Want to present a new idea successfully? Double your convincing power by using the sailingboat technique!
A couple of weeks ago, Tom gave a presentation. In his presentation he wanted to convince his company to purchase a new ICT-tool. He kept on telling me how the situation at the moment, without having the tool, was really underdesirable. And he did so, with full force.
Although Tom was really doing his utmost best, I could only think as an audience, what should we do then, what should we do?
This part of the presentation eventually came, but way too late. Part of the convincing power therefore evaporated in thin air.
After the presentation we layed down all the parts of the presentation on the floor. And another thing became clear. All the parts of how undesireable the situation was, without the tool, lay on one side of the mind map. And how the situation could be with the tool on the other side.
Besides giving the solution too late, Tom did not apply the sailing boat technique. Therefore missing out on a strong tool to get his message across much sharper.
Of course nothing seemed wrong with it, at first sight. The arguments were clear and made sense and it seemed structured in a good manner.
Then, what the heck was wrong?
Why was the true convincing power missing. Although, all the information was there and it was well structured?
Well, simply changing the structure a bit by using the sailingboat technique, can make a whole lot of difference and double your convincing power!
How?
Let me explain this by a beautifull metaphor (Nancy Duarte). Imagine that you want to sail across a lake (from south to north), because there is your destination harbour.
There is a north wind blowing, so this prevents me from directly sailing from the south to the north. The wind will simply be strong for the boat to sail directly against the wind. And how hard I try, I will simply remain in the same spot.
So, it takes a lot of energy and I will remain stuck in the same place regardless.
What I need to do therefore, it to go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth to eventually reach my destination harbour in the north (see image). The wind in this instance symbolizes the resistance you can expect from the public, when you introduce a new idea.
And resistance will be there. You can count on that. It is not in the human DNA to immediately embrace new ideas. So, as presenters we need to capture the resistance in the right manner.
Graphically presented, the sailingboat technique will look as follows in your presentation.
In short, you will show the public how the situation is without your idea and you immediately juxtapose this, with how the situation will be once your idea is adopted. And you do that several times.
See, down below how the middle part of Tom’s presentation looks, once he had applied the sailingboat technique.
His middle part now consist of, 3 times going back and forth.
The black text shows the current situation. The yellow parts, how the sitation will be once the new idea has been accepted.
Instead of summarizing all the down-sides one after another and then all the advantages, you juxtapose them clearly against each other.
What is then the difference? Why does this double your convincing power?
- Without the sailingboat technique, it takes way too long for the audience to come to the “how then” part. The audience will be wholly or partly tuned out by then.
- Without the sailingboat technique, I cannot make the connection between the parts that are related. There is too much information in between that prevents me from making the important connections.
- The contrast has a great convincing effect. The public instantly understands, feels and sees the difference, between having or not having the tool. The public feels transformation, after transformation.
So, here you see that changing your structure somewhat by using het sailingboat technique can really double your convincing power, without working y0ur ass off.
Good luck!
4 May next training Presentation Skills (ENG)
Pay early bird discount of 397,- instead of 497,-. After 28 February the prices will go up.
- How to present in a clear and engaging manner?
- How to convince your public?
- How to deal with nerves?
After this training you will know how to succesfully get your message across to an international audience.
For more information go to:
https://presentingwithimpact.nl/english-presentation-skills/
Of mail naar info@presentingwithimpact.nl