The key secret of persuasive presentations is that almost all communication happens at an unconscious level.
That means that people are forming opinions about what you say without really knowing the reason why.
But most people plan communication consciously and logically and that’s a big reason why most communication doesn’t work and is not persuasive.
If you know what works unconsciously, you can make your communication so much more effective.
Here are seven ways you can make your communication more persuasive and convincing by influencing the unconscious mind:
Speed
People usually make up their minds about something unconsciously within 2 – 6 seconds.
For example, psychologists discovered that students evaluating teachers based on a two second video clip made similar assessments to those who had learned with that teacher for several months.
So you only have a few brief moments in which to make the right impression.
But, when you have the right communication skills, you can help your audience come to the right conclusion quickly.
Simplicity
Although our culture appears to value a lot of information, you need to have a very clear and simple message if you want it to be remembered.
The problem for many people is what’s known as the “Curse of Knowledge”. They tend to like showing off what they know rather than taking time to think about what matters most to the audience.
Often the hardest task in preparing a presentation is deciding what to leave out so that your message can be focused.
Surprise
The unconscious mind likes to have things following a regular pattern. So often the way to get noticed is to do something that breaks that pattern.
You can do that by delivering something that is totally unexpected – think about the most surprising fact about information you want to get across.
You can also use curiosity as a way of engaging people in your message.
Specificity
The unconscious mind deals in specific information so you need to choose your words with care.
For example it’s important to be very careful when using negative words such as ‘not’ and ‘don’t’ as the effect may be the opposite of what you intend.
You can engage the unconscious mind by providing very specific details that make someone feel as though the situation is real.
You can do this by talking about real people or by sharing specific facts.
Stories
Telling stories is one of the most powerful forms of communication as, used properly, they can help to overcome resistance and skepticism.
Stories can serve different purposes, ranging from making people feel good to imagining themselves in a particular situation. The success of books such as the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series show how much people love stories.
Planned use of stories that support your message can make your presentation very effective.
Stir emotions
The unconscious mind is the domain of the emotions so the most successful communication will appeal to emotions.
You need to make people care about something if you want them to take action. You can motivate and inspire people with both positive and negative emotions.
- Motivate with Emotion
Negative emotions can be very powerful but you need to take care not to have the negative emotion associated with you. If you stir a negative emotion, you usually need to give people a way to relieve that emotion.
Using all the Senses
Employing all of the senses in your communication makes your message more effective.
That’s partly about the words you use. For example, some people are more visual and respond better to phrases such as “vision’ and “see what I mean”.
While those who are more kinesthetic will be happier with language such as “feel” and “touch”.
A good presentation will also use all the senses by including the right visual aids, physical handouts and samples and possible even tastes and smells.
Few presentations are going to hit on all of these hot buttons but, the more you can use, the more chance you have of communicating with the unconscious mind.
When you do that, your presentation will be more persuasive and ultimately more profitable.
This is part of a series of articles on How to Profit from Persuasive Presentations. Sign up for our free report at www.PersuasivePresentationPower.com
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