Episode #247: Develop Persuasion Power

Being persuasive is not down to luck or accident, it is the result of good planning and execution. This is the problem. The vast majority of speakers do not prepare properly. The slide deck gets all the attention, the data gets lots of love, the logistics are thoroughly checked. The planning component? Not enough going into that effort unfortunately. How can we become more persuasive? There is a formula for this, in fact a magic formula

This formula is simple but pure genius. It has four steps: Step 1. We open with the incident: who, what, where, when. We believe something to be true. Why is that? We have come to that conclusion through something that has become known to us. There is a back story there somewhere driving our conclusion. We tell part of that backstory. In Step 2, we get into the evidence to provide context to support our recommendation. This is woven into the incident we are relating. In Step 3, we suggest the action needed and make our recommendation

In the final step, Step 4, we focus on the benefits, telling our audience why our recommendation will help them

Before we present anything, we need to analyse our audience so that we hit the right note with them – not too complex and not too simple. We need to consider a few angles for the talk. This is a vital precaution very few speakers ever take and then get themselves into trouble and wonder why. How much does my audience know about my topic. What will be the benefit to this audience. What would be some skeptical or negative attitudes toward what I am going to say? How much resistance can I anticipate. How can I overcome that resistance?

Where possible we should be trying to tailor the talk to the needs of the audience.

We need to look at the audience point of view regarding how their current situation is relevant to the topic. What are the challenges they are facing. What do they consider to be important or unimportant concerning my topic? How could they benefit by taking the action I’m recommending?

After understanding where your audience is, you can use the magic formula to capture attention, build credibility, eliminate nervousness, call others to action and get results.

We must apply good discipline such that we don’t start rambling on about some long winded story of how we came to our epiphany. We need to be sharp about getting to the point or we risk losing our audience. Ninety percent of the time should be devoted to telling the incident but we do it concisely.

Include animation and vocal variety. We next draw out the evidence. As part of the storytelling, we include the context behind the incident, as a way of backing up what we are saying. Audiences can disagree with our analysis of the ramifications of the incident but they cannot disagree with the incident itself.

At this point we make our recommendation. We specify what action we want our listeners to take. This component of the process represents only five percent of the time allocation.

The next five percent is when we provide the benefit of taking our recommended action. The whole piece is tight and compelling. Hearing the background forces the audience to come to their own conclusions about what they think should be done. Probably they will have come to the same conclusion we came to. This is an ideal outcome.

Here are some key points to remember in the magic formula

1. The story telling doesn’t allow the listener to resist us, because they don’t know what we are recommending as yet
2. The story weaves in context and evidence as to why what we are suggesting is the best idea. The client often projects ahead, after hearing the context and arrives at the same decision we did, about what is the best action to take
3. We make a clear call to action
4. We immediately follow up with the benefit, so that the last thing the listener hears is the positive thing for them, if they take our recommendation

So think about an opportunity coming up where you can apply the magic formula to persuade others? Think about why you are making this recommendation to the audience. There is bound to be some context or a background reason why. Can you create a story which captures that context, so that the client can easily agree?

The ability to persuade people is one of the most critical business abilities but it is possessed by very few. Use these ideas and become one of the top 0.1% in business in Nippon.