Deliver A Killer Speech With These Proven Models

Backward chaining refers to starting with the end goal and working backward. It’s how a lot of successful speeches are delivered. You guide your audience and allow them do “discover” the steps on their own by working backwards. In public speaking, this is first envisioning your key takeaways that you want your audience to walk away with, then guiding them to that conclusion. Assembling the puzzle. Reverse-engineer your presentation. Your audience got all of your main points clearly. You had a big impact. What did you do?

Reciprocity cultivates connection. It’s a fundamental of human behavior. You feel indebted for niceties, discounts, and concessions. Tap into this as a speaker by offering value upfront. Give them a story. Make them laugh. Throw actionable advice out to them straight away. When the audience feels they have gained something, they are more likely to stay engaged. They’ll wait for more. Social proof ties into this. Demonstrating that others have already benefited from your message works for this reason. Feed them testimonials, statistics, and resonant examples. When they see you as a credible and trustworthy source which provides value, they’ll be all ears.

Scarcity creates urgency for what you are offering. Emphasize that your ideas, insights, and opportunities are unique or time-sensitive. Frame your content as exclusive. Rare. Critical, but only right now. This will put your audience on high alert. Combine this with the Minto pyramid: deliver your most important point upfront. Follow with arguments. This makes it so your audience senses they are getting the most bang for their buck by being there and listening to you. Immediate value in combination with something rare.

Utilize the 80/20 rule or Pareto principle while you’re at it. Identify and concentrate on the 20 percent of information that has 80 percent of the impact. Don’t overload your busy audience with unneeded data. Concentrate on what matters. Focus on the compelling stories, ideas, and data points that resonate deeply and drive your message home. A longer speech does not mean a better speech. Quite the opposite.

Don’t make them feel like outsiders though. Your listeners should not need your diploma to listen to and understand you. Reference common knowledge and commonalities. Shared experiences. This builds rapport by taking into account what your audience already understands. Tribalism reinforces this by appealing to a sense of belonging. What part of your message could inaugurate a feeling of shared values, goals, cultures, and identity? Tell that story. These models make your message appear relevant and inclusive. As a bonus, you aren’t left with a crowd of confused faces.

Similarly, the map-territory and prescription-description relationships emphasize the difference between reality and how it is represented. Between what the map shows and the territory itself. Use clear, accurate examples. Don’t shy away from analogies and metaphors. Your objective is to drill the nuances of your message into your audience’s heads without oversimplifying and/or distorting it. There’s a difference between describing a problem and prescribing solutions. Balance your message. Make it understandable and actionable. But nobody wants to be handed a to-do list. Only do that if you want a resentful set of smirks that know you aren’t stepping on the stage again.

Conflict resolution diagrams and empathy maps are something you might use in preparation. The former helps anticipate potential objections or contrary viewpoints in your audience. Preemptively solve these disputes in your speech. This shows that you have indeed stepped into their shoes. Empathy mapping is a similar approach. It encourages you to analyze what your listeners think, feel, say, do, and what their pain and gain points are. Combined, these insights enable you to cater your tone, content, and delivery to resonate with your audience. Sounds like an impactful speech already.

But don’t stop there. Present your information properly. The framing effect refers to how the method of presentation influences the perception of information. In public speaking, the frame you situate your message in can be life-and-death. It can be the difference between persuasive content that gets you buy-ins and a snoring crowd. For instance, saying “This strategy increases success rates by 30 percent.” hits harder than “Without this, you risk a 30 percent failure rate.” Just don’t make promises you cannot keep. That will only break your reputation.

An effect to be aware of while delivering is the bystander effect. This is especially true if you want your speech to be more active. Bringing participants on stage. Making them take action. The bystander effect reminds you that individuals in a group avoid action unless directly addressed. This means you will need to use clear calls-to-action. Engage with individuals personally if you want them to move. Twist the age old advice. Point fingers. Create a sense of responsibility by selecting people in the audience to respond or act. Else you might be surprised when nobody follows your directions because they are waiting for someone else to do so.

Last but not least, don’t try too hard. You read that right. Selling too hard gets you no sales. Watch out from pressuring and overloading your audience. This can result in the boomerang effect: resistance to or rejection of your message. Worse yet, they might take the opposite stance altogether. Balance your persuasive content with subtlety. Deliver with openness. Avoid triggering pushback. This is why those terrifying labels on cigarette packets don’t work. Craft and deliver speeches that resonate, persuade, and inspire. Use the aforementioned principles. Practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice does.