7 Deadly Bombs to Kill Any Speech

(These will be sure to kill any speech or presentation.)

1. No Definiteness of Purpose.
Imagine, if you will, that you are invited to give a speech. The person who invited you asks you to give a one-sentence explanation of what you will be talking about. Not many speakers would be able to do that. Many speakers collect ideas and shoot them like a shotgun hoping that they will hit on something that someone in the crowd will like.

Having no definiteness of purpose, no clear objective is a deadly mistake that will cause your speech to bomb. You should be able to state why you are taking up people’s time in one sentence. Ask yourself the question, “What do I want my audience to remember about this speech?” In planning your presentation, the first step is to write your purpose. I like to call it a purpose statement. This forces you to clarify your destination. All of your ideas should flow from your purpose statement. As you write you will get many ideas that are wonderful and actually pearls of wisdom. However, if they don’t directly relate to your purpose statement, file them away for another speech.

2. Not Knowing Your Audience.
The importance of knowing your audience cannot be overstated. Remember, you are talking to people, not empty chairs or dummies on the chairs. Don’t be so caught up in the message that you want to give it just because it is so great. A good speaker finds out who is in his audience. You can do this by conducting an audience analysis. How? You can start by asking the person who invited you. Find out the age range, male/female ratio; occupational and economic status; educational background; political orientation; leisure activities. You will also want to know why they are there. What do they want to hear? Why are they listening to you? Take all of these things into consideration as you develop your presentation.

3. Weak or No Closing
Have you ever heard a speech that at the end of it, you didn’t know whether to clap or not because you didn’t know if the speaker was actually finished. The end of a speech is a time of high attention of the audience. You do not want to waste this time by omitting your conclusion. Your audience expects, rightfully so, that you will make an important statement at the end of your presentation. This is the time to give the bottom line, summarize your points, make a call to action. Memorize your closing so that you don’t forget it and make it strong.

4. No Organization
You may know where you are going with your speech, but the audience does not. People think in a clear, logical manner and need to be led along a clear path. Just throwing out thoughts to the audience as they come to you may confuse people and worse, cause them to tune out the rest of your message.

5. Showing No Enthusiasm or Passion for your Topic.
Speak about your passion. It is the speaker’s job to make the material interesting enough for the audience to listen to. If you think your presentation is boring, believe me, your audience will think it’s twice as boring. This is where your professionalism comes in. Use all the skills and tools you know to liven up your presentation.

6.Not Telling Stories
Especially with technical material, telling stories gives the listeners a chance to rest. Stories can make your audience laugh, cry, but mostly remember the point you are trying to drive home. Make sure your most important points are illustrated by good, relevant stories. They can either be from your personal life or stories you read or heard from others as long as they relate to your message.

7. Memorize Your Speech
Don’t memorize your entire speech. Instead, memorize the opening and the closing sentences. Memorize your main points. There are many problems with memorizing your entire speech. For one, the pace and timing is different with a memorized speech. Also, if you forget one portion of your speech, you are lost. Instead, if you memorize your main points, you will not have to concentrate on exact words, but rather the idea you want to get across.