This is a Guest Post from Paul Archer, of Archer Training.

Hello isn’t the weather just rotten outside. Enough for you to want to curl up in front of a warm log fire and go to sleep. Unfortunately this sense of sleepiness may face us when presenting in public. I hope not but in case you’re a little bit concerned, do read on.

I’m returning home from London after a very busy day and I’m relaxed in my seat on the 5.15 from Paddington Station. The world is whizzing past outside the window and half the passengers are dozing away. I’m thinking seriously of catching some ZZZ’s. I’m sure we’re all feeling tired because of our hectic schedules but surely there’s another reason?

The other reason is the sound of the train. It’s very rhythmic. A sort of “da dum da dum da dum” sound. It’s this monotone sound that puts people to sleep. What other noises have

the same effect? The ticking of a clock, the rumble of a car on a motorway, the hypnotist’s voice…and someone droning on with PowerPoint slides in a company meeting room.

It doesn’t help that the English language is also spoken in this “da dum da dum” motion. Just listen to someone talking and notice this rhythm. Mix in a few other ingredients, like a warm room, a comfortable chair, a dim lit room, wordy PowerPoint slides and you have a guarantee of one thing. Putting your audience to sleep.

Yet up and down the country people are being put to sleep in company boardrooms, training theatres and meeting rooms. And much of this is to do with people’s monotone voices.

The quickest and easiest method to stop this happening when you talk in public is to change your voice. Remove the “da dum da dum” rhythmic motion and practise expanding your vocal range when you talk.

You’ll notice that many people have a narrow vocal range because they’ve never had to expand it before. The trick is to stretch it, practise expressing higher or lower sounds. Try talking the months of the year from January to December and gradually increase your pitch from a very low sound to the highest voice you can manage.

Then do the same with 1 to 20. 1 the lowest, 2 slightly higher. Practise these regularly and you’ll be amazed how you can quickly improve your vocal range so your voice becomes interesting to listen to, expresses words and brings the subject to life.

Soon you’ll be practising and stretching your pitch.

And then you can work on the warm dimly lit room, with comfortable chairs and wordy PowerPoint slides. Bit that’s for another day.

Paul Archer is an international sales speaker, sales trainer, author and coach based in the UK. He specializes in rapport selling and rapport coaching and can ignite his audiences large or small. For more information on Paul and his training courses, visit www.paularcher.com, where you’ll also find his own sales blog, too!