Great Speaking Coach

To PersuadeTell Stories that are Meaningful to Your Audience

Have you ever climbed a mountain, run a marathon, jumped into a roiling sea or done any other daring, scary activity? Even if you faced your fear and did it anyway, ignored the objections of everyone around you or overcame a physical disability, your story may not be persuasive to your audience. Stories only persuade, inspire or motivate when they have meaning to the listener.

In "Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive", Goldstein, Martin and Cialdini explain that the more similar the social proof is to the target audience, the more persuasive it is. You must paint the picture with details that the audience in front of you will relate to.

How do you apply this scientifically proven persuasion technique to your speeches and presentations?

1) Understand the concept of 'social proof'. Researchers in psychology have studied and proven that we look to others to guide our behavior. If someone who is a lot like us does something, then we feel very comfortable doing it also. Cialdini calls this a 'short-cut'. With very busy lives, it's nearly impossible to figure everything out for ourselves, so when we can, we look to others like ourselves to help us decide what to do. The key element is others like ourselves.

2) Know details about your audience. Are they risk-takers who'd appreciate a good story about risk-taking? Are they "better be safe than sorry" types who like stories that reinforce their tendency to be cautious? Do they feel important or do they feel stuck in obscurity?

Demographics (age, educaiton, location, job title) are minimally helpful in selecting your stories. Instead focus on intangibles, such as outlook on life, dreams and desires and personal experiences to help you understand them and select social proof stories that will resonate with this particular group.

3) Turn your story into their story. I've been coaching business speakers to do this for years. All persuasive speakers look at the audience first and craft their stories in such a way that the audience members start to remember their own similar experience and responses. When you reach the resolution of the story the audience should be able to say "Wow! I'll do that myself the next time." This is persuasion.

When did you do something because someone like you did it? When did you hear a memorable story about overcoming great barriers and not be moved to action? Why do you think that is? Post your story about social proof in the comment box.

 

Persuasion Month at Great Speaking Coach

"Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive" by Goldstein, Martin and Cialdini has persuaded me to spend the next 40 days or so blogging about how you can increase your ability to persuade through your speeches and presentations.

Imagine you have persuaded one audience member to take one action as a result of your speech. What difference would that one action make to that person? What if dozens of people were persuaded? Wouldn't you feel successful too?

Warning! You will find yourself wondering "Can it be that easy?" to become more persuasive? After all, we pride ourselves on overcoming difficulties and working hard to succeed. That's what is actually most persuasive about this book--these techniques are easy. The authors have done the research and analysis and give us simple descriptions of persuasive techniques and the circumstances in which they work the best.

These techniques are based on Cialdini's 'weapons of persuasion' so fully described in his best-selling book "Influence--the Psychology of Persuasion".

All you have to do is apply them! One at a time, selecting the right technique to reach the one goal. Subscribe to this blog's feed to learn how to incorporate prove persuasion techniques into your speeches and presentations. Or join other business speakers and follow me on Twitter @speakandgrowbiz or become my friend on Facebook.

And feel free to post your thoughts in our comments box.

 

Money Making Thinking Pays Off Big

Do you think successful money makers protest: "I don't have time to do one more thing" or "I can't put another thing on my plate"? How many times have you turned down an opportunity for these reasons? I'm sure you do feel overbooked. Yet don't you ever wonder what you might have missed?

Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen collaborated on a process for making large chunks of money quickly, called Cash in a Flash. In the book they tell the story of Michelle and 4 other women who create a money-focused Mastermind Group to generate large sums of money quickly.

Lei Kim protests that she can't take on another thing--and Michelle says: if you think of each activity in your life as one discrete thing, then soon you'll see all these things piling up and you'll get to a point when you don't have room for one more thing.

What if you think of your whole life as one unit that is you? You work, have friends, support the community, care for your family, nurture relationships, exercise, and make money. When a new idea comes to you it's not another thing--it's part of the whole that is you. You will find the time and energy to incorporate this new opportunity to your life because it is part of you, the whole. Best of all, your whole life has an expandable border.

This idea flies in the face of how we typically think about our lives--in chunks of time and the associated activities. Run out of spaces in your calendar and you can't do one more thing.

I like the challenge of this. When I'm tempted to turn down a request because "I can't take on one more thing," I'm going to remind myself that my life is one whole unit, with expandable borders.

How about you? What fixed borders are you going to break out of? Share your commitments through our comment link.