John McCain can be a great speaker, especially when he is a little bit angry and speaking without notes. The problem is that he consistently (at least 50% of the time) is boring, mundane and flat, due to poor reading of a speech. Barack Obama is occasionally flat and has too many “uhs” and “ums” (especially during a media interview), but Obama is consistently (over 80% of the time) a great speaker. He’s smooth, fluid, emotional, and compelling.

My prediction: This spells doom for McCain. Since the modern TV era (1952), the general election candidate who is the better speaker has always won the presidency. (I grant you 2000 and 2004 can be debated due to the poor speaking skills of Bush versus the irritating speaking styles of Gore and Kerry).

But 2008 is a very clear-cut contest between someone who is a great speaker most of the time (Obama) and someone who is a poor-to-middling speaker most of the time (McCain). I’m predicting a clear-cut Obama based purely on his oratorical talents.

The following comes from TJ Walker’s upcoming book “The Wisdom of Your Audience.” Consistently, the worst advice speakers and presenters get, comes from everyone who is NOT your audience. The following gives examples of some of the WORST advice people are often given. It is followed by the advice of your audience. Listen to them. They are your true judge and jury.

How Can I be More Concise?

Your PowerPoint Administrative Specialist: “Limit your presentation to no more than 10 slides!”

Your Boss: “Strip out all of your stories, examples, and anecdotes. Just stick to the facts and you can slim down your presentation.”

Your College Speech Professor: “Research shows that no speech should last longer than 18.5 minutes.”

You: “The more concise I am, the sooner I can sit down, the less likely I am to receive any criticism for having gone on too long.”

***

Your Audience: “Concise? Why don’t you actually try to tell us stuff that’s interesting and useful? If you do that, the time will fly and we won’t be staring at our watches. If your speech is a concise 9 minutes long but you are so boring that we tune out after 30 seconds, then the next 8.5 minutes will seem like three hours. So what did you really accomplish? Guess what? We never complain about someone NOT being concise if they are really interesting, even if they talk for three hours.”

The following comes from TJ Walker’s upcoming book “The Wisdom of Your Audience”. Consistently, the worst advice speakers and presenters get, comes from everyone who is NOT your audience. The following gives examples of some of the WORST advice people are often given. It is followed by the advice of your audience. Listen to them. They are your true judge and jury.

What is the most likely speaking disaster I could encounter while presenting?

Your Corporate Communications Director: “Your fonts will be inconsistent in size, shape and color. We, as a company, will look like idiots!”

Your Marketing Director: “If you forget to mention our seven key corporate marketing messages that were signed off on by the CEO last year, this speech will be a wasted effort!”

Your Audio/Visual Technician: “A bulb could burn out on the PowerPoint Projector.”

You: “I could forget some of my transition statements and I will look like a complete idiot. Everyone will laugh at me!”

*** 

Your Audience: “The biggest disaster is that you will have robbed me of thirty minutes of my life that I can never get back. The biggest disaster is nothing…that is, you said nothing interesting, nothing memorable or nothing useful and you wasted my time. Thanks for nothing!”

The following comes from TJ Walker’s upcoming book “The Wisdom of Your Audience”. Consistently, the worst advice speakers and presenters get, comes from everyone who is NOT your audience. The following gives examples of some of the WORST advice people are often given. It is followed by the advice of your audience. Listen to them. They are your true judge and jury.

How can I increase my sales to the group I am speaking to?

Marketing Director: “Stress benefit, benefits, benefits!

Sales Manager: “Give them an incentive to act today!”

Your Boss: “Tease you audience and tell them they can’t get all of our insights without hiring you.”

You: “I’ve got to be really aggressive here. If I don’t ask, I won’t receive. I’d better push this audience hard.”

***

Your Audience: “The best way to sell us is to NOT sell us. Instead give us information that is so valuable to us that you leave us wanting more. Case studies can be interesting for us and will help you too. Help us so much from the content of your speech that we feel there is no risk buying your product or service because you’ve already delivered value. Give to us freely and you’ll get back in return.  Also, we tend to forget stuff very quickly, so if you have a tip sheet, free report or some other handout with valuable information for us, then we will gladly take it and we might even contact you in the future.”

I just attend a BNI business networking event this morning in Rockefeller Center here in Manhattan. This is an opportunity for business people and entrepreneurs to network and give their elevator pitches to a room full of 35 colleagues. Here is a list of the three most common blunders:

1. Starting off with “good morning, my name is…” This is boring and you were already introduced.
2. Listing educational and certification credentials. No one cares that you spend 90 hours on a mortgage broker study course.
3. Ad slogans don’t work in a 30 second into—leave those for your brochure or business card.

Here are three tips on how to be more effective at elevator pitches:

1. The first thing out of your mouth should be about how you help people who are just like the people in your audience.
2. Give specific, concrete examples.
3. Offer to give away a free special report, video, handout or something else of value to people so that they will approach you to learn more about what you do.