How to Do Research for a Presentation | Public Speaking

So how do you research a presentation? What's the best way? Now, there are obviously the basics. You can go to Google, you can look at what your colleagues did when they gave a presentation on the same subject. But I want to suggest something that is not hard. It's easy, but few people ever do it. And what I would suggest, pick up the phone and. And actually call people who are going to be in your audience. So if you're talking to customers at an annual sales conference and you're speaking to 100 of them, call three of them a week before and just ask them what is it that they're thinking about? What are their concerns? What would they be most intrigued by if you were to address it in a speech? This is the most overlooked research opportunity for a speech. It's very simple, it doesn't take a lot of time, and you will get a wealth of information. So pick up the phone, call people who are actually going to be in your audience, ask them what they want to hear, do that, and your speech will be successfully researched, but also successfully received.