It seems to me that the main reason why people get anxious about speaking in public is that they are not sure what is expected of them. Here are 15 tips to help dispel that anxiety by making sure you are well prepared.
These tips will help you feel confident that you know your stuff, and also that you know why and how it will be relevant to your audience.
Tip 1: Imagine you are speaking just to me and answer this question: What do you want me to know?
Tip 2: Why should I care about what you want me to know?
Tip 3: Why do I need to hear it from YOU? What's your special connection with the message?
Tip 4: Would you pay to hear YOU speak?
Tip 5: Record your voice and ask yourself and some close friends if your voice is attractive.
Tip 6: What's your reason for speaking? Money? Influence? Ego? Passion? Just be clear about it.
Tip 7: When you have credible answers to tips 1-6, write your Core Message (the 'carry away') in a single sentence.
Tip 8: Develop your message in 3 streams of argument or thought, e.g. Problem / Consequence / Solution.
Tip 9: Decide on your call to action. What do you want people to do when you have finished speaking?
Tip 10: Create an opening 'Hook' -- something unexpected or dramatic that grabs attention right at the start.
Tip 11: Write out and learn your opening and closing paragraphs. Just use prompts for the rest, to sound more natural.
Tip 12: Decide on the 'point of arrival' or climax of your speech or presentation and build up the energy to that point.
Tip 13: Practise in front of a mirror or camcorder. Watch your gestures and body language.
Tip 14: When you are confident of your text, answer (aloud) the questions in Tips 1-3.
Tip 15: Unless you are in a speech contest, don't try to give a world class performance. Just be sincere and passionate.
For more detailed help, go to www.pkpcommunicators.com or call 0845 165 9240 (local rates).
Phillip
Monday 29 November 2010
Wednesday 24 November 2010
When you are chasing payment
In the twilight zone of credit control, there has always been some ambivalence in the attitude taken by companies towards their customers. On the one hand, they cannot afford to alienate customers, and on the other hand they cannot afford bad debts. This uncertainty is revealed in the stock phrases that commonly occur in letters chasing payment:
• We thank you for your valued custom
• Failure to settle your account could result in suspension of service
• Your account is delinquent
• If you have paid within the past 7 days please ignore this letter and we apologise for troubling you
One reason for the strangulated language is that these letters have almost never been written by a copywriter. They were drafted by someone in credit control whose focus is debt recovery not customer relations, and they cannot usually see the connection.
Copywriters have a persuasive reflex. Their task is to get you to like their clients' companies and their offerings. They want to win you over, create that warm glow, develop the relationship.
Credit control people are focused on the figures. "You owe us money, we are not your bankers, you are holding things up" is what they really want to say. Such an attitude is in conflict with the concept of customer relations.
When I was Senior Copywriter at Reader's Digest, London, I volunteered to re-write the entire portfolio of credit control letters. As my main job was to write the music mailings and prize draws, my reflex was already pro-customer. I was therefore able to make both sets of letters congruent. Payment reminders started with the same tone of voice as the sales letters, and that made all the difference.
If you want someone's business, why would you ever use terms like "delinquent"? Why would you threaten to suspend service (e.g. mobile phones) and remind them that you hold the power to affect their business? It changes the flavour of the relationship, probably forever.
So my advice to all credit control departments is to integrate their communications with the marketing efforts. And employ a copywriter.
Phillip
• We thank you for your valued custom
• Failure to settle your account could result in suspension of service
• Your account is delinquent
• If you have paid within the past 7 days please ignore this letter and we apologise for troubling you
One reason for the strangulated language is that these letters have almost never been written by a copywriter. They were drafted by someone in credit control whose focus is debt recovery not customer relations, and they cannot usually see the connection.
Copywriters have a persuasive reflex. Their task is to get you to like their clients' companies and their offerings. They want to win you over, create that warm glow, develop the relationship.
Credit control people are focused on the figures. "You owe us money, we are not your bankers, you are holding things up" is what they really want to say. Such an attitude is in conflict with the concept of customer relations.
When I was Senior Copywriter at Reader's Digest, London, I volunteered to re-write the entire portfolio of credit control letters. As my main job was to write the music mailings and prize draws, my reflex was already pro-customer. I was therefore able to make both sets of letters congruent. Payment reminders started with the same tone of voice as the sales letters, and that made all the difference.
If you want someone's business, why would you ever use terms like "delinquent"? Why would you threaten to suspend service (e.g. mobile phones) and remind them that you hold the power to affect their business? It changes the flavour of the relationship, probably forever.
So my advice to all credit control departments is to integrate their communications with the marketing efforts. And employ a copywriter.
Phillip
Friday 12 November 2010
Get more from those networking meetings
If you are reading this, you have indicated an interest in Networking. But are you getting enough from the process?
Let’s start with what you bring to the party. First, can you state your own USP in 10 words or less?
When you go networking, i.e. when you meet people in the flesh, you need a clear understanding of the value you could offer to those you meet. You don’t have to wear it on your sleeve, but you need it on the tip of your tongue, in case you are asked. And you will be asked.
Second, what’s your offer? How do you describe it? Most people describe it in a fairly literal way, as though they were listing all the parts in a car’s engine. That approach is guaranteed to lose your listener in about 10 seconds flat.
At a Networking function I met a man who told me his business was to provide a different kind of online shopping process. He described what happens when you wish to buy certain kinds of products online, and how he provides choice and an agreeable experience.
After some questioning from me we identified the real benefit, which was the ‘lifelike shopping experience’ as distinct from ‘online buying’. So when I re-worked his Elevator Speech, starting with the ‘experience’, he realized that he needed to think differently about his company’s offering.
So what’s your offer? What’s the main benefit it delivers to your customers? What’s the ‘pain’ it removes? Identify that, work out a 15-second statement about it, relating it to a typical customer’s needs, and you’ll get much more interest.
Here’s my own USP in under 10 words: I can help you get your point across convincingly. And whenever I have the opportunity to state that, I immediately ask, “Tell me what you do.” My focus is always on the person I meet.
There’s more. I have put my ideas in a brief e-book called “Getting More from Networking Meetings”. Send me an email with Networking in the subject line and I’ll email you a pdf of the book. Free of charge.
Please also write Yes please if you will allow me to send you relevant information on verbal communication from time to time.
Phillip
Let’s start with what you bring to the party. First, can you state your own USP in 10 words or less?
When you go networking, i.e. when you meet people in the flesh, you need a clear understanding of the value you could offer to those you meet. You don’t have to wear it on your sleeve, but you need it on the tip of your tongue, in case you are asked. And you will be asked.
Second, what’s your offer? How do you describe it? Most people describe it in a fairly literal way, as though they were listing all the parts in a car’s engine. That approach is guaranteed to lose your listener in about 10 seconds flat.
At a Networking function I met a man who told me his business was to provide a different kind of online shopping process. He described what happens when you wish to buy certain kinds of products online, and how he provides choice and an agreeable experience.
After some questioning from me we identified the real benefit, which was the ‘lifelike shopping experience’ as distinct from ‘online buying’. So when I re-worked his Elevator Speech, starting with the ‘experience’, he realized that he needed to think differently about his company’s offering.
So what’s your offer? What’s the main benefit it delivers to your customers? What’s the ‘pain’ it removes? Identify that, work out a 15-second statement about it, relating it to a typical customer’s needs, and you’ll get much more interest.
Here’s my own USP in under 10 words: I can help you get your point across convincingly. And whenever I have the opportunity to state that, I immediately ask, “Tell me what you do.” My focus is always on the person I meet.
There’s more. I have put my ideas in a brief e-book called “Getting More from Networking Meetings”. Send me an email with Networking in the subject line and I’ll email you a pdf of the book. Free of charge.
Please also write Yes please if you will allow me to send you relevant information on verbal communication from time to time.
Phillip
Thursday 11 November 2010
18 Top Tips for Copywriting
Copywriting is much more than joined-up writing. It's the skill of persuasion in print.
Whether you do your own copywriting or get someone else to do it for you, here are 18 things you need to know.
1. Write headlines that offer the main benefit clearly. Don't try to be smart, clever or tricksy. Or even 'intriguing'.
2. The public is not your market. It contains your market. So allow readers to decide quickly if you are speaking to them.
3. Advertising is selling in print. If it doesn't sell, it isn't good advertising.
4. Your advertising is a salesman. A mediocre salesman affects only part of your business. Mediocre advertising affects it all.
5. Put your prospect into your headline, e.g. MEN! Can you grip spare flesh around your waist?
6. Make your headline specific, e.g. Here's a 7-step low-cost way to double sales.
7. Don't hide behind facts. They are neutral until they have been interpreted. Then they become information.
8. Follow the sequence of persuasion. AIDA usually works. That's Attention, Interest, Desire, Action.
9: Use the language of daily speech, as if you were selling face-to-face. Read your text aloud. Would you speak like that to a prospect?
10: In a sales letter, always have a PS, and put your special offer in there. Everyone reads the PS. Headline, PS, signature. That's what we read.
11: Avoid analogies. If you write, "Like a Constable painting, our resort is peaceful ...", people don't make the connection. They think you are selling Constables.
12: Use a 2-line subhead under the headline to increase readership. The subhead extends the promise of the headline.
13: Limit your opening paragraph to 12 words. You need to reel them in gently. The sight of a long opening para will turn people off.
14: For a direct response ad, you have 3.2 seconds to answer 3 questions: What is it? Is it for me? How do I get it? It has been measured.
15: Always test. Write 2 approaches to the offer, and test them against each other before rolling out. Then use the stronger one and test against that.
16: For email marketing, always use a salutation, even though the medium is less formal than letter writing. Use their names! Just don't overdo it, or it will seem patronising.
17: Long or short copy? Make it as long as it takes to tell the story without needless repetition. First write what you want to say, then edit.
18: Avoid long words. Do a character count, and take an average. You should average under 5 characters per word for plain speaking.
Above all, remember these three things about copywriting:
1. You need to persuade, so follow the disciplines of persuasion
2. Use the language of the common man
3. It's good only if it sells
Phillip
Whether you do your own copywriting or get someone else to do it for you, here are 18 things you need to know.
1. Write headlines that offer the main benefit clearly. Don't try to be smart, clever or tricksy. Or even 'intriguing'.
2. The public is not your market. It contains your market. So allow readers to decide quickly if you are speaking to them.
3. Advertising is selling in print. If it doesn't sell, it isn't good advertising.
4. Your advertising is a salesman. A mediocre salesman affects only part of your business. Mediocre advertising affects it all.
5. Put your prospect into your headline, e.g. MEN! Can you grip spare flesh around your waist?
6. Make your headline specific, e.g. Here's a 7-step low-cost way to double sales.
7. Don't hide behind facts. They are neutral until they have been interpreted. Then they become information.
8. Follow the sequence of persuasion. AIDA usually works. That's Attention, Interest, Desire, Action.
9: Use the language of daily speech, as if you were selling face-to-face. Read your text aloud. Would you speak like that to a prospect?
10: In a sales letter, always have a PS, and put your special offer in there. Everyone reads the PS. Headline, PS, signature. That's what we read.
11: Avoid analogies. If you write, "Like a Constable painting, our resort is peaceful ...", people don't make the connection. They think you are selling Constables.
12: Use a 2-line subhead under the headline to increase readership. The subhead extends the promise of the headline.
13: Limit your opening paragraph to 12 words. You need to reel them in gently. The sight of a long opening para will turn people off.
14: For a direct response ad, you have 3.2 seconds to answer 3 questions: What is it? Is it for me? How do I get it? It has been measured.
15: Always test. Write 2 approaches to the offer, and test them against each other before rolling out. Then use the stronger one and test against that.
16: For email marketing, always use a salutation, even though the medium is less formal than letter writing. Use their names! Just don't overdo it, or it will seem patronising.
17: Long or short copy? Make it as long as it takes to tell the story without needless repetition. First write what you want to say, then edit.
18: Avoid long words. Do a character count, and take an average. You should average under 5 characters per word for plain speaking.
Above all, remember these three things about copywriting:
1. You need to persuade, so follow the disciplines of persuasion
2. Use the language of the common man
3. It's good only if it sells
Phillip
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