One of the defining character traits of a successful entrepreneur is the ability to communicate. The bridge between you and your customers is anchored in the strength of your communication. Honing your public speaking skills can help you communicate more effectively with potential clients and with your team. This is the reason many people hire TED-style coaching leaders from organizations such as Thought-Leader to help them reach millions of people and propel their businesses forward.
Here are the ways public speaking skills can significantly contribute to your entrepreneurial success.
1. Build Confidence in Talking To People
Speaking in public is one of the most common fears. However, if you’re an entrepreneur who wants to succeed, you must overcome fear of public speaking. Generally, public speaking anxiety usually stems from a lack of self-esteem and the fear of being judged. Therefore, as you get more exposure to public speaking (albeit reluctantly), you’ll find that it gradually builds your confidence to talk to people. After all, if you managed to speak at a conference hall full of people, how hard can it be to converse with one person or a few?
Public speaking also trains you to be a more engaging speaker. You’ve learned how to get your audience’s attention and sustain their interest until the end. You can apply these valuable lessons in one-on-one conversations or small group discussions with potential clients, business partners, or investors.
Related: Smart Skills You Will Need Now as an Entrepreneur
2. Deliver An Impressive Elevator Pitch
An elevator pitch is so-called because it gives you around 30 seconds or the timeframe of a typical elevator ride to explain your business concept and leave a lasting impression. For example, you may have an opportunity to cross paths with an influential business person to whom you wish to pitch your product. They have tight schedules, so it may be challenging to schedule a separate meeting. All you have is a chance meeting lasting no more than a minute, and you need to keep it short and sweet but enthralling enough to leave a mark.
Public speaking helps you deliver an impressive elevator pitch because it teaches you to put words together that create the desired effect. No word is wasted; every word is carefully chosen. Having hooked the listener with your elevator pitch, you may have succeeded in securing a second meeting to market your product.
3. Perfect Your Proposal Presentation
If you’re given the opportunity to present your business proposal to a potential business partner or investor, you have to ensure your presentation is flawless from start to finish. This is where your newly acquired skills in public speaking come into play.
Your public speaking experience has probably taught you that you can engage your audience better by telling a story. You can apply this tried-and-tested principle to your proposal presentation. This is not to say that you will dispense with data and other necessary technical information, but that you will weave all the essential details into a captivating story or scenario that they can relate to.
As the cliché goes: Facts tell, but stories sell. So, leverage the power of storytelling in your proposal presentation.
Related: 10 Traits and Qualities of an Awesome Accountant
4. Expand Your Social Network
Expanding one’s social network is exceedingly important, especially for entrepreneurs. The more confident you are in communicating your ideas in front of a sizable audience, the more you expand your social network. And when you come across as credible and sincere whenever you speak, you can gain adherents, not one at a time, but big groups at a time.
Even if you’re already comfortable speaking to people you haven’t encountered before, developing your public speaking skills can help you deftly shift a conversation towards a worthwhile goal like forming a business connection.
Making an excellent impression is essential when building a network, and you can make this possible through stellar public speaking skills.
5. Motivate Employees
Employee motivation is crucial to the success of any business, whether it’s been around for a long time or just starting. Employees with a high level of commitment exhibit increased productivity, enabling the company to reach its targets and attain its goals.
Apart from giving incentives, a more meaningful way to motivate your employees is by gathering them up and addressing them collectively. Affirm their contribution to the company’s growth. Make them feel that each one of them matters and that what they do, no matter how mundane or seemingly insignificant, has an impact on the grand scheme of things. Using compelling words, paint a vivid picture of your vision for the company and elicit their support and cooperation to make it a reality.
Conclusion
Being proficient in public speaking could help you become a successful entrepreneur in a multi-faceted way. You gain the confidence to approach people, expand your social network, inspire and motivate your team, and connect with potential customers when you introduce your products, driving sales as a result.
Honing your public speaking skills also enables you to perfect your elevator pitch. Once you’ve gained enough self-assurance to deliver a flawless business pitch, you can make the most of brief encounters that could open up exciting opportunities for your business.
