Persuasion is the act of convincing someone to change their beliefs or act upon something that you suggest. The art of persuasive is not just about sales tactics. It’s about effectively communicating your ONE BIG MESSAGE® so that your audience take action or share your perspective.
As leaders, the ability to persuade is essential. Whether it’s to promote your personal brand, get everyone on board with your vision or to attract and retain your best people, persuasion is a daily skill that, as leaders, you will need to master and practice.
Here are four of the most powerful ways to communicate persuasively:
Storytelling
Having a story to tell will instantly make you more persuasive. They tell the “why”. For example “why you think your message is worth listening to.”
Stories are what change emotional beliefs, much much more than a logical argument would, because we make decisions (often unconsciously) based on our emotions, and then let our rational processes justify that decision with facts.
Download The 6C’s of Strategic Storytelling® to learn how to craft great stories that SELL.
Trust
Being relatable is really important if you want to be persuasive.
Why is your message so important to them?
When you find common ground with your audience and they can relate to you, they’ll be more willing to listen to you and act on what you have to say.
I talk more about how to make yourself instantly relatable here.
Share your passion and confidence
Passion is contagious. When you stand up in front of an audience with full belief in your message, knowing that it will have a positive impact on your audience then you are halfway there.
Remember, people don’t buy products or buy ‘what’ you do, they buy why you do it.
Identify the things that you are really passionate about and try to bring these into your story or presentation because it will help your message come alive.
I love ballroom dancing, and I often try to bring this into my presentation – even showing the audience my ballroom skills to add humor and color to my message.
Appeal to reason
By clearly explaining why your audience needs to change their opinion or behavior backed with logic and reason is an understated rule of persuasive speaking. It’s not enough to just appeal to your audiences’ emotions. You also need facts, statistics and analogies to add weight to your argument and appeal to a person’s ability to reason.
If you want to discover more ways to persuasively communicate your message, my online course “The Art of Persuasive Speaking in Global Business” sets out the strategies and techniques to create a presentation or speech that sells.
