In other words, before you craft your speech, you will need to do some homework to find out as much as you can about the audience you are speaking to. Cultivate in yourself a disciplined and systematic habit of researching your audience before every speech.
Here are 3 guiding questions to guide you in your research on your audience.
Question 1: What do your audience truly want?
Do not speculate on what your audience want. Before any speech, take the extra effort to interview some members of your prospective audience to find out about their goals, objectives, needs and desires. Do they want solutions to a complex problem? More convenience? Or more options?
Sometimes, your audience might not be able to specify their exact goals, objectives, needs and desires. It is your job as a speak to clarify that, ideally before your speeches.
Question 2: What do your audience want to avoid?
In contrast to Question 1 above, Question 2 seeks answers that are of the opposite nature from Question 1; while Question 1 seeks to find out what the audience desire more of, Question 2 seeks to find out what the audience desire less of.
Nonetheless, this question is important as it allows you a deeper understanding about your audience. This is because often times, your audience might not always know what they want, but they are very clear about what they do not want!
Use this question in tandem with Question 1 above when you interview your prospective audience.
Question 3: What are the pains and challenges your audience face?
Find out about the various pains and challenges your audience have, and among all the possible pains challenges, find out which is the most important one. For example, if you are speaking to a group of single mothers, find our which is the most important challenge they face. Similarly, if you are speaking to a group of fresh graduates, find out what is the single most important challenge they usually face. Every target audience will have a set of challenges they have to grapple with, and among which, a most critical challenge they have yet to overcome.
If you can provide a solution that help to address the most important challenge your audience face, you can instantly influence them.
Pre-Speech Research and Homework
To answer these questions, you will need to step into the shoes of your audience, think from your audience point of view, visualize their lifestyle, and understand their inner psyche (their needs, wants, pains, pleasures, values, mindsets etc.). Note that the questions listed above are non-exhaustive; there are more questions that you might need to take note of.
In conclusion, a thorough understanding of your audience will allow you to build instant rapport with them, setting the hot bed for influence. Go all out to understand them. Cultivate the good habit of researching everything about your audience, and you will be able to get under their skin and influence them effectively.
Kwan Hong helps professionals, business executives and youths
gain rapid mastery in communication skills, personal peak performance
and career growth. He has delivered impactful workshops and facilitated
seminars in public speaking, communication skills, leadership, personal
peak performance, entrepreneurship and business development. He has
synthesized knowledge from 8 Degrees and Diplomas, from over 100
certifications and from 1000 books to bring his clients the best tips,
tricks and techniques for personal success.
Till date, 105,700 participants from over 100 organizations and events have benefited from his speaking engagements.
Reach out to him at http://www.TanKwanHong.com, or connect with him on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/tankwanhong
Till date, 105,700 participants from over 100 organizations and events have benefited from his speaking engagements.
Reach out to him at http://www.TanKwanHong.com, or connect with him on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/tankwanhong
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