Is your fundraising event speaker costing you?
Howard Lake | 30 October 2013 | Blogs
Michael Foreman, Association and Not for Profit Meetings Expert, recently interviewed Lyndon Hughes, Director of the London Speaking Academy, on the thorny issue of speakers who promise much but deliver little. At an important event, the quality of the presentation can make a very real difference between success and failure. Perhaps, Michael suggests, it’s time to move away from paid speakers and let our own people be our ambassadors? If you’re thinking of going down this road read on for tips on transforming your speaking style from decidedly average to distinctive and memorable.
I have often wondered how much money gets left on the table when key speakers at fundraising events don’t live up to their billing. We all want compelling communicators who will inspire our sponsors and prospective donors. But so often it seems that much of the event team’s hard work and organisation is let down by a lacklustre key speaker.
Lyndon Hughes, communications skills coach and director at the London Speaking Academy, has strong views on the subject: “So often, speakers at events think about ‘saving their skins’ when they get up to present” she told me. “They place more emphasis on just getting through it, rather than focusing on genuinely engaging and building meaningful relationships with the audience.”
“Of course that’s only human” she continues. “It’s natural to want to get through your material without hitches and to be seen to be credible. BUT more important than this is the message itself and getting the message over in such a way that it does what it is supposed to do. In other words, it allows your supporters and potential supporters to know what you want them to do and why. People buy from people, we know that. They want facts and figures, yes, but they also need to connect with the speaker as a person”.
What audiences want from a speaker
According to Lyndon, these are the key triggers audiences look for in a speaker.
- They want to be interested
- They want to trust
- They want to be reassured
- They want to ‘get’ the importance
- They want to feel the Charity’s enthusiasm, passion, frustration, hope …
- They want to feel that they can make a difference.
- They want to feel that they have made the right choice
And if speakers don’t meet the audience’s needs then yes, Lyndon agrees, charities could be missing out on potential support and bottom line income.
Advertisement
Time for home-grown speakers from within our organisations?
As I listened to Lyndon’s expertise it occurred to me that very often key speakers are brought in from outside the organisation – for the kudos, the credibility and the “pull” factor. Perhaps it’s time to home-grow fantastic speakers from within our own organisations. That way, we can be assured that our speakers and presentations will hit the mark reliably, over and over.
Learning from actors
Lyndon is a trained actor with many years’ experience on stage. “Let’s take a leaf out an actor’s book” she says “and look at just one of the many things that actors can teach presenters that will make an immediate difference.
“We all know that actors rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. But they don’t rehearse only to learn the lines. They rehearse so that they become one with the words they speak. So that they can use words to move people.
“Words have an emotional energy. Words like exciting, important, critical, compassion, ambivalence have a unique emotional energy. Unless they are given the emotional charge they need then your ‘exciting initiative’ can sound as enticing as a wet weekend.
“Imagine the ways ‘I appeal to you as a matter of urgency’ could be said. Try this. First, give all words equal high importance and emphasis. It would sound too forceful. It could work if sprinkled into a delivery – but would soon antagonise an audience. Now try it again with equal low emphasis and the sentence comes over as effectively as cold grey porridge.
Go after the big words
“Now go after the big words – appeal, matter, urgency. Are they all as important as each other? Probably not – appeal and urgency are the two big boys on the block. They have the power to carry the emotional charge of the sentence. Imagine marking those words with a fluorescent pen and then speak the sentence. As you practise, really exaggerate the words to give them real value. Don’t worry, you won’t do that on the day, we always pull back our performance in public.
“Suddenly the sentence comes to life. It has meaning AND emotion. Message and messenger have become one.
“If you think you can’t do it, think again” says Lyndon. “We’re all experts at it. Just ask your best friend or your partner:
- When I am angry do you know it?
- When I am happy do you know it?
- When I am frightened do you know it?
- When I am suspicious do you know it?
- (Supply more or less any emotional adjective you like, you get the general idea)
“The chances are that the answer will be yes. Why? Because feelings and emotions underpin your choice of words and the colour and emphasis you give them. Intention, emotion and words combine. You become the message. Actors know that the key words of a speech, spoken with authentic emotion, will hold and move, even sway, their audience.”
Lyndon believes that we can all speak with subtlety, variety and nuance, not just the lucky few. She certainly convinced me that with more actor’s skills under our belts we can enhance our Charity’s competitive edge in a very competitive world.
Michael Foreman, Association and Not for Profit Meetings Expert, was talking to Lyndon Hughes, Director of the London Speaking Academy. The London Speaking Academy is dedicated to teaching people with important things to say to get their message across effectively, every time.
Photo: Conference speaker by Halfpoint on Shutterstock.com
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.