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We encourage you to use every communication as an opportunity to persuade your audience.
May 2006
Volume IV, Issue 3
The Latimer Group is solely focused on helping
executives and sales
professionals develop world-class communication, public speaking and
presentation skills.
Our programs are customized and specifically designed to create
authentic presentations delivered in the voice of the speaker.
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To Inform or To Persuade?
Maybe if we could put presidential power in a pot and boil it all down, a big part of what we would find at the bottom would be language, the use of language, the potency of words. Power to persuade is power indeed.
- David McCullough, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author
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Envision for a moment that you are sitting in a meeting within your organization, about
to hear a presentation by one of your colleagues. The presenter starts by saying: “Today
I would like to give you an update on the progress of our project…”
Now think about this. You are in your office, and a sales person who routinely visits
you sits down for a meeting and begins by saying: “Thanks for
your time today. I would just like to give you a quick update on the performance of our
mutual funds…” Sound
familiar? I hear it all the time – in coaching sessions, in training classes and
on the phone with my clients. I constantly hear people describe their communications as “updates” or “informational.”
Therein lies a critical flaw in the way most of us communicate. At one point or another,
most of us segment our professional communication situations – presentations, sales
calls, conversations, meetings, speeches, conference calls or interviews – into two
groups. We classify some of our communications as opportunities to persuade. Others, we
classify as merely informative.
Segmenting professional communication scenarios this way is a critical mistake. All
of your professional communication should be treated as opportunities to persuade. None of
your professional communication should ever be classified as “informative.” Why?
I’ll answer that query by way of a story.
This is a real example from a client of The Latimer Group, whom we will refer to as “Jane.”
Jane works for a manufacturing company and is the project leader on a high-profile, labor-intensive
project. To her colleagues and managers, the project appeared to be running behind schedule
and exceeding the budget, and they asked Jane to provide a status report. While she felt
the project was running as smoothly as could be expected with the limited resources she
had been given at the outset, Jane knew the stakes were high and asked The Latimer Group
to help her prepare her presentation.
We listened to Jane’s practice run, and a few questions immediately came to mind:
- Is Jane trying to inform me or persuade me? When I pressed her on what her goals
for the presentation were, she said, “To inform senior management of our progress.” Red
flag #1.
- What does Jane want me to do? At the end of her presentation, I asked a simple question:
What do you want from me? What do you want me to do? When she was presented these simple
questions, she said, “Understand where we are on this project.” But was
that it? Her answers were not articulate or clear. Red flag #2.
- What does Jane want me to remember? I also asked her what she wanted the audience
to believe about the project and her team. When we walk out of the room, what do you
want us to remember, above all else? Again, she had no clear answers. Red flag #3.
- Does Jane understand what will concern the audience most? Jane told us her goal
was to prove the project is still worthwhile. But this was a high-profile project, and
senior management had already committed to it. Jane did not understand that they were
most likely to be concerned with what she and her team were doing to stay on budget and
on schedule. Red flag #4.
Ultimately, Jane was underestimating three things for this meeting – her goals,
her opportunity and her leverage. In order to make her project a success, she needed to
use the meeting as an opportunity to persuade. If she recognized senior management’s
primary concern was staying on schedule, she should use the meeting as an opportunity to
ask for additional manpower and budget. If she understood their concerns were budget related,
she should ask for an extended deadline or manpower. The common denominator is that Jane
needed to persuade senior management to see that the end result remained well within reach,
as long as she received additional resources. An “update” would not be enough.
When we approach our communications with a strategy merely to inform, we relinquish our
potential power. Do not give up the opportunity to persuade, to shape opinion
and influence the way your audience makes decisions. Do not leave the real opportunity
on the table and ignore the potential leverage at your disposal.
How will you benefit if
you treat every communication as an opportunity to persuade? Let’s return to Jane.
In our work together, we immediately had Jane apply The Latimer Group’s GAP Method
for persuasion – set your Goal, understand your Audience and create your Plan – and
reorganize her presentation. Once she adopted the mindset of persuasion and applied this
simple framework, the performance immediately improved.
- Jane understood the likely concerns of her audience. She spent time considering
what they would be most interested in. She thought about what their reservations might
be. She developed answers to the questions that she knew they would ask. She structured
her entire presentation around concerns and topics that would be critical to influencing
their thoughts and their actions.
- Jane articulated clear recommendations and key points. It was now obvious to the
audience what the most important aspects of the presentation were. And since Jane had
taken the critical initial step of understanding her audience, her key points and recommendations
were more clearly aligned with the issues important to the audience.
- Jane provided clear action steps. She made it clear what she and her team would
be doing over the coming weeks and months. This allowed her audience to know what to
expect. She also made it clear what she hoped the audience would do to support the project.
She provided them with a clear finish line and with clear frameworks for evaluating success.
- Jane’s message became memorable. It is easier for your audience to remember
your message when you structure it in a way that considers their position, makes clear
recommendations and provides clear action steps. Jane did all of these things and her
presentation was therefore digestible and memorable for her audience.
Here’s the ultimate result
when you prepare to persuade rather than merely to inform: You leave little to chance.
Once Jane applied The Latimer Group’s GAP Method to her preparation, she identified
the most important aspects of her message and structured her entire presentation around
those points.
Here’s another way to think about it. On your best day speaking to an interested
audience, studies tell us they are likely to remember a maximum of 25 percent of what you
say within 12 hours after your presentation. Don’t get discouraged – this is
actually an exciting statistic. It means your focus should be to identify the 25 percent
of your message that is most critical to your success and then structure your presentation
so that this 25 percent is front and center before your audience. This is the best way
to make sure they remember it. Otherwise, if you leave it to chance, you will let others
decide the most memorable aspects of your message.
Persuasion is difficult. Convincing well-informed, opinionated professionals they should
adopt your strategy, buy your product, change their mind, follow your lead or invest in
your company is no easy task. But the ability to do so is critical to your success. The
people who can successfully persuade get promoted, earn more substantial bonuses, build
their own brand and are in great demand. They utilize their own power
to persuade.
When you aim to inform, you leave opportunity on the table, and your leverage remains
unused. On the other hand, when you attempt to shape opinion, you dramatically increase
the chance for success.
Our most direct advice to you is this: treat every professional communication as an opportunity
to shape opinion – about you, your organization, your product or your service. When
you do so, you will dramatically increase your chances for success.
Dean M. Brenner
President |
Marni H. Lane
Media Specialist |
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© 2006 The Latimer Group. All Rights Reserved.
Dean M. Brenner -
The Latimer Group: 203.265.4344.
Feedback or comments: dmbrenner@thelatimergroup.com.
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