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 second 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 Two: Focus on the positive, and keep your message simple

There are two very important principles to bear in mind when writing and rehearsing your presentation, or preparing yourself for an important meeting or pitch.

The first is to remain positive throughout the presentation. There are two sides to this. Obviously, you should avoid negativity. Don’t be abusive or defensive when talking about your opponents or competitors, or when posed with an awkward question.

The best way to avoid negativity is to focus on yourself and your own accomplishments. State impactfully what you have already done, what you will do in the future, and why it’s so great for your audience.

Make sure you are aware of any “hot buttons” you have (that is, subject areas, tone of voice, or questions which will bring out a bad reaction in you), and prepare yourself to react positively to these. Remember the fastest way to lose your audience’s respect is to lose control! Avoid frowns, head shaking, and sour expressions. It should be obvious to everyone that you feel confident, relaxed, and happy in your message.

The second principle is to use simple, everyday language in your speech and presentations. Forget about impressing the boffins in the audience with your techie jargon. If you have an important message you want to convey, and you want to persuade an audience to accept it, then you need to make it easy for them to understand and remember.

Use short sentences. Practise stressing key words when you speak. This will make you much easier to understand. If you are speaking from notes, try underlining key words to make it easier to remember which to stress.

There are few tricks you can use to improve the way you communicate, while keeping your language simple. Try speaking in “newspaper headlines”. In other words, express the key point upfront, then follow up with detail to flesh it out.

Switch between big picture view and concrete details as you speak. When you refer to details, use vivid images that are tangible and real to your audience. Use stories to sell or illustrate your message, drawing on your personal experience if you can. Stories are easy to relate and listen to. Avoid talking in abstractions and generalities.

 

From the experts…

 

Richard Butterfield: Refine your stuff to an ongoing theme: one macro message and a combination of heartfelt anecdotes and crisp proofs to deliver the message.

 

Steve Clements: Paint a picture of the future.

 

Michelle Eppley: Stay completely focused on your message and the strong beliefs you hold.

 

Laura Lewis-Barr: Dodging tough questions leaves an unfavourable impression.

 

Michelle Eppley: Be aware of your hot buttons and how you react when pushed. Modify any negative reactions so that you can communicate your message without distraction.

 

Shel Horowitz: Avoid personal insults.

 

John Daly: Stay away from snide remarks.

 

KimAlyse Popkave: Stop the negativity. Negativity zaps persuasive strength. Verbal abuse succeeds only in negatively impacting the abuser.

 

Barbara Laskin: Speak simply and passionately. Your first goal is to relate to your audience and be understood.

 

Deborah Shames: Give examples, anecdotes. Vivid examples that the audience can relate to. As listeners, we're attracted to stories and remember them better than programs.

 

Steve Denning: Upgrade your narrative intelligence and learn how to tell a succinct story that will be engaging and compelling and convey a powerful message.

 

Laura Lewis-Barr: Use stories to illustrate your ideas.

 

Steve Denning: Use stories rather than abstractions to make your points. Use negative stories to get attention, and positive stories to inspire support.

 

Marianne Gobeil: Deliver clear, compelling messages that resonate with the audience and move them to action.

 

Ronald Kaufman: The brain thinks in terms of pictures. Give the audience enough specific details and proof of plausibility to be believable.

 

Paul Anderson: Alter between big picture and details. Talking too vaguely will lose the detailed oriented people, and vice versa.

 

Carmine Gallo: Make your message tangible. You open yourself to criticism when you speak in generalities. Give us at least one or two very specific and tangible details about how you would address a particular issue.

 

Tom Brennan: Express in simple language "The wrench you've been using isn't working; let's try this new wrench".

 

Ira Koretsky: Speak in headlines. The purpose of a headline is to grab the audience's attention so that they will read or listen to the rest of the article, story, or speech. The headline should be succinct, use powerful words, and tell a story.

 

Barbara Laskin: Throw in a zinger or two. Be bold. Make one newsworthy sound bite that is weighty, pithy, and smart.

 

Neal Larsen Palmer, PhD: Deliver your responses in short, easy to grasp, sentences.

 

Ira Koretsky: Use the power of the well-timed pause, do not rush your delivery, stay on message, use personal stories, and keep it simple.



About the experts:

Derrick Hayes
President, WOE Enterprises
http://www.encouragementspeaker.wordpress.com
http://www.encouragementspeaker.com
Encouragement expert and creator of Derricknyms and W.O.E.


John Daly
Writer, JohnDaly.TV
http://www.johndaly.tv
TV 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.com
Have booked hundreds of clients into major media venues.


KimAlyse Popkave
President, K.a. Popkave Coaching & Consulting
http://www.Popkave-Coaching-and-Consulting.com
Creator of the Path To Power.


Steve Clements
Chief Consultant, Executive Speak/Write, Inc.
http://www.executivespeakwrite.com
Oral presentation and media trainer, distinguished professor and former television producer.


Judith E. Glaser
CEO, Benchmark Communications, Inc.
http://www.creatingwe.com
Two 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.com
Author, 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.biz
We'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.com
Acclaimed author, professional speaker and presentation expert.


Barbara Laskin
President, Laskin Media, Inc.
http://www.laskinmedia.com
Barbara 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.com
Leading 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.com
Carmine 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.edu
Law 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.com
Steve 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.com
A trusted communications advisor to politicians, government officials and business executives.


Michael Souveroff
Presentation Coach and Owner, Natural Speech Coaching
http://www.naturalspeechcoaching.com
Corporate Presentation Coach, New York City


Ira Koretsky
CEO, The Chief Storyteller
http://www.TheChiefStoryteller.com
National and internationally-recognized speaker, columnist, and consultant on business storytelling


Dawn T. Clare
President, SPISE BLISS
http://www.spisebliss.com
I 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.html
Karol 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.net
http://www.DrDeatonSpeaks.com
Author and Corporate Educator to many of the Fortune 500


Janet Larsen Palmer, Ph.D.
President, Communication Excellence Institute
http://www.talk2cei.com
Nonverbal communication specialist and business presentations coach


Tiffanie Z. Lyon, MBA
President, Lyon Sales Institute, LLC
http://www.lyonsalesinstitute.com
Sales 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.com
Presentation, media, and negotiation skills coach, and author of Anatomy of Success.


Michelle Eppley
President, The Sound Center, Inc.
http://www.thesoundcenter.com
President 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.com
Adviser 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-blog
Award-wining author of books on ethics and marketing.


Laura Lewis-Barr
Freelance trainer, Training4breakthroughs.com
http://www.training4breakthroughs.com
Award-winning writer and corporate trainer.


Richard Butterfield
Principal, Butterfield Speaks
http://www.butterfieldspeaks.com
High 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.