I first got an inkling of why some speakers are paid an eye-popping sum of money from an interview with Tom Antion. (He claimed in the interview that he can easily pocket US $245,000 for one weekend training. No kidding!) For your information, Tom is one of the better known speakers in States who was recently invited to teach at the humor college.

Now, I know what you are thinking… this guy is a professional, Eric. Plus he is considered a celebrity in the speaking industry. Of course he is going to be paid a lot of money.

True. But how did he even get there in the first place?

That’s what I am curious about. So after doing some research on him and the other more popular speakers around the world, I found a few things that they do which allow them to fetch such a high price. These are techniques that you can borrow to help you dazzle your audience. Yes, you may not be reaping the benefits in the monetary sense, but you can be assured that your audience will remember you for all the good reasons.

There is one in particular that I want to elaborate here.

And that is to RESEARCH ON YOUR AUDIENCE. The underlying principle is simple and straightforward - find out what your audience need and want; and then give it to them.

The secret: pre-program questionnaire
Professional speakers do it through a pre-program questionnaire. You will be surprised to know that sometimes these questionnaire extends to about a freaking 10 pages, with over 50 questions! In fact Tom Antion will make it a point to interview at least 15 employees from the organization prior to his speaking engagement. And by the time he is done with the interviews, he will have a very good idea of what the organization (his target audience) is all about.

1. It allows you to focus on your speech on what really matters
For instance, asking this question - “what are the top three problems or challenges that my audience is facing right now?” Once you know what their problems are in the context of your speech (say sales), you will be able to focus your speech on helping them solve their problems instead of lecturing on the 5 step sales process which most of them will already know by hard. By knowing what your audience need right now and dishing it to them on a silver platter, you will be considered a savior.

2. It allows you to build rapport with your audience right from the beginning
Researching on your audience by finding out what they are most proud of or what they complain about most can help you get into their world. And when you incorporate these little facets into your speech, you will be able to effortessly build rapport with them, even if they appear aloof at first. Let me give you a recent example.

I was invited by PSA Singapore to do a lunch talk. And being my first time, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. So I decided to call up a few friends to find out what employees in PSA Singapore are like. And out of the conversation, I found out that they have recently hit a world record by doing 27million TEUs (containers) in 2007 (despite a official capacity of 25m), 1st in the world again. And one of the biggest complaints that they have is leaving work on time.

So in my introduction, I had a line like this… “I spoke to some of my colleagues to find out what are your top three challenges. And here’s what I have gotten. One, speaking with confidence. Two, remembering your script. Three, leaving work on time.”

That got me quite a laugh and rapport was immediately built.

And in one of my segments where I expounded on the importance of knowing your stakeholders, I intentionally brought in their success story. “Imagine you are an engineer who have thought about a brilliant idea for PSA to hit another world record of doing 30 m TEUs…”. That again, strike a chord in my audience since they were still beaming in pride of their recent success.

See how rapport is built in by doing your homework.

3. It allows you to create organic humor effortlessly (even if you are not funny!)
Here’s another reason why doing pre-speech interviews and questionnaires set you apart from the so-so speakers - you have opportunities to create organic humor! John Kinde defines organic humor as the kind of humor that springs from the context of the talk. In fact, it’s so seamlessly woven into the fabric of the talk you almost don’t notice it. This is so much more authentic and your audience will be impressed with you, even without you trying so hard to be funny.

Here’s an example by Mr Absolutely Funny (Darren La Croix). In his pre-speech interview, he asked the employees what’s one of the most popular advice that their boss has shared with them. And he got this - “What you need is a worm that says eat me!” And in Darren’s keynote, he cleverly placed that in a speech that won him a good 10 seconds of laughter and cheering. You can check it out in the video excerpt below.

Got it?

So the next time you are about to deliver a speech, try conducting a mini pre-speech interview. You don’t have to talk to 15 people. Start with 3 first. Here are some questions you can start with:

1. What are the top three problems or challenges that my audience is facing right now?
2. What does the audience need right now that will make the most difference to them?
3. What are some of the stories / recent successes that my audience are most proud of?
4. What happen in the last 6 months for the particular group I am speaking to?
5. What must happen for this speech / presentation to be successful?
6. What are some of the most talked about topics/stories/buzzwords by my audience?
7. Who are the popular people in my audience? (so you can use them in your examples or activities)
8. What are the three most important things that I must know about my audience?
9. Who are the people in the audience whom I can interview to get more information?

Click here for a variation of this entry.

Cheers,
Eric Feng
Your Speech Coach

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