Read about The Ultimate Sales Collaboration 1: You have to be prepared to be persuasive, business sales experts say on yourBusinessChannel.
Because the presidential election is the ultimate sell, we’re bringing you the ultimate collaboration: the world’s top presentation experts revealing the top secrets to the art of persuasion.
This is the first in a series of four blogs where we distil analysis by 32 presentation and business experts down to simple guidelines to help you to be persuasive in your business life.
Step One: Make the time to prepare yourself thoroughlyIf you want to persuade, there is simply no substitute for doing your homework. Any convincing presentation needs solid ideas, and needs to be well organised and backed up with hard data. All of these things take time to research and execute. Take shortcuts at your peril.
When preparing for a presentation or session, you need to know all the issues inside out. Everything you say must be based on solid evidence and reasoning, if you expect your audience to accept it. You need to gather this evidence ahead of the big day, not rely on thinking on your feet!
Organise your thoughts and ideas thoroughly into a logical step-by-step flow. This will make it easy for your audience comprehend and digest your message.
As part of your preparation, find out as much as possible about your audience. Who are they? are they there? What problems do they have that you can solve? What can you offer them that your competitors can’t? All these questions will require time, research, and careful thought to answer.
Boil your key messages down to a few bullet points. Finesse these into bold, smart, quotable sound bites. Learn these backwards and forwards and repeat often.
Try to anticipate what questions or objections you might receive from the floor, and have great answers ready at the tip of your tongue. If you’re expecting a tough time, it’s a good idea to role play with some colleagues. Have them try and think of difficult questions which might trip you up.
If appropriate, research the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors as part of this process. What are their strong points and how do you counter them? What are their weaknesses and how can these be highlighted?
Lastly, once your presentation is prepared, rehearse your delivery. If you are going to be addressing a large audience and you are an inexperienced speaker, practice delivering your speech first in front of friends or colleagues. Don’t overdo it, but know your material well enough to concentrate on the delivery, rather than stumble through the content.
From the experts… Dennis R Deaton: Be knowledgeable. Know the issues.
KimAlyse Popkave: Be very prepared. Do the research. Do the preparation.
Ronald Kaufman: You need to prepare, plan, and practice. What forms of proof and evidence will be convincing? What questions might come up? What part of your presentation might be attacked?
Derrick Hayes: Prepare for the event by having others present you questions that might be asked of you.
Richard Butterfield: Know your stuff. And if you already know more than you can possibly fit in, you have to reduce the sauce.
KimAlyse Popkave: Persuasion depends on clear organization. A good presentation can be made more impactful with further work on clear organization of ideas.
Barry Maher: Know your talking points - the points you need to stress - backwards and forwards. Rehearse as much as possible, facing the most difficult likely questions.
Marianne Gobeil: Anticipate the questions, prepare answers. Craft them in a way that is strategic, succinct, credible and compelling. Practice their delivery to the extent that the "messages' appear integrated.
Dennis R Deaton: Be clearly decided on your position. Know exactly where you stand and why that position matters. Nothing calms the nerves and conveys confident authenticity like knowing where you stand and why. That confident authenticity is extremely persuasive because it is felt.
About the experts:Derrick Hayes
President, WOE Enterprises
http://www.encouragementspeaker.wordpress.comhttp://www.encouragementspeaker.comEncouragement expert and creator of Derricknyms and W.O.E.
John Daly
Writer, JohnDaly.TV
http://www.johndaly.tvTV Host and author who wrote the book on media bias and how Americans can become more informed efficiently. The book is Truth: The No BS Guide To Navigating A Media-Biased World.
Tom Brennan
Media Expert, Tom Brennan Media
http://www.tombrennanmedia.comHave booked hundreds of clients into major media venues.
KimAlyse Popkave
President, K.a. Popkave Coaching & Consulting
http://www.Popkave-Coaching-and-Consulting.comCreator of the Path To Power.
Steve Clements
Chief Consultant, Executive Speak/Write, Inc.
http://www.executivespeakwrite.comOral presentation and media trainer, distinguished professor and former television producer.
Judith E. Glaser
CEO, Benchmark Communications, Inc.
http://www.creatingwe.comTwo time best-selling author; pioneer and leading expert in the field of WE-centric leadership; founder of the Creating WE Institute; executive coach and advisor to C-suite leaders in multi-billion dollar global organizations; organizational anthropologist.
Alison Behrman, PhD
General Manager & Instructor, Speakeasy
http://www.speakeasyinc.com Voice expert and communication coach at Speakeasy.
Jeff Goldberg
Professional Speaker, Success Coach, and Sales Trainer
http://www.jgsalespro.comAuthor, speaker, coach and trainer having worked with more than 15,000 people in the last 6 years.
Deborah Shames
Co-founder, Eloqui
http://www.eloqui.bizWe've coached everyone from Dennis Tito to Paula Abdul on American Idol. We've trained teams at Mattel, Fisher Price, TD Ameritrade, Merrill Lynch, Johnson and Johnson as well as hundreds of law, accounting, insurance and financial firms. We have one book on Amazon.com, The Speaker Survival Guide. Another book is due out in two weeks, Briefly Speaking. And we have a book contract with McGraw Hill Professional on our unique methodology. Our Eloqui method combines engagement techniques from the Entertainment Industry, cognitive science and impression management from psychology.
Barry Maher
Principal, Barry Maher & Associates
http://www.barrymaher.comAcclaimed author, professional speaker and presentation expert.
Barbara Laskin
President, Laskin Media, Inc.
http://www.laskinmedia.comBarbara Laskin is a nationally known public speaker, media trainer and Emmy-Award winning TV anchor and reporter. She reported on some of the most important stories of the past two decades, while interviewing the most influential newsmakers including former New York Governor Mario Cuomo, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani. She won an Emmy Award for writing and reporting in a one-hour documentary, "Scared to Death", which was broadcast nationwide. Her company, founded in 1992, has coached everyone from Fortune 100 CEOs to celebrity chefs to Hollywood heavyweights, with the goal of helping them become more compelling and confident public speakers. She is a frequent commentator for news outlets such as The New York Daily News, NBC, MSNBC, CBC-TV, and Bloomberg radio, among others.
Ruth Sherman
President, Ruth Sherman Associates LLC
http://www.ruthsherman.comLeading communications/presentations consultant to business leaders, politicians and celebrities, best-selling author, speaker and blogger. Regularly quoted in New York Times, Washington Post, SF Chronicle and other major media.
Carmine Gallo
Communications Coach, Author, Fire Them Up
http://www.carminegallo.comCarmine Gallo is the communications coach for the world's most admired brands.
Jonathan I. Ezor
Assistant Professor of Law and Technology, Touro Law Center
http://www.tourolaw.eduLaw professor; technology business attorney for 15 years; worldwide speaker on Internet law and business; author of award-winning Internet business law handbook Clicking Through: A Survival Guide for Bringing Your Company Online (Bloomberg Press 2000) (http://www.clickingthrough.com)
Steve Denning
http://www.stevedenning.comSteve Denning, former World Bank executive, is the award-winning author of The Secret Language of Leadership (Jossey-Bass, 2007), and the world's leading expert on leadership storytelling.
Marianne Gobeil
Partner, Leading Communicators Inc.
http://www.leadingcommunicators.comA trusted communications advisor to politicians, government officials and business executives.
Michael Souveroff
Presentation Coach and Owner, Natural Speech Coaching
http://www.naturalspeechcoaching.comCorporate Presentation Coach, New York City
Ira Koretsky
CEO, The Chief Storyteller
http://www.TheChiefStoryteller.comNational and internationally-recognized speaker, columnist, and consultant on business storytelling
Dawn T. Clare
President, SPISE BLISS
http://www.spisebliss.comI am an intuitive coach and consultant with a Harvard MBA. I predicted the Wall Street Financial crisis would happen in 2008 and that we would see the fall of the Lehman & Merrill Lynch companies. I also predicted in 2007 that Obama would get the Democratic nomination.
Karol Ward
Executive Presentation Coach and Author
http://www.karolward.com/professional/index.htmlKarol Ward is an executive presentation coach, nationally recognized speaker and author of Find Your Inner Voice: Using Instinct and Intuition Through the Body-Mind Connection (Career Press, 2009)
Dennis R Deaton
Co-Founder and CEO of Quma Learning Systems, Inc.
http://www.Quma.nethttp://www.DrDeatonSpeaks.comAuthor and Corporate Educator to many of the Fortune 500
Janet Larsen Palmer, Ph.D.
President, Communication Excellence Institute
http://www.talk2cei.comNonverbal communication specialist and business presentations coach
Tiffanie Z. Lyon, MBA
President, Lyon Sales Institute, LLC
http://www.lyonsalesinstitute.comSales expert, sales motivator and author, inspiring non-traditional salespeople to increase their sales-confidence, grow their businesses and influence others, by helping them better understand and appreciate the concepts of "selling."
Ronald Kaufman
Seminar Leader/Executive Coach
http://www.anatomyofsuccess.comPresentation, media, and negotiation skills coach, and author of Anatomy of Success.
Michelle Eppley
President, The Sound Center, Inc.
http://www.thesoundcenter.comPresident of The Sound Center, Inc. Client list is confidential, but I've worked with broadcasters, executives, politicians, performers, and other professional voice users. People come to me to learn how deliver their message more effectively, whether that means working on vocal tone and projection, moving with confidence, phrasing and pausing, or articulation and accent. I am a trained singer and licensed, certified speech-language pathologist.
Paul Anderson
President - ProLango Consulting Inc.
http://www.prolango.comAdviser to C-Level Executives with Fortune 500 Companies (Seattle Based). I'm also working on advising politicians on linguistics and influencing abilities.
Shel Horowitz
Blogger on politics & ethics
http://www.principledprofit.com/good-business-blogAward-wining author of books on ethics and marketing.
Laura Lewis-Barr
Freelance trainer, Training4breakthroughs.com
http://www.training4breakthroughs.comAward-winning writer and corporate trainer.
Richard Butterfield
Principal, Butterfield Speaks
http://www.butterfieldspeaks.comHigh stakes media skills and presentation coach to business and healthcare leaders ranging from Microsoft and Gartner, eBay and IDEO, to Genentech and Cleveland Clinic. Author of It's Showtime! Butterfield Speaks on the Power of Persuasion.
