"Probably the most powerful vocal technique you will ever learn in speaking is the ‘power of the pause,’" says sales guru Brian Tracy in his new book, Speak to Win: How to Present with Power in Any Situation (AMACOM, February 2008). Tracy offers four types of pauses that you can use to put more power into your presentations:

The Sense Pause: "Use this pause by stopping regularly at the end of a sentence or point to allow people to absorb the new information and catch up with you," says Tracy, adding that most listeners cannot handle more than three sentences in a row without some type of pause. He says that listeners may become distracted and tune out your presentation. At that point, you need to grab them and pull them back in. You can do this with a pause. "When you pause, you bring people up short," says Tracy. "They mentally trip and fall into the silence that you have created. They immediately give you back their full attention."

The Dramatic Pause: "Use this pause on a particular point that you want to make stick in the listener’s mind," says Tracy, and adds that you can use a dramatic pause before or after you make the point.

The Emphatic Pause: You can also use this type of pause to emphasize a key point, says Tracy, who often uses this technique by pausing and asking a question of the group. For example, he says that in a presentation about self-respect, he may ask, "Who is the most important person in the room?" Then he waits for answers. "After a deliberate pause, I will then continue by saying, referring to everyone, ‘You’re right! You are the most important person in this room.’"

The Sentence-Completion Pause: Sometimes Tracy uses a familiar quote or phrase. He’ll start it and then pause to let the audience complete the sentence. For example, he may say, "When the going gets tough, the tough…" Then he pauses to let the audience finish, "get going." "This causes people to engage with you and to listen with greater attentiveness to what you are saying," he explains. "Whenever you use this technique, you must discipline yourself to stop and wait until the audience speaks up and completes the sentence. You then repeat the words to finish the thought."

Using pauses correctly during your presentation takes practice, but once you master the pause, you’ve got the power.