Business Speech Sample
The following is a business speech sample only, as all of my speeches are written in confidence and I cannot post actual speeches. If you are interested to have me write a speech of more than 5 minutes, I can write a custom sample for you prior to you hiring me.
SPEECH SAMPLE
Thank you ladies and gentlemen. What a warm welcome, and let me thank you for that by opening with a beautiful topic:
[pause]
Bacteria.
[pause]
Mmm. Kind of makes you warm and fuzzy, doesn't it?
But we're going to talk about bacteria this afternoon because they have everything to do with our company right now, today.
Like the rest of the world, we're at something of a crossroads, where traditional advertising methods no longer provide the impact they once did, and we have to look to new ways of building both brand and loyalty.
Now if I'm talking about social media marketing and some of the modern buzzwords, I'm a bit on target. But exactly what is it about these new methods that makes them so successful?
Well this is where bacteria come in. Now generally speaking, bacteria have sort of a bad name because when we think bacteria, we think disease. But you've heard about the health benefits of probiotics -- those little buggers you find in yogurt, for example. Well those are friendly bacteria. So there are good and bad bacteria.
What you probably don't know, however, is that there are approximately 9 times more microbial cells in and on your body than there are human cells!
Think about that! In one sense, what you think of as your body is 9 times more someone else's body, and you cannot exist without this microbial zoo.
[Sample continues after these related products ...]
Thank you ladies and gentlemen. What a warm welcome, and let me thank you for that by opening with a beautiful topic:
[pause]
Bacteria.
[pause]
Mmm. Kind of makes you warm and fuzzy, doesn't it?
But we're going to talk about bacteria this afternoon because they have everything to do with our company right now, today.
Like the rest of the world, we're at something of a crossroads, where traditional advertising methods no longer provide the impact they once did, and we have to look to new ways of building both brand and loyalty.
Now if I'm talking about social media marketing and some of the modern buzzwords, I'm a bit on target. But exactly what is it about these new methods that makes them so successful?
Well this is where bacteria come in. Now generally speaking, bacteria have sort of a bad name because when we think bacteria, we think disease. But you've heard about the health benefits of probiotics -- those little buggers you find in yogurt, for example. Well those are friendly bacteria. So there are good and bad bacteria.
What you probably don't know, however, is that there are approximately 9 times more microbial cells in and on your body than there are human cells!
Think about that! In one sense, what you think of as your body is 9 times more someone else's body, and you cannot exist without this microbial zoo.
[Sample continues after these related products ...]
[Speech sample continuation ...]
In fact, just in your gut you carry about 2-5 pounds of bacteria, and even though they're not technically human body cells ... guess what:
United, those bacteria function as an additional organ in your body, making it possible for you to process food and live.
[long, meaningful pause]
Folks, I want you to think carefully about this. All the years, we've treated our bodies as our bodies. And we've also treated our businesses as our businesses. In doing so, it's not like we've wiped out the human race or been entirely ineffective in business. But what we're discovering is that the more we pay attention to our bacteria and promote their health, the more we promote a positive life experience for ourselves. Because it's a symbiotic relationship.
In the same way, we have to stop thinking in terms of our business apart from our customers. They are an actual organ of the business itself.
[pause]
Now I could keep it simple without expanding this analogy, but I think it's important that we expand it so we understand this whole social media marketing trend.
Even if you take into account that bacteria are an important part of your body, you might like to still think that you decide what to put in your mouth and the bacteria just help you to draw nutrients from the food, replenishing your body so that you stay alive and keep the process going. In this case, a healthy respect for the bacteria would have you consuming foods that support their well-being. But you're still in charge, right?
In the same way, you might think that a business can simply decide what to produce and then rely on the customers to consume the products and sustain the business with income. A healthy respect for the customers would have us producing things that improve their life experience. End of story, right?
Well here's the frightful truth: bacteria may do more to decide what you eat than you realize. When certain bacteria get out of control, the latest research suggests that this can lead to overeating and obesity. In a similar way, people with too much fungus in their bodies -- which feeds on sugar -- crave sweet foods.
So what does this tell us in business? What does it remind us?
That the demands of our third-party organ, our customers, is what should drive product selection and, to some extent, our very identity.
This, my friends ... [pause] this is the power of social media marketing. Many businesses have made the mistake of thinking that the power of social media is that social websites are simply where the people are. So you go where the people are and you slap up more advertising.
No, no, no. This is almost exactly the opposite of what our modern understanding of health and business are showing us. Yes, you can still scoop up some customers this way perhaps. But this is an old model that people are actively moving away from. BUT ...
... they are absolutely moving toward any place where they can be a meaningful organ within a business, helping to shape identity and product selection. And until we had interactive platforms like we do in social media, we didn't have a very practical, immediate way of engaging customers to this degree.
Now that we have it ... we need to use it. Not force it. Not make it what our old media models offered. But to use it for what it offers -- a true interaction with those who make up so much of who we are.
END OF SAMPLE