Traditionally, IR presentations are heavily focused on content, with a couple of rehearsals in front of your advisors as a practice run. Of course content is critical in investor relations, but the public speaking skills are also essential.
I recently shared some cool tech tools and apps that will help boost your public speaking skills ahead of the upcoming reporting season and the roadshows.
But have you ever worked specifically on your voice? There are several key aspects that you can focus on
Register (not volume)
I don’t mean the sign in register to see which investors and analysts are taking part in your event. It’s your vocal register. One of the first public speaking skills I was ever taught was by my mother, a teacher, and it’s probably my top tip. If you want to make an impact, lower your voice. She used to say if you want to be heard across a playground, you don’t scream, you boom. If you don’t believe my mum, did you know it’s been proven that people tend to vote for the politician with the deepest voice? Not sure how to do it? It’s actually pretty easy – the trick is to drop the voice from your throat to your chest. It sounds weird, but it totally works, guaranteed.
I do want to stress this is totally different to volume. There’s great coaching exercise where you put people into pairs (name them A and B) and then make them stand at opposite sides of a room. Try getting all the As to read a passage from a book aloud at the same time. Is it easier for B to hear their partner when it’s shouted or whispered?
Timbre
That’s basically a fancy word for tone. Think of the velvety voice in the M&S food adverts “This is not just a chocolate bar, this is a molten caramel chocolate bliss bar” (OK I made that up, but it does sound rather yummy). Compare it to the screechy YouTubers that my teenage son insists on watching (I’m not going to name names, but you can imagine). I wouldn’t suggest you go full on rich chocolate bar for a results presentation (even if you’re M&S), but you can experiment to get the right energy levels.
Rhythm
Basically you’re looking for a more poetic sound vs. a flat monotone. Regional accents can also come into play here (e.g. the Australian accent – sorry guys – has a tendency to have an upwards tilt at the end as if it was a question which you might want to vary in a longer presentation.
With 42 million views, this has to be one of the best TED talks! It covers these points, and more.
If you’d like to work on the delivery of your IR presentations, I offer a Presentation Power Hour for only £97.
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