When it comes to thinking about how to present your material in a speech, take a lesson from Achilles.

Let me tell you the story.  There came a time during the Trojan War when things were not going well for the Greeks, camped in the plain outside Troy.  Achilles, who was a bit of a manic depressive, had taken to his tent, feeling blue.  As the Greeks’ principal hero, he was getting bored slaughtering Trojans, and he was feeling underappreciated by his colleagues.  He thought he was doing all the work — and indeed he was. 

But with Achilles out of the action, the Greeks were losing badly.  Soon, they were desperate.  So they sent an envoy to Achilles, to beg him to come back to the fray. 

Now, because the Greeks were clever, and had invented rhetoric, they were too smart to do what most speakers do — start dumping information on the audience.  Did they whine to Achilles?  Did they say, "hey, we’re getting creamed without you — help"? 

They did not.  Instead, they framed their message in terms of the audience’s interest and needs.  They understood that Achilles was a prima donna who was feeling underappreciated.  So they began their presentation with egregious flattery, reciting all of Achilles’ feats of war and telling him what a wonderful fighter he was.  Then they got into the teensy-weensy problem they had, that the Greek war machine was nothing without him. 

Soon Achilles was back on his feet, killing Trojans left and right.  The Greeks were back on top, and the denouement was not far off. 

The point is, frame your message in terms that matter to the audience.  Does that mean you should always begin with flattery?  No, not unless your audience happens to be an aging warrior with self-esteem issues.  Frame your message in terms that matter to your audience.  That’s how you create a successful speech.