How to improve your public speaking skills to boost your business

Depending on whose statistics you believe, only public speaking outranks death and rattlesnakes as the biggest fears for people. Some sources estimate that roughly 75 percent of the population has “glossophobia” or the fear of public speaking. That’s a shame, because the ability to confidently present to five or 5,000 can yield amazing results for you and your business. The good news is that every single person can successfully learn to leverage this powerful tool.

First of all, and at the risk of stating the obvious, there are a gazillion books, videos, gurus, etc., out there that, in some cases, go into excruciating detail on everything from platform skills to the mechanics of speaking. Buy one or more of these sources and use them to focus your self-improvement efforts, but set realistic expectations and goals.

Speaking well isn’t something that happens when you close the last page of such a book. It takes time and practice, so focus on improving one or two skills at a time and use every opportunity to implement what you learn.

The level of granularity represented by these options far exceeds the scope of this column, but it’s important to internalize why you should improve your presentation skills and how you might start today with some basics. Let’s talk about a few of the “whys” first.

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Set yourself up as an expert. Whether it’s fair or not, people who present and speak well are oftentimes perceived to be more confident, knowledgeable, experienced, attractive, intelligent or who knows what else! You set yourself up as the expert; you can’t buy this kind of credibility.

Get more customers. Speeches and presentations represent some of the greatest opportunities to attract potential customers. Following virtually every presentation, people will want to speak with you about travel and their interests. It’s your golden opportunity to get their contact information and follow up with them.

Develop better selling skills. Good platform skills translate into good one-on-one selling skills. You’ll be more confident and articulate.

Gain better visibility. With such a high percentage of travel professionals spending inordinate amounts of time on their social media and emailing supplier-provided (and focused) email marketing, you’ll set yourself apart. Delivering a well-thought-out speech gives you visibility and face-to-face opportunities that are rare.

Bottom line? You may not relish the idea of becoming a better public speaker and doing presentations, but getting really good at it will ultimately enhance your business dramatically. Make up your mind that you’re going to “make it happen.” Now with that commitment, let’s talk about some of the often-overlooked basics that you can implement beginning today:

What are your objectives? Are you there to entertain, sell, motivate, inspire, inform or enliven your audience? Each of those will drive a somewhat different delivery or style. What end result do you want to achieve (e.g., sell a group, position yourself as an expert, increase your community awareness)? Be clear on your objectives and make sure everything you do supports them.

How much time will you have? With newspaper ads, it’s tantalizing to try to jam as much information as possible into the available space, but that’s almost always less effective. Similarly, if you’re only given 10 or 15 minutes (not atypical for civic and business networking events), you’ve got to choose your topics wisely and make every word count. Resist the temptation to make too many points. In many respects, it’s harder to do a short presentation well.

Do you know your audience? What does your audience want to hear about? Are they well traveled or not? Irrespective of what you want to convey or sell, it’s critical that you address what’s of interest to them. Clarify this with the meeting organizer.

Devote substantial time to preparing. A surprisingly high percentage of executives prepare their remarks on the plane ride to the event and/or “wing it” on stage. Those “speeches” tend to be delivered in a disjointed manner with unclear takeaways for the audience. They frequently run way over their allotted time as a result. That’s unfair to the audience and the meeting organizer. A great presentation — and you don’t want to be affiliated with anything less than “great” — takes many hours to prepare.

In next month’s column, I’ll provide more tips on preparation, delivery and follow up, but get practicing today! Speaking and presenting are tremendous business-building opportunities, and they will increase your business exponentially.