Speaking Tip: Don’t Overfeed Your Audience

We all love dessert! If you dine at Seasons 52, you’ll be presented with a selection of tiny sweets at the end of your meal—chocolate mousse, key lime pie, carrot cake, and a host of other delectable options to enjoy with your post-entrée coffee.

And what about that cheesecake restaurant? You know the one. Choose a slice of any-flavor-imaginable cake from the colorful menu and…

Okay … what does dessert have to do with speaking to an audience?

Have you ever given your all on the platform, received a stream of compliments from the audience and the meeting host, and then … that’s it … nothing.

You made everyone happy but no one contacted you for coaching or consulting. Nobody follows up to ask you to speak at their event. It all went so well but the spin-off is zero.

What happened?

Think about that big slice of double-fudge triple-berry death-by-chocolate cheesecake hewn from a gigantic, sugary slab and delivered to your table with a small forklift. You go to work on that bad boy with a serrated knife and maybe you succeed in consuming half of it before you give up and request a shopping cart to haul the carcass back to your car with.

That cheesecake was amazing but … now you hate yourself. You’re dreading how long you’ll have to work out to compensate for the calorie-bomb you just crammed down your gullet and you feel like you just ate a pillow. You swear you’ll never go back to that restaurant again—even though it was so good.

What about those folks dining at Seasons 52 on the other side of the mall? Each of them orders a tiny dessert—or maybe even two—served in a tiny shot-glass.

Wow! That was wonderful! I can’t wait to come back and try the pumpkin pie!

And that’s the difference. If you offer your audience too much delicious content, they’ll leave overstuffed.

If you want follow-up inquiries, give them a good taste of the value you have to offer but leave them hungry for more.

How does that work?

“Now you’ve seen the power of the XYZ Success Principle. If you’d like step-by-step guidance on how to implement it in your organization, come see me after the presentation.”

“The ABC model opens the door to the kind of massive work culture shift that has transformed thousands of struggling organizations. There’s more to that than we have time for today but grab the QR code on the screen. I’ll be happy to share …”

No products are sold in the above examples. No prices are given or offers made. But it’s clear to the audience that you’ve given them a small sample of something large and delicious.

Why feed your audience the whole cheesecake?

Leave them satisfied.

But leave them hungry enough to come back to you for more.