By Mark Sanborn, CSP, CPAE, Cavett Award Recipient
“Hello, and thanks, Bob, for that great introduction. Really, I appreciate it. You read it just like I wrote it..ha ha! And good to be here with you tonight. Dinner was really good. Did you enjoy it? If you did, let’s give a round of applause to the chef and servers! (pause, wait for anemic applause). I’m not really sure what I’m going to say tonight, but I want to talk a little bit about…”
That is a composite of many opening lines I’ve heard speakers use to start their presentation.
Boring. Forgettable. And a terrible way to start.
Whenever you stand in front of an audience, you can count on one thing: they want to quickly determine if you are worth listening to.
And to prove that you have something to say, you must break their preoccupation and immediately demonstrate the value of what you’re going to say.
That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t appreciate your introducer or the food that was served (although often the menu isn’t the highlight of the event). Those just aren’t the best way to begin.
Your opening lines are critical to engaging people to listen and keep listening.
Here are some fast starts:
- Promise a benefit: “In the next 60 minutes I’ll share four powerful ideas you can use…” Show your audience that your message is relevant and practical.
- Pique interest: “What is the one thing all great leaders have in common?” The best questions stimulate thoughtful consideration.
- Relate a personal experience: “I overcame a life-threatening illness, and I’ll share what I learned that can help keep you healthy and safe.” Share with your audience what they can learn from what you learned from experience.
- Be a contrarian: “Prevailing wisdom is that social media is essential for successful sales and marketing. I disagree, and I’ll prove why I’m right.” Audience members are interested in whether or not a speaker can prove an opposite point of view.
- Make a challenging statement: “You might think you’re a great multitasker but you’re not, and here’s why…” You can engage people quickly by challenging their thinking.
- Use humor: When a meeting room is hard to find, I sometimes begin by saying, “Congratulations on being here. I don’t mean this meeting; I mean congratulations on finding this room.” Saying something funny, especially if it is true, isn’t the same as telling a joke. Generally, jokes aren’t a good way to begin, especially if people don’t laugh. But humor relevant to the event can be a great way to start. Good humor doesn’t always produce big laughs but sometimes just small chuckles.
Once you start fast, you can make some acknowledgements about the event and your happiness to be a part but keep those comments concise.
And then make sure you have ideas and delivery skills that will reward audience members for listening to everything you have to say after you start.
I agree 100%! Grab them off the bat.
Mark. Great tips and insights. Starting fast is a great way to build rapport with the audience. But often times I don’t have that luxury.
I need to start even faster by winning the opportunity and then winning the audience.
One of my strategies is to create a fun and playful video either in front of my clients widget, or if I can’t find that, then my own widget.
I then say the first person who comes up and introduces themself to me wins a prize.
What I am taking away from what you wrote is that even in doing this I can incorporate your points into getting the audience to tune in long before I take the stage.
Because as Sylvie di Guisto said, “the hardest working people at any conference is…
wait for it…
The Conference attendees.
I hope to see you at Influence.
JR
Excellent advice. I changed my speeches when we you lead the workshop on keynotes in Florida. You told us to cut out the first 1/3 of our speeches and get into the meat before you lose them.
Absoutely true. I think if you don’t have them smiling, laughing, saying Wow to themselves, or Oh my goodness, I never thought about that, IN THE FIRST TEN SECONDS, it’s all an uphill battle. If you do “get ’em”, chances are they’ll stick with you, even forgive your lapses of brilliance until the final exit line.
As basic and fundamentally simple as this advice is, it is one of the critical differences between the amateur and the professional speaker. The introduction is an essential component that is the overture to your concerto to follow. If it is delivered properly, (an issue worthy of lengthy discussion unto itself), the table is set and you have the full attention of the audience. With the anticipation level increased, the mistake that is often made is to let the connection slip out of your hand with a clumsy opening that fails to immediately build upon the intro.
A challenge, a question or launching directly into a story that engages the audience is always the best. Practice your opening line until you can’t get it wrong with proper timing and inflection.
Great tips Mark
Great ideas. I like #2 – ask a question to begin my speeches. Yesterday I shared 3 tips on how to determine your speech topic. I asked the question: “If you were asked to give a TED-style talk tomorrow, what’s the one thing you’d want to share from your heart?” Gave them a moment to consider before asking for a response from audience members.
I always enjoy Mark’s advice. He is correct about boring openings. The purpose of your opening is to arouse interest in your subject. Patricia Fripp
Thanks, Mark. Always good to learn from Obi Wan.
Thanks so much Mark! Great points and love this: …to prove that you have something to say, you must break their preoccupation and immediately demonstrate the value of what you’re going to say.
This is wonderful, Mark. People often say the purpose of the opening is to get attention. I submit it’s twofold: to get attention, and to make a connection…with you and your subject.
Thanks Mark! You gave me a few new ideas to use when opening.