Importance Of Speaker Credibility

If You Don’t Have Speaker Credibility, You Don’t Have a Chance

Credibility. It’s what gives us the confidence to learn from someone, blank from someone, and buy from someone. Speaker credibility is what ultimately will help you influence your audience and get them to take action.

But what is credibility and how can a person go about getting some?

Credibility is all about trust. When you’re credible, people trust your knowledge, your judgement, your message. Credible speakers have a far easier time “selling” their ideas.

Credibility, however, is something that has to be earned, and takes time, patience, and consistency to build it.

If you don’t currently have speaker credibility, here are some ways to get it.

1. Strengthen Your Character

Think

When you make choices, are they for the right reasons? When you make mistakes, do you own up to them and correct them? When you make a commitment, do you follow through?

2. Get Some Expertise

Your audience members want to learn from someone who has legitimate expertise. The more expertise you have, the greater your credibility.

Building expertise is not just about obtaining more knowledge, it’s about focusing on a single area or topic that is fundamentally important to your organization or industry. For instance, if you are a media buyer, you could focus on the efficacy of print advertising.

It should go without saying that being an expert means staying up-to-date on your industry, trends, and developments.

It’s also important to acknowledge what you don’t know. As I’ve just mentioned, it’s beneficial to gain expertise in one particular area of your field. This means there will be plenty of information that is not readily at your disposal. So, if you want to remain credible, never pretend or guess and answer that is outside your expertise. Giving false information is a surefire way to undermine your credibility and your

You can inspire trust in your audience when you talk openly about your values and objectives.

A great way to create transparency is to reveal information about yourself to your audience. One study found that college professors who shared personal information with their students were perceived as more credible than those who didn't.

4. Respect Your Audience

Many presenters spend so much time focusing on what the audience is going to think of them, they neglect to realize they will have feelings for their audience as well. And these feelings will come across. It’s important to remember that you may not always agree with audience members and may very much want to change how they think about your topic. But you should always be mindful to respect your audience.

Identify and Align with the Listeners’ Values

You may not only want to change your audience’s mind about something, you may want them to change their values. While you could simply tell them their values are all wrong, this will do very little to help your credibility or influence your