How to be More Engaging When Speaking in Front of a Business Group

A more engaging speech means ENGAGING your audience. Adults like to be a part of a presentation so use techniques that draw them in to it.  For example, ask your audience questions they can answer by raising their hand. Be sure to remain silent while you appear to be counting hands for just a few seconds. Audiences get annoyed when speakers ask a question and don't take a moment to acknowledge their response to it. 

Provide one-page handouts that have missing information. In other words, instead of just providing a one-sheet that has a summary of your points, replace key words or phrases with blank lines for them to fill in the information they'll get from your talk. You can also engage your audience by gradually moving about the front of the room, using anecdotes or personal stories to support your main points, and using props that you've had a chance to practice with. 

Whenever I refer to a book in my speech, I make every attempt to get that book physically and bring it with me.  Sometimes I even read from a book I'm referencing, but be sure to keep the excerpt brief. Finally, Power Point is certainly engaging and embedding videos or illustrations make your speech visually engaging.

Are You Using Video as Part of Your Marketing Plan?

If you aren't using videos as part of your marketing plan, you may be missing out.  Your competitors are doing just that and attracting more attention from prospects.

When small business owners hear about videos, they think about having to spend thousands of dollars to hire a video crew, but it's more inexpensive than you might think.

The best kinds of videos are less than 2 minutes and feature you speaking to your customers.  People have very little time to watch anything elaborate in fact, the shorter the better.

Get noticed by posting short videos of you or someone representing your organization, offering solutions to your customers problems.  Here is an example of a short but effective video that I made.

Answering Audience Questions

Someone asked me how I prepare for the questions I get as a speaker, from my audience members so that I can answer them without the help of cue cards or notes.

First of all, I always take questions following a lecture, keynote or presentation.  It is a common site for me as a speaker to have a line of people waiting at the front of the room when I come off of the stage. At conferences, I do my best to return to my book-signing table so that I can greet my audience members and hear their encouraging words of how much they enjoyed my presentation.

Running a speaking business means preparing for questions by knowing my passion, my material, and everything possible about my field of expertise. And with the ability to “stand in my client’s shoes,” I’m also able to anticipate my customers or audience member’s questions as a speaker

Some of the questions I get are about my competition or other authors or parenting experts. So I'm constantly reading other parenting experts materials or website to get to know them. I like to know exactly what makes them similar to or different from me so that I can answer my potential client's question.

If I can't answer the question, I get the person's contact info and promise to get back to them with the answer. If I get a question that has a long answer, I ask the person to see me following the event so that I don't hold up the rest of my audience and can provide an adequate answer. So, to recap, preparing for questions means becoming a true expert in your passion or your field of expertise; READ, LEARN AND READ SOME MORE.

Find more tips for building your speaking business in m book FROM THE SOAPBOX TO THE STAGE: HOW TO USE YOUR PASSION TO START A SPEAKING BUSINESS (http://StartaSpeakingBusiness.com)