When you’re giving any type of prepared talk – be it a lecture, sales pitch or presentation, it’s crucial that you research your audience so that you know who you are going to speak to.
Why is this important?
Well, unless you know who your audience is, there’s a good chance you won’t get your message across effectively. As I once heard it put: It’s like speaking Urdu to a Frenchman. You might be perfectly clear about what you’re saying, but if your audience doesn’t understand a word of it, you’re not going to get your point across very effectively – it at all.
So research your audience. Think about what sort of language they speak, their level of education and so on. How old is your audience, and how long will their attention span be? Young children and seniors tend to have shorter attention spans than people in mid-life. If you’re speaking on a technical subject, will your audience understand the terminology and jargon?
All this allows you to tailor your words and phasing to suit your audience – too complicated and they won’t understand, to simplistic and they’ll be bored.
Likewise, what’s their sense of humor? Are they seriously minded, or will throwing in a joke or two help to ease things along?
What are their political affiliations? If you’re addressing a Donald Trump rally, it’s probably not a good idea to praise Bernie Saunders (and vice-versa). In fact, unless you know your audience well, it’s best to steer clear of politics altogether.
Ideally, you should come up with an “average citizen” type of picture for your audience members and basically phrase your speech or presentation like you’re talking on-on-one to them.
Oftentimes, people get nervous addressing a new bunch of people because they don’t know much about them, and have a fear of the unknown. By finding out as much as you can beforehand, you can lay that fear to rest.
Talk soon!
PS. Don’t forget your copy of my guide to speaking with confidence. It’s waiting for you:
Find out all about it HERE
