Questions about speaking for business development

The interview will be short, probably about 15-20 minutes.

It will be recorded, it won’t be live. The recording will be audio-only, so don’t worry about your clothes or hair.

Use headphones or earbuds if you can, since without them, we can often hear an echo (sound comes out of your computer’s speakers, and then goes right back into your microphone).

It’ll just be you and one or two of us (Alper and/or Matt) on the phone. We’re doing it because some of our clients speak for business development, and we like to have some tips we can share with them.

The questions are pretty general, but if we ask one that’s too confidential, just say, “That includes confidential information, I don’t want to talk about it in public.” Don’t worry, you won’t hurt our feelings.

The questions we’ll ask you:

  1. In just a few sentences, tell us some basic information about yourself (your name, your professional background, etc).
  2. Tell us in just a few sentences what kinds of people you speak in front of, and what kinds of subjects you speak about.
  3. What 3 or 4 tips would you give to someone speaking for business development?
  4. What is it about speaking that makes it a good business development activity?
  5. Do you get nervous before your speech? How do you calm yourself down?
  6. What do you find really grabs audience attention?
  7. Do you do any post-speech followup, like emailing your audience members to thank them for their time, or send some followup materials, or something like that?
  8. Before we go, is there any other advice or words of wisdom you would like to share with our listeners?

Thank you very much for your time, we (and our clients) appreciate it greatly!