Step 03: 5-day challenge “the 5 steps of a persuasive talk in a jiffy.”
Time: 20 minutes
Goal: become a super sharp persuasive speaker.
Are you ready for step 03?
Put three fingers up. The 3 fingers STAND FOR “the three reasons of the WHY or the HOW of what you would like to convince your audience of.
This is a bit abstract and we also first need to go one step back.
Because first you need to decide on the route you are going to take. Are you going to take the WHY route or the HOW route?
The WHY route is the route you want to take if you need more information to convince your audience.
For instance, they need more specific information on why we need to change our campaigns. “The situation” I have already explained in step 01 is not sufficient to have already convinced them. In the next part I go more in detail into the WHY/the reasons to change our campaigns.
The HOW route is the route you want to take if your audience already agrees with you, that the situation must be changed, but you are going to convince them on HOW you think your team should go about it. What is the right approach?
Let’s say, I have already given my talk on the why of changing the way we do our campaigns, and everybody is on board. I got the green light to go ahead and change it.
Two weeks later, I am giving a talk as to what according to me should be the right approach. The steps to be taken, to get to our results.
So, in a nutshell, the HOW route is a step further than the WHY route.
In order to make the right decision on the WHY or HOW route you really need to know where your audience is NOW.
A while ago a client of mine made a wonderful presentation as to the WHY the company should take a certain approach. She put lots and lots of work into it.
She had all the material that supported it. It was quite thorough. Only to find out after 1 minute into the presentation that they were already a step further. They tuned out after a few minutes and interrupted her with loads of questions on the HOW.
In this case, hours and hours of spending on this presentation was fruitless for this audience. So, maybe, you already HAVE your audience with “the situation” and they want to know more about the HOW. Check this beforehand, it saves you a lot of work.
Let’s say, you know where your audience is right now and have decided which route you need to take.
Then put up three fingers, depending on which route you take, the 3 fingers stand for:
This is WHY
This is WHY
This is WHY
This is HOW
This is HOW
This is HOW
Of course, in practice, it can me more than 3 WHY’s of HOW’s or less. But a number of 3 is always good. Simply because the audience will be able to remember 3 reasons.
In my case I take the WHY route.
1) I start with the most important WHY. Namely, the cost, effort and money that is spend without any results.
2) In my second WHY I go into the fact that we leave a lot of chances and money on the table. I show with figures how other companies that have a higher response rate, know how to turn this into more sales.
3) In my third WHY, I tell my audience that we can turn the table without many costs. Since, we do not have to purchase an expensive software program for it (to get to know our clients and thereby produce more effective campaigns), but that we can use Google Analytics for it. A program that is already part of our software package. And I tell a little how Google Analytics already can give us a wealth of information that we need, to change the response rate of our campaigns.
So, in a nutshell I give 3 good reasons, why we should make our campaigns more effective and stop with the current “shooting with hail” approach.
What are your 3 WHY’s or HOW’s?
This is WHY
This is WHY
This is WHY
This is HOW
This is HOW
This is HOW.
PS: you do not have to work out your WHY’s and HOW’s in detail for now. Just have a sentence to start with, writing a part of it is already enough. We care more about learning the structure and the principles behind the 5 steps of a persuasive talk right now than working out the reasons into detail. However, if you are keen to do it, then of course go ahead!
Congratulation this was your third step.
Let us now check if you managed to stay out of the pitfalls of the WHY and HOW route.
- Not knowing where your audience is. Taking the wrong turn.
I already explained this earlier. Make sure you know this, otherwise all your work will be in vain. - Not having enough support to prove your points.Make sure you have done your homework.For instance, show all the research that shows that for instance having two screens on your desk to work with, means a real change for productivity and making less mistakes, so that it makes the investment worthwhile. If you want to convince your management to give your team extra screens to work with.You do not have to work out your points right now ;-). Having clear points is enough for now.
- Visualize your content when possible. Show the steps to be taken in PowerPoint in a sequential build. Show the graphs that show the rise in productivity when using two screens instead of one.If you can give the reason to your audience in one view (visually), and support it orally when showing it. This is often quite effective.Did you lay it against the yardstick? Is all of the above clear?
Great congratulation!
Do you want me to check it? Send “01 YOUR SITUATION” and 02 “THE POINT you want to make” and the 03 the WHY’s or HOW’s to me and I will have a look! Send it to info@presentingwithimpact.nl
Now reward yourself for finishing your third step! You are about half of the way! Get ready for the 4th step tomorrow!
To more grip, impact and presenting pleasure!
