Ultimate Guide to Persuasive Speech (Hook and Influence Any Audience) PART I
Everyone is blessed with a certain level
of persuasive skills. Whether it’s a salesperson convincing a customer why they
should buy a product or a mother convincing her child why he needs to sleep
early – persuading is something that revolves around our lives whether we
realise it or not.
This applies to persuasive speeches as well.
These are speeches made with the intention of selling an idea, message, service
or product to the audience. Some forms of persuasive speeches include sales
pitches, legal proceedings and debates.
Here is a definitive step by step guide on
how to frame and execute an excellent persuasive speech:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Selecting a topic
People are naturally interested in stories that have a hook. For a
speech, this is none other than a topic. Every speaker wants their audience to
be engaged and hence, the first step to achieving this is to select a good
topic that will capture the attention of their audience.
Here are ways you can identify a good topic
for your persuasive speech:
a) Brainstorm
A well-chosen topic is key to the success of
a good speech. Brainstorming is a method that helps you generate topic ideas.
It also should feel less stressful than other methods. Once you’ve come up with
a list of potential topics, it all boils down to identifying what you think is
good, depending on several factors such as who your listeners are and what
their interests are.
Once done, start the process of elimination
and remove the topics one by one till you find the perfect topic to speak
about. Brainstorming is a creative process. If you don’t put in the effort to
be creative, your presentation will never touch the minds and hearts of your
audience.
b) Tailor the content of your presentation to your audience’s needs
Understanding who you are speaking to can
help you sound much more persuasive. This helps determine how you can make your
tone suitable for them and the content much more relevant and relatable to your
audience.
For example, if you are speaking to a young
audience, you should find out how they speak and their capacity of
understanding. If you will be speaking about difficult topics like insurance,
it doesn’t make sense to use a lot of technical terms or jargons especially
since they definitely wouldn’t understand what you’re saying most of the time.
Furthermore, if you come in to the talk
without any effort to adapt to your listeners, it will be a surefire way to
lose their interest. And if they do not see a need to listen to their show, how
are you going to sell your idea in the first place? Make an effort to show that
the speech was tailored especially to them. This will increase your credibility
as a result and show you’ve done your homework.
Questions to get yourself started:
- Who will be attending your presentation?
- What are their goals?
- What motivates them?
- What values do they most care about?
- What are some examples that are relevant
to them?
- How can I customize the slide images to
resonate with their industry or line of work?
- What are the words I can use that are
relevant to them or are used daily in their conversations?
c) Make It Personal
In order to change the minds of your
audience, you need to win their hearts first. To do that, it’s important to add
a personal touch for your topic.
One way to incorporate this is to pick a
topic you are extremely knowledgeable and passionate for. It shows how much
effort and time was spent on understanding and learning the topic. You live and
breathe this topic. This passion for the topic will naturally make it easier
for you to add your own personal experiences, research and stories. This will
help your topic resonate with other people as much as it resonates with you.
For Most TED talk speakers, their talk is
their life’s work. One example is Brene Brown’s “The Power of Vulnerability”
where she spent years studying the human connection. In her talk, you can see
she has incorporated touches of personal experiences and stories that make the
talk heartwarming and persuasive:
2. Organize content
There’s no point in having a great topic with the best content and ideas
if it’s not organized in a coherent manner. All it entails is a very confused
audience at the end of your speech which means that you did not convey your key
message successfully.
One way to organize your content is to create
an outline first – it restructures your speech so that it’s clear and concise.
After you’ve decided the points you’d like to bring up, start organizing them
in a way where it can smoothly transition from one main point to the other.
Similar to how one might structure a video,1 a speech is
not that much different.
Another method is to insert the important
parts at the beginning or end of your speech. According to a study done by
Murdock, people recall information better in the beginning and the end of a
presentation. This helps create an edge for your persuasive presentation.
3. Know your content inside and out
One of the worst sins you can commit as a speaker is to read your script
off a cue card or worse – look at your slides throughout as you speak. Not only
do you sound rigid, monotonous and boring, you’ll definitely lose your
audience’s interest as a result.
If you cannot engage your audience to listen
to you, how are you going to persuade them into buying whatever you’re speaking
about? Make sure to practice and understand your speech thoroughly without
reading your slides.
With that being said, however, many tend to
memorize their script word for word in an attempt to ‘know their stuff’ which
is just a huge recipe for disaster. What if you you get stage fright and your
mind turns blank? Or you simply cannot remember? Any hesitation on your part
could sprout doubts from the minds of the audience.
Instead, focus on memorizing the flow of your
key points as well as the overall arching message of your speech. According to
experts, understanding the content makes it easier for you to convert ideas and
concepts into your own words which you can then clearly explain to others. This
allows you to speak with conviction and allow your personality to shine
through, thereby convincing your audience as well.
4. Storytelling techniques (Hero’s journey)
You want to capture the attention of your audience with your very first
words. To do that, start by telling a story. It’s important you do not bombard
them with facts and data as it has been scientifically proven that stories
engage more parts of our brain as compared to hard facts.
This technique is one of the most effective
approaches when it comes to persuading your audience to buy your idea, message,
service or product. This is due to its ability to stimulate interest, increase
engagement and help the audience understand what’s being said.
So when you start your speech, try telling a
short story to provide them with the vision of the goal. It also helps if you
can make the story relatable to everyone involved so they are able to resonate
with your speech.
Storytelling is also extremely useful when it
comes to escalating the situation in a room full of people who may not be too
keen on your ideas.
There are many ways to tell a persuasive
story but one of the most effective and foolproof stories is ‘The Hero’s
Journey’ approach. This is because it has the exact built-in mechanisms
for creating the connection needed for any audience. This can result in an
impactful speech that can inspire your audience to action.
Described by Joseph Campbell as the The Hero
with a Thousand Faces, the Hero’s Journey is the same exact tale every culture
tells – just with different characters.
The tale of these heroes all boil down to
three points– the problem, the solution and the reward. You’ll notice that
these three elements are always or mostly used in every hero’s journey approach
and it never fails to attract the audience. Leverage on this three step
approach to help make your speech much more engaging which will empower your
audience in return.
IN PART II
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