Tips for Assessing Your Situation as a Professional Speaker

As a professional speaker, it is very important that you know how to assess the situation for the delivery of your speech. This factor determines the success or failure of your speech. Here are some things that you need to consider:

1.  You have to consider the occasion for your presentation.

You have to maximize the allotted time given to you. It is important that you deliver the message and the points you want your listeners to remember within the allotted time frame. It's better to leave out content than to go over your time limit. 

Remember that the two most important parts of your presentation are your opening and your closing. You can always remove content between the opening and closing and still deliver a great presentation.

2.  You have to establish yourself as a unique speaker. 

Some of your audience may have attended your presentation before. Get their opinion of you and  your presentation, so that you can make changes to improve your delivery and appear more polished the next time.

3.  Choose a topic that will impact your audience in accordance with the situation.

 You may speak in front of an organization regarding their policy or you may deliver a speech in your company to honor your boss. It is up to you to make sure your topic fits the situation.

4.  You must clarify your speaking goals.

You must determine what benefits, values and information that you will deliver to your audience. If the topic is your expertise, then determining the goals should be rather easy. However if the  topic is new, you will have do some research to make the presentation meaningful and memorable.

5.  You must learn on how to develop the central idea of the speech.

You must point out directly the main message to your audience in the opening of your speech so the audience will not be mislead by other concerns that can come up during the presentation.

6. You must learn to close.

It is very important that you never go over your time limit and that you close. You must tie up all the pieces into a nice little package and put a bow on it. If you neglect to close your audience will not forgive you. The closing is the most important part of your speech and needs to be good. Sometimes the only thing people remember is the closing. 

7.  Know your audience as much as possible.

It is important that you recognize what kind of audience is listening to you. Clarify the concerns that they have to determine if you can meet their needs.

You need to know if  the audience members are all male, all female or a combination of both. You also need to ask the following questions:

• What's the average age of the attendees?
• What's the level of education?
• What are occupations represented?

The more you know about the audience the more you will be able to fit your presentation to fit their needs. When you do this you appear professional and polished.

The Champions Edge for serious speakers