Top Public Speaking Tips for Business – Better Speaking in Public
November 01, 2024
How do you become a better public speaker? What public speaking tips and public speaking advice should you know? What public speaking techniques will help you become a better public speaker for business?
Meet the Author: Benjamin Ball
Ben is the founder of Benjamin Ball Associates and leads the presentation coaching and pitch deck creation teams. Formerly a corporate financier in the City of London, for 20+ years he’s helped businesses win with better pitches and presentations, particularly investor pitches. He is a regular speaker and a guest lecturer at Columbia Business School and UCL London. Follow Ben on LinkedIn or visit the contact page.
Why Following Tips for Public Speaking is Important
Public speaking is an essential leadership skill. And if you are good at public speaking, you will enhance your career and your business. Speaking well in public means you’ll be listened to and you’ll impress. The best speakers make an impact and they find it easier to get their ideas accepted.
Mastering public speaking is a good thing. It can open doors to career advancement and boost your confidence in meetings, job interviews, and presentations. A good presentation is not just about sharing information—it’s about making a lasting impact on your audience.
These Public Speaking Techniques Will Make You Better at Speaking in Public
Our public speaking coaches have gathered this advice to help you look and feel more impressive.
Our tips for public speaking are based on 15+ years of experience coaching executives to become better public speakers, whether for business talks, pitches or presentations. The good news is that it does not take long to improve your public speaking become a great public speaker.
While the advice we give each person is tailored, we’ve picked out some of the most powerful public speaking tips to improve your public speaking and presentation skills. With these tips you’ll be well on the the road to powerful, engaging and high impact speaking.
Top ten public speaking tips – practical public speaking advice
Top 10 Tips for Public Speaking and Advice for Public Speaking
1. Create your talk around one big idea
Too many talks are fluffy. A bad talk contains too many main points and therefore is hard to deliver and hard to remember. And great visual aids will not make you a good speaker.
To create a powerful talk, the first of our public speaking tips is to identify one big idea to underpin your talk. If that idea is big, bold and vivid, then your talk will be more memorable.
Once you’ve identified you big idea. then one of the best public speaking tips is to use a clear structure. This means having a well-defined beginning, middle, and end, organise your important points. Use a structure that helps you stay on track, making it easier to keep your audience’s attention and get your message across.
2. Put your audience at the centre of attention
One of the most important public speaking tips is to make your talk feel like a personal conversation. Public speaking is not about addressing the masses. Instead, you’ll be a much better speaker if you talk in front of an audience as if to a friend, even when talking to a large audience. That means adding a personal touch.
For example, see how these two approaches are different:
BEFORE (company at centre of attention): “The company is announcing a new policy this month that changes the way expenses are recorded and paid. The new process for recording expenses will be as follows…”
AFTER (audience at centre of attention): “You’ll be pleased to hear we are changing our expenses system. We all know the old system was bad. Our new system is much better. Let me show you how you can record and claim your expenses more quickly and easily than before…”
Another piece of public speaking advice is to tailor your approach depending on the audience. Speaking to a small group of colleagues can feel more informal, while addressing a large audience of strangers requires more thought, projection and presence.
Practice helps in both scenarios, so give yourself practice time to rehearse your content. This will give you the confidence to think less about memorising every word and think more about delivering a compelling message and engaging performance.
The most effective public speakers don’t just speak – instead, they speak directly to the people in the audience.
3. Don’t be a logic bully
When you are in front of a live audience, people will react emotionally before they start hearing the facts. They’ll listen to what you say if they feel good about what you say. So, if you want to change their minds, start by agreeing with them. For example:
BEFORE (logic only): “Expenses claims must be submitted by the 15th of each month.”
AFTER (emotion and logic): “We all like getting our money back fast, right? So now, with this new expenses system, we can get the money into your bank account guaranteed – so long as you get your expenses in by the 15th each month.”
Here’s another example:
BEFORE (logic only):“As you can see here, the new expenses system will start operating on the 16th June and will be rolled out to all our offices by the end of July”.
AFTER (emotion and logic): “So, when does this new system start? For those of you in head office, it’s the 16th June. For the rest of us – it will be rolled out so that all have it by the end of July.”
Why Pick Benjamin Ball Associates for Your Public Speaking Coaching
At Benjamin Ball Associates, we’ve been coaching business people to improve their business communication skills for over 15 years. Our coaching is fast and effective. We work with individuals and with companies, one-to-one and in groups. Call us today to learn more.
“I honestly thought it was the most valuable 3 hours I’ve spent with anyone in a long time.”
Your opening words set the tone for your talk. This is one of our key public speaking tips. Never start with a platitude. Instead, a great tip to start a speech is to try one of the tried and tested starts that you know will work. For example:
Start with a story e.g. “On my way here today, I stopped at the cashpoint machine…..”
Connect with your audience e.g. “For all of us here today, the next ten minutes will give you something to help you in life.”
Start with a question e.g. “What is the best way to start a speech?”
Start with an interesting fact e.g. “35% of our customers say they won’t shop with us again.”
It is easy to pad a talk. But great speakers do the opposite. The best speakers work hard to cut and edit until what’s left is only the interesting bits. No technical jargon. No filler words. If, as a result, their talks are short – that’s great. I remember at a large awards ceremony, a famous TV CEO, giving the keynote speech, muttering to me under his breath as he stood up “See you in 8 minutes.”
Using personal stories or personal anecdotes can turn a presentation from dry to engaging. These stories humanise your message and make it relatable for the entire audience. Sharing an experience from your daily life or a humorous insight can make you a better public speaker by showing vulnerability and authenticity.
So: take a pen to what you are saying and make sure every 10 words there is something the audience will find interesting.
6. Pause every 5-10 words
Don’t forget the power of a well-timed pause. Pauses are a great idea to give the audience time to digest important points and create anticipation. This effective public speaking tips is one of the easiest ways to make your message resonate.
But how many pauses and how long?
Two ideas:
Leave a pause roughly every 5-10 words
The bigger the audience, the longer your pauses need to be
Most people don’t pause either often enough or long enough. So, when you practise, record yourself and hear for yourself how much better you sound with lots of lengthy pauses. Learn how to use pauses in your talks.
7. Use personal pronouns throughout
The more you use I – We – You – Our – Your, the better your talk will sound.
Just hear the difference:
BEFORE (no personal pronouns): “This policy is being launched to ensure better compliance and rapid payment.”
AFTER (with personal pronouns): “We are changing our policy so that you get paid faster, and so that we all use our system properly.”
8. Use powerful spoken language
Spoken language and written language are completely different. Spoken words are shorter, simpler and more dramatic. And spoken language uses tried and tested classical rhetorical techniques. Good speakers will incorporate more contrasts, metaphors, repetition and rhetorical questions.
Metaphors and analogies are shortcuts for the brain. They help you turn a complicated concept into a familiar one. Steve Jobs was a master of the metaphor, describing computers as a ‘bicycle for the mind’ and referring to Apple’s switch to different processors as ‘a huge heart transplant’.
Repetition is poetic and rhythmic to our ears. Some of the most memorable lines from speeches use repetition. E.g. “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender!’.
Rhetorical questions are powerful. Why do rhetorical questions work? Because they involve your audience members
For some reason, most speakers look too serious when speaking. But research shows that the best speakers tend to be smilers and are seen as more professional and more competent. And those who smile sound better when speaking too – that’s all about the muscles in your face.
Never look at your slides.
Instead, always fix eye contact with one person for each phrase of your talk, then move on to someone else and do the same. It sounds simple, but it takes practice. Get this right and you’ll look – and feel – much more confident.
You can overcome stage fright and your fear of public speaking with plenty of practice sessions in front of a group. One of the best ways to improve your communication skills and overcome public speaking anxiety is to practise. And if you work with a public speaking coach, they can show you many ways to make a good impression so that you look and feel more confident.
Practising in front of a mirror is a great starting point to observe your non-verbal communication. Notice your facial expressions, gestures, and posture—they all play a part in how you are perceived. When you practise, pay attention to moments when you tend to rush or get nervous.
Taking a deep breath can help manage anxiety and steady your voice, especially when speaking to large audiences. If your heart rate increases, slow down and make eye contact with different members of the audience. This makes it feel more like a conversation, relaxes your, and helps establish a connection on a personal level.
Remember, preparation is key, but flexibility is also crucial—sometimes the best presentations adapt to the room and flow naturally rather than sticking rigidly to a script.
10. Demonstrate your passion
Public speaking should not look like a chore. You want the audience to see your enthusiasm because your excitement will become infectious. For example, research shows that passion is a key ingredient of success when pitching for investment. One question we are often asked is “How can I improve my voice for public speaking?” As well as pausing, you can show passion.
How do you show passion? There are a number of public speaking techniques you could use. It could be the excitement in your voice, the increased volume of your voice, the positive words you use, the emphasis in your voice, the shine in your face and your body language that supports everything you are saying.
That’s why, when you work with a public speaking coach to improve public speaking, you’ll practise your presentation with a camera so that we can analyse your performance in detail. This means we target our advice so that each person makes the impact they want to make.
These public speaking tips and techniques will definitely help you become a better public speaker, but they are just the start. If you want to accelerate your journey to improve your public speaking, please get in touch.
We’d be happy to show you how our intensive executive speaker training and coaching can transform the impact you make. That’s how to improve your public speaking.
We’ll help you polish what you say, how you say it and how you feel about saying it. You’ll end up clear, confident and compelling.
Speak to Louise on +44 20 7018 0922 or email info@benjaminball.com to transform your speeches, pitches and presentations.
Why Choose Us: Transform your pitches and presentations with tailored coaching
We can help you present brilliantly.Thousands of people have benefitted from our tailored in-house coaching and advice – and we can help you too.
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For 15+ years we’ve been the trusted choice for leading businesses and executives throughout the UK, Europe and the Middle East. We’ll help you improve corporate presentations through presentation coaching, public speaking training and expert advice on pitching to investors.
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Speak to Louise on +44 20 7018 0922 or email info@benjaminball.com to transform your speeches, pitches and presentations.
FAQ Top Public Speaking Tips for Business Leaders and Financial Professionals
1. Why is public speaking crucial in the financial and investment world?
When you deliver clear, confident communications, you build trust with investors, clients, and stakeholders. Whether speaking at a conference, presenting financial results, pitching an investment opportunity, or leading a boardroom discussion, strong public speaking skills enhance credibility and influence.
2. Can I overcome nervousness before a high-stakes presentation?
Absolutely. Our presentation coaching has helped many a nervous presenter become calm and confident. Preparation is key. You need to start with great content. Well-structured and well-written content makes it easier to look and feel confident. One trick is to make sure your audience is the centre of attention of your talk. Not you, not your content but your audience.
3. What makes a financial presentation compelling?
A compelling financial presentation will have a clear narrative, well-structured information, and will show insights rather than just numbers. Investors and audiences appreciate concise, jargon-free explanations that highlight opportunities, risks, and strategic actions.
4. How should I structure a pitch or financial presentation?
Start with a strong opening that grabs attention—whether it’s a key statistic, a market insight, or a bold statement. Follow with a logical flow: problem/opportunity, data-backed analysis, solution/strategy followed by a strong closing call to action. Read more about how to pitch investors.
5. What are common mistakes to avoid when speaking in public?
Some of the top mistakes that we have seen with our clients include:
– Badly written or badly structured presentations – Overloading slides with complex data, – Reading verbatim from notes, – Using excessive jargon, – Being boring
Audiences want to be entertained as much as hear valuable information. That’s why you need to create a powerful presentation and then deliver it well. Our coaching will show you how.
6. How can I improve my delivery for maximum impact?
First, make sure your content is as good as it can be (Better content is worth 10x more than better delivery)
Then, to improve your delivery, speak with authority but remain approachable. Use measured pacing, clear enunciation and strategic pauses to emphasise key points. Confident body language—such as strong posture and purposeful gestures—reinforces credibility. Read more about using better body language when presenting.
7. What role does body language play when presenting financial information?
Strong eye contact builds trust, while open gestures and a steady posture signal confidence. Avoid fidgeting, crossing your arms, or shifting weight excessively, as these can undermine your message. Again, see the link in the last question.
8. How do I handle tough questions from investors or analysts?
Stay composed, listen carefully, and respond concisely. If you don’t have an immediate answer, acknowledge the question and offer to follow up. Avoid defensiveness—investors value transparency and a well-reasoned response. We’ve written a great guide to handling tough investor questions.
9. How can I make my key messages more memorable?
Making your talk memorable is a key skill. If you work with a speech writer, they’ll help you find the right metaphor or analogy. You can use storytelling to bring data to life—frame financial performance in terms of market trends, company strategy, or real-world impact. Repeat key takeaways and reinforce them with strong visuals.
10. What’s the best way to refine my public speaking skills for business success?
Work with a professional public speaking coach to get lasting improvement. Then, practise regularly, seek feedback from trusted colleagues, and watch skilled presenters. Great public speaking is a skills you build over a lifetime. The more talks you do, the better you get.
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Even during long Zoom sessions, Paul manages to keep the energy high and the experience enjoyable for everyone involved. His collaborative and engaging approach makes the training not only productive but genuinely enjoyable."
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