When you want to deliver persuasive presentations successfully, the biggest challenge is often getting started.
That’s why it crucial to have a process you can follow. You can make your persuasive presentations much easier by following this five-step process:
- Study your audience.
- Set aside preparation time.
- Structure your content.
- Simplify everything to make it memorable.
- Support your words with great visuals and handouts.
#1: Study the audience
Before you start preparing your persuasive presentations, you need to know as much about your audience as possible. There are two main types of information you need to collect:
- Demographics: These are the statistical facts about your audience, such as how many there will be, what age group, what industries they work in and what geographic areas they come from
- Psychographics: This is what they are thinking and what’s important to them. Psychographics is usually much more important in helping you to craft your presentation than demographics. It can include their values, beliefs, interests and lifestyles
You’ll have more success with your audience if you change the way you see them in your mind from a large anonymous mass into a single person.
You can do this be creating an ‘avatar’, where you take all you know about your audience and then imagine them as one person.
#2: Set aside preparation time
When you have gathered all the information you need for your presentation, it’s time to get away from your desk and start thinking about your message and how best to get it across.
You need to approach it with an open mind. Be ready to brainstorm, whether with yourself or with others.
#3: Structure your content
The most important step in creating great persuasive presentations is pulling all the information together and developing an appropriate format.
This part of the process can actually be much easier than you think if you follow a proven step-by-step system.
These four steps help you create the content you want:
Step 1: Define your core message
The starting point for successful persuasive presentations is defining very clearly the single message you want to get across. The problem for many presenters is that they either have no clear message that they want to get across or they are trying to say too many things.
James Carville, election adviser to former US President Bill Clinton, said:
“If you say three things you don’t say anything”
It makes sense to follow his advice and get very clear on the one message you want to get across.
Step 2: Decide your key points
Often there’s a great deal of information you want to get across so it’s useful to have an approach that will help you decide what’s most important and what should come first.
One system that many people find helpful for doing this is based on a teaching approach called the 4MAT® system, which was developed by the education expert Bernice McCarthy.
It’s based on research showing that people are predominantly in one of the following categories.
- ‘Why’ people: They need strong reasons why they should even listen to you
- ‘What’ people: These are the “information junkies” – they seek all the facts, information and data that they can get
- ‘How’ people: They’re pragmatic and practical. They want to know how they can use this information, they want to know how it works
- ‘What If’ people: They’re visionary, always finding new ways of looking at things, other possibilities.
Knowing your audience is split in this way, you can use these four questions to develop the content for your persuasive presentations by brainstorming the following questions from the perspective of your audience.
- Why should I pay attention to what you are saying?
- What are the facts I need to know about this?
- How can I use this information?
- What happens if I follow your advice?
Step 3: Identify the specific support for these points
Once you have identified the key points you want to cover, you need to add the detailed information that will support the point you are making. This could come for example in the form of:
- Stories
- Examples
- Case Studies
- Research
- Quotes
Step 4: Decide on your start and finish
People need to know from the start that it’s going to be worth paying attention to what you are saying.
So before you launch into some nice stories, make sure they know why they should pay attention.
But stories are a great way to build interest, create rapport and generate emotions. And a great way to use them is as part of your introduction.
If you want to keep the interest of the audience for your presentation, you need to follow the same formula as the movie producers.
Let’s say you’re using three stories as part of your introduction. Start your first story. Then, when you get to an appropriate part – when you have people interested – break off the story and move on to the next one. You should then do the same thing with that one and move on.
The benefit of using this approach is that people are unconsciously keen to get completion on that story so they pay closer attention for the rest of your persuasive presentation.
That’s exactly how movie producers keep you engaged in a plot for an hour or two.
When you come to the end of your main content, you can then start to close off your stories. As with the movies, you will close off your stories in the reverse order to the way you introduced them.
Finally, you want a really powerful message of what will happen if people don’t listen to what you are saying. Then give them all the benefits if they do what you suggest.
#4: Simplify everything to make it memorable
Here are some techniques you can use to make your message more memorable.
Acronyms: This is where the first letters of a series of words combine to form another word and make the whole group easier to remember. For example, in the book “Psycho-Cybernetics”, the following words are used to spell out what makes a success-type personality.
- Sense of Direction
- Understanding
- Courage
- Charity / compassion
- Esteem
- Self-confidence
- Self-acceptance
Alliteration
This is where you use the same initial letter at the beginning of every word. An example of alliteration is the organization of this post. The headings are:
- Set aside preparation time.
- Study your audience.
- Structure your content.
- Simplify everything to make it memorable.
- Support your words with great visuals and handouts.
Rhyming
Rhyming may seem a little odd in the context of a business presentation but the power of rhyme is not in reeling off poetry. Scientists have found that people are more likely to believe rhyming statements than non-rhyming statements.
Repetition
Another way to make your persuasive message more memorable is to use the power of repetition. That doesn’t just mean saying the same thing over and over – though that is also useful.
It’s about using a formula or form of words that makes the message hit home. Often it’s a little like poetry without the rhyme. For example a campaigning politician would say something like:
- Higher growth, lower inflation
- Higher incomes, less taxes
- Higher spending, less waste
#5: Support your words with great visuals and handouts
Planning your visual aids and your handouts is a crucial element of getting your message across in a persuasive presentation.
Here are four keys to a great slide presentation.
Simple and Clear Visuals
- Clarity: The best slides are often the simplest so don’t be scared to have lots of space on the slide
- Contrast: Most slides just list a series of words with the same size type. You can draw attention to the important elements by using contrast
- Consistency: Although having every slide looking the same can be boring you need to have elements of consistency
- Chunks: Each slide should be laid out to ensure the information is communicated most effectively
Handouts
Handouts to giveaway at the end of a persuasive presentation are often an afterthought and people too easily resort to simply giving away copies of the slides.
It’s important to remember that handouts make up one of the three core components of your presentation – the others being your words and your visual aids.
Some things need to be explained by the speaker, others work well when shown on a slide and some details are best left to be included in a handout. You need to appeal to all the senses.
Taking time to create a handout that contains valuable information makes it more likely they will keep it and remember you.
For more tips on persuasive presentations, download the free report at www.PersuasivePresentationPower.com
