Art Anderson, your DentalSuccess Tipster, lets you know how to:
Build Your Practice Through Effective Public Speaking
Bill Gove, who was the founder and first president of the National Speakers Association knows that public speaking is not only good public relations, it is good economics. By selecting the audiences carefully, you can give your attention and time to those who would be high-quality patients.
The program chairmen of service clubs are constantly looking for interesting speakers. There are the Eagles, Elks, Lions, Rotary, Exchange Club, Kiwanis and Veterans Organizations for starters.
What would you talk about? How about new developments in dentistry–cosmetics, sleep dentistry, the new things in your profession that will be interesting to the man on the street. This will help others to see you as someone who is on the forward edge of your profession. It is well to remember that whatever you talk about, it must be entertaining or you will not have any active listeners.
Share information the audience would not otherwise have. State an idea and reinforce it with an example. This pattern not only provides time for the listener to absorb an idea, it reinforces the idea with an experience that gives it validity.
Here are some things to remember:
1. Audiences are not the same. Some are responsive and seem to hang on every word. Others may not indicate by their response that they are with you. The latter require more energy, but don’t let this affect your enthusiasm or your presentation.
2. Devote much more time to preparation than to presentation. An hour of preparation for each minute of delivery is not uncommon. Hopefully you can use the same speech when you change audiences and reduce total preparation time.
3. Memorize your speech so you don’t lose eye contact by constantly referring to notes.
4. Work on delivery by planning pauses for affect with the finger on the chin, pointing, or scanning the audience. Plan to compliment the audience on their responsiveness and they will become more so.
That’s a start with the hope that it helps you produce many more valued patients.
