Connections and meaningful relationships are crucial in business. They’re the foundation for sustained partnerships and successful collaborations, whether it be with your team, your leaders or your clients.
Whether or not we’re able to acknowledge it, each of us carries an innate need to connect with other people. We all desire to be liked, heard, and understood. But why is it that some people seem to build instant rapport with most anyone they come across?
If you want to really improve your power of persuasion and get any audience to connect with you, take a look at some of the ways you can bond with your audience:
Pay attention
It’s impossible to establish connection if you don’t listen. This means finding out what your audience wants to hear, not necessarily what you want to deliver.
Contact some of the people in the audience beforehand and ask them what they’re struggling with right now, what do they want to learn more about, how can you add value? It’s much better to find these things out in advance rather than afterwards.
Deliver your message in a story
When you wrap your message up in a story, you are making it much easier for your audience to relate to and recall afterwards. Introduce characters that your audience are most likely to relate to. Use dialogue that’s familiar to them and if possible, make your audience a character in your story.
Download my free ebook: The 6C’s of Strategic Storytelling™ yet for more storytelling tips
Get personal
If you really want to create a deep and meaningful connection with your audience, you must make it personal.
People will respect your honesty if they can see your vulnerability and not just a polished performance.
Give something away for free
This doesn’t have to be something gimmicky; it can be a piece of advice that you close with, delivered in such a way that your audience will never forget you or your message.
Think about non-verbal cues
Since human interaction relies heavily on nonverbal cues, consider things like your tone of voice, the gestures you use and the clothes you wear. Relate everything back to your audience and ask yourself:
“Is this the right message I want to give?”
There are so many ways to emotionally connect with your audience, and I’d love to help you delve deeper to make sure that your important message is understood and remembered.
Book a free consultation with me to see how I can help.
