Speak First Newsletter - October 2006

We are celebrating the launch of our brand new website. We've added several new courses and the new site contains full information on these and our full range of in-company and public courses, which include recommended reading and other activities to help you fulfil your learning needs. You will also find copies of past articles and lots of other useful information to help you communicate even more effectively and transform your business relationships. 
 
Also this month, take a look at our latest article which includes some great influencing tips for getting people to buy your ideas, products and services.

Warm wishes

Amanda and Jackie

In this month's issue...

• Do you ever feel like you're hitting a brick wall? Sure fire ways of getting people to buy your ideas
• Extended DISC
• Answers to reader's questions about presenting - How to prevent your voice from sounding monotone and avoid reading from notes

 
Do you ever feel like you are hitting a brick wall? Sure fire ways of getting people to buy your ideas

Have you ever tried to persuade someone to do something and ended up feeling like you’re hitting a brick wall? If you have you are not alone. Many of us keep on trying the same old tactics time and again and wonder why all our efforts are in vain. This is often because the approach we take has worked well for us in the past and we form a belief that this is the right way to go about convincing our boss to give us a raise, or persuade a client that we offer the best product or service around. As the well known saying goes, ‘If what you’re doing isn’t working do something different’.

To discover new ways of influencing people click here.

Extended DISC

If we don’t know where we are, it can be difficult to reach out destination. The Extended DISC® System is designed to provide users with a good understanding of where they are and a route to take – in the form of a practical action plan – to get them where they want to be. Extended DISC® is much more than an assessment system for enhancing individual, team performance and organisational performance – it also provides a framework to help individuals and teams make the adjustments they need to attain great performance.

Contact us to find out more about how Extended DISC could help you.

Answers to reader's questions about Presenting

Champagne Prize Winner

A bottle of champagne was awarded to a manager from one of our long-standing clients for his question on how to prevent your voice form sounding monotone and avoid reading from notes.

The winning question in full: I give a lot of presentations but I think that sometimes my voice is monotone and bland and that I perhaps read from my notes too much. I think this is something I do in order not to miss out detail. Memorising a speech is something I have not done in the past as I don’t want it to come out too rehearsed but doing the alternative does not seem to have helped either.

Answer from the experts:  First of all – take comfort from the knowledge that you are far from alone in experiencing these problems. Many people who attend our courses rely on notes too heavily and want to improve their vocal impact. There are some simple steps you can take to change this. As you suspected, It’s likely that these two issues are connected and that your desire to deliver a perfect presentation is actually getting in the way of achieving it.

When people are focused on getting it right they often end up reading things out which can be dull to listen to. When you speak naturally – like you do in everyday conversation with colleagues at work – you sound much more interesting. The more energy you put behind your voice the more likely it is that your audience will feel energised. If you are passionate about the topic, the emphasis you place on key points will naturally add variation to your voice. Pauses are great for this too. The best speakers use the power of the pause to command the audience.

While you can improve the way you use your voice, if you rely too much on lengthy notes you will lose eye contact with your audience. Eye contact is a critical part of building rapport and connecting with your audience because ultimately people buy people first and products or services afterwards. The secret of great presenting requires you to prepare thoroughly and distil your notes down to a handful of key points with no complete sentences. If you create a logical and easy to remember structure what you say will come out fluently. The most important thing to remember is that it doesn’t have to be perfect. If you have a logical structure you are unlikely to miss anything major out.

If you have any questions you would like answering contact us and we will do our best to answer them.