Image Credit
Not every speech is the same. In fact, every speech that we give is different from all of the speeches that came before it. However, each of our speeches will fall into one of four different categories: instruction, demonstration, motivational, or humorous. When you have an idea that you want your audience to support, it’s time to get out the demonstration speech. This is a great time to show off the importance of public speaking. Let’s talk about how best to do this…
What Is A Demonstration Speech?
There you are, you’ve got an idea or a position that you truly believe in. There is your audience. They don’t all believe in or support your idea. Now what’s a speaker to do?
What you are going to have to do is to “sell” them on your idea. I know that some of you may have a negative association with anything having to do with the art of selling; however, you need to realize that all of us do this every day. No matter if we’re trying to get our significant other to pick up something at the store for us or trying to get out of that speeding ticket that we just got, we’re all in sales all the time.
In order to give a good demonstration speech, you are going to have to start it off the right way. This means that you’re going to have to take the stage exuding confidence. Everyone in your audience needs to be able to tell that you truly believe in what you are about to tell them.
When you are constructing your speech, you are going to need to be very clear about what action you are going to want your audience to take when you are done talking. Polite applause when you’re wrapped things up is not going to be enough, you need them to stand up and go take action. This means that you are going to have to know how you’ll want to wrap your speech up.
What Is The Best Way To Sell Your Next Audience
The best way to sell an audience is something that the experts have debated for years. You and I have both sat through countless presentations in which the speaker wanted to either change our minds on some issue or to get us to stand up and take some action. However, how many times were they successful in getting us to do that – not often I suspect!
What’s the best way to win an audience over to your way of thinking? The good news is that this has been done before and that means that we can study how the masters did it. In this case I’m thinking of two speaking greats: Dr. Martin Luther King and Steve Jobs. They were selling very different ideas, but they were both experts at their craft.
Nancy Duarte is a very talented lady who runs a company called Duarte Design and who really knows how to create a slide presentation that works wondered the same thing. She wanted to know how Dr. King and Steve Jobs did it.
The good news is that she figured it out. Click here and you can see her describe what she discovered. I don’t want to give away what she says, but I can at least give you a hint.
What Nancy tells us is that Dr. King and Steve Jobs figured out that what they needed to do during their speeches was to make us unhappy. What they needed to do was to show us our lives as they are today and then show us what the future could look like. When we saw what was possible, we’d become unhappy with what we had and would be motivated to want to change things.
Sure, explained this way it all sounds very easy. However, watch Nancy’s video and you’ll see that how you actually go about doing this is somewhat more difficult than you might have imagined. The good news for all of us who want to deliver a great demonstration speech is that this is possible to do.
What Does All Of This Mean For You?
As a speaker, we are all called on to deliver different types of speeches at different points in time. One of the most powerful types of speeches that we give is called the demonstration speech – it’s where we try to change how our audience thinks or what they are willing to go out and do. This is truly one of the benefits of public speaking.
In order to do a good job at delivering a demonstration speech that will work, we need to start out strong and convince our audience that we really believe in what we are about to tell them. Make sure that you have a very clear idea how you want to end your speech – what are you going to want your audience to do next. Nancy Durate has cracked the code of how to give this speech by studying how Dr. King and Steve Jobs did it. Make your audience unhappy and they’ll be willing to do what you ask them to do.
We don’t give speeches just to hear ourselves speak. Instead, we always have a goal in mind. When you want to change how your audience views an issue or what they are willing to do in order to bring about a change, you could learn a thing or two from Dr. King and Steve Jobs. Get good at giving demonstration speeches and you just might be able to go out there and change the world…!
– Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Public Speaking Skills™
Question For You: How much time do you think you can allow to elapse between when you stop talking and your audience needs to take action?
Click here to get automatic updates when The Accidental Communicator Blog is updated.
P.S.: Free subscriptions to The Accidental Communicator Newsletter are now available. Subscribe now: Click Here!
Note: What we talked about are advanced speaking skills. If you are just starting out I highly recommend joining Toastmasters in order to get the benefits of public speaking. Look for a Toastmasters club to join in your home town by visiting the web site www.Toastmasters.org. Toastmasters is dedicated to helping their members to understand the importance of public speaking by developing listening skills and getting presentation tips. Toastmasters is how I got started speaking and it can help you also!
What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time
There you are: you’ve got an important message to get across to your next audience, you’ve put a great deal of time and effort into creating your speech, and yet you don’t think that it’s going to work. Why not? The short answer is that the speech that you’ve created is not unforgettable. Sure, your audience is going to sit there and listen to you speak. However, once you’re done talking they are going to stand up, walk out, and promptly forget everything that you just said. What can you do to prevent this?