When it comes to speaking in front of an audience, there are specific steps you can take to be more persuasive. Here, I outline some of the tactics you can use to be a more effective communicator.
Step One
Establish clear goals.
Set your goals from the audience's perspective. Ask yourself: When my speech or presentation is over, what will the audience have learned? Specifically, what will listeners:
- Learn about the subject and its significance to them and to their concerns? To establish that, hammer out your topic, your message, your organization and your credibility.
- Feel about you, your team, your integrity?
- Be able to do (what's actionable as a result of this presentation or speech?)
Step Two
Define the core or central idea you want to convey in your speech.
Winston Churchill used to liken a speech to a stew: they both contain a number of ingredients but both need a theme.
Freshen up your theme by, for example, selling the problem rather than the solution. Dr. Laura Schlesinger's "Ten Things Women Do to Ruin Their Lives" is one example of selling the problem. You can also make the theme forward-looking. Bill Clinton's "A Bridge to the Future" was perceived as a more compelling theme than Bob Dole's "A Bridge to the Past."
Step Three
Organize your ideas.
In developing your speech, you can follow the "Communicate with Power - Persuasion Ladder" model, which tracks the audience's natural process of persuasion. This step-by-step formula should help.
The first phase covers three steps: information, understanding and knowledge. The audience begins with the facts, data, awareness of a problem or opportunity.
The audience then moves to understanding, the timeframe in which information is put into context or a broader perspective. Last, they develop a certain level of knowledge to allow for informed decision-making.
The second phase is the "buy-in" phase, which has two elements: acceptance of key principles; and agreement - which is a generalized support to the central idea.
The final step is the persuasion phase, which is comprised of two steps: commitment, getting the audience to embrace an idea, and then the ultimate test - motivating your listeners to act on something.
Step Four
Script your speech in a compelling manner.
Use short sentences, not lengthy, meandering ones filled with subordinate clauses. Use direct-action verbs, not indirect passive ones.
Keep it short. If you can say it in 10 or 12 minutes, do so and save more time for audience questions. Even Lincoln's Gettysburg address was only 265 words!
Step Five
Use visuals to explain complicated concepts.
A picture is definitely worth a thousand words and a visual image is also more memorable many times. According to the U.S. Bureau of Advertising, people remember 10% of what they read, 20% of what they hear, 30% of what they see and 50% of what they see and hear.
In summary, remember that persuasion is not manipulating or pressuring an audience through one-sided "spin." Persuasion is finding a mutually advantageous outcome in which the audience starts to take ownership of the decisions made at each step.
In other words, try not to think of persuasion as `selling' something; rather construct your argument so persuasively that your audience will want to make an active "buying decision."
Barry J. McLoughlin is president of the strategic communications training firm, Barry McLoughlin Associates Inc., with offices in Washington, D.C., Princeton N.J., and Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Author of the just-released "Getting Your Ideas Across," he can be reached via the http://www.mclomedia.com Web site or at [email protected].
People Remember
- 10% of what they read
- 20% of what they hear
- 30% of what they see and
- 50% of what they see and hear