasterCard. Many of you can probably repeat their catch phrase from memory. “There are some things money can’t buy. For everything else, there’s Mastercard.”
Magic Phrase to Keep Q&A Sessions on Track.
What do I do during a presentation when the questions are getting farther and farther away from the issues that I want to cover? How can I stay on track?
We get that question a lot during our workshops. And many presenters will shy away from taking questions for fear that they will lose control of the program.
Profanity Offends Most People, Poll Says. So Be Careful with Bad Words at Work.
If you’re using lots of foul language in the workplace, be careful. A new poll indicates that two thirds of people are bothered by profanity.
The Associated Press-Ipsos poll also found that profanity is on the rise with two thirds of Americans believing that the use of bad words is more common today than 20 years ago.
Great Communicators Connect with Boldness.
"Boldness in business is the first, second, and third thing."
Thomas Fuller, an English writer, said those words four centuries ago. And they’re still true today, especially as they pertain to business communication skills.
At Speechworks, we believe that great communication is about boldly and passionately making simple, easy-to-understand points, and supporting those points with stories that connect with the listener. That's what we focus on whenever we coach our clients. All of our programs focus on two areas: