Why you should solve their problem or frustration

One of the biggest reasons why people listen to speakers, is to find a solution to their problem or frustration. A good question you constantly need to ask yourself while you are designing your speech, pitch or presentation is, how will this content solve my audience’s problems and frustrations?

In a previous blog post – Know your audience – I mentioned that you need to talk about your audience’s problems and frustrations. This was not to make your audience depressed or to feel sad, but to connect them with their problem or frustration for two main reasons.

Firstly – It builds rapport with your audience to show that you understand their problems and frustrations. Secondly, so that you can offer a solution to their problems and frustrations.

Let’s look at a few examples:

1. It might be interesting to hear about how you struggled to lose weight and all the diets you’ve tried. This is important to connect with your audience and for them to truly understand and relate with your struggles. But in the end your audience wants to hear HOW you did it, because they are looking for the solution to also lose weight.

2. You need to present to people in your company how the latest software update works. Before you go into detail about the new software, start talking about the problems and limitations the previous software caused. The reason is this will excite them to hear about the new software. Give your listeners an overview of the new software and then explain step by step how you use the software with shortcuts and hidden features that most people are not aware of make their work flow faster, simpler and easier. For example how you set up your calendars, processes and approvals to integrate with your emails and contacts to be super organised and effective.

3. People who want to write a book do not know where to start and do not want to spend more than 3 years writing their own book. These new authors will listen to a presentation of an expert who knows how to write a book and to get published within 9 months. The main reason they will attend is not to purchase your books, but to hear about your shortcuts, tips and tricks to speed up their process to become a published author.

4. Not being motivated is a problem for business owners and hence the reason why they hire a keynote speaker to motivate and inspire their team.

5. Some business owners who struggle to take their business to the next level, will attend a business conference to listen to experts who are producing world class results and how to optimize their own business to peak performance.

Is it not frustrating to attend those conferences where every speaker just wants to sell you a product or a service but don’t want to tell you HOW you can get results….. You probably leave the conference frustrated and did not buy any of the products – right. It’s because the speakers did not offer you solutions. They only talked about their own companies and how they transformed a 5 thousand dollar company into a 2 million dollar company in 18 months.

I cannot stress this enough. People listen to speakers to find solutions to their problems and frustrations. Ask yourself before you step up in front of your audience, how will what I’m going to share solve their problems and frustrations? If you don’t have an answer, you are not ready.

There are endless ways how you can share solutions with your audience? For example:

1. Tell a story and talk about the problems, you or a client faced, and then explain how you solved the problem or frustration.

2. Another way – is to give your audience a 5 or 7 step plan they can follow to achieve a positive outcome.

3. You can do an illustration or simulation by operating equipment to show them physically how to overcome their problem or frustration.

Your main focus should always be to help your audience to solve their problems and frustrations.

Think how clearly, simplistic and accurate you can present and explain the solution to your audience, because that is one of the main reasons they are listening to you as a speaker. Do not be scared to share personal stories to get your message across.