This blog has been written to help the Revenue team from EVT who attended a half day workshop with Michelle Bowden on August 29th, 2023 at The Tank Stream Hotel in Pitt Street Sydney What fun we had!
- We present (persuade and influence) our family members, friends, clients, patients, colleagues and managers every day of our life. Our days and filled with negotiating, finding compromise, updating, advising, selling, influencing and persuading.
- Most people forget that we are actually influencing people all the time, so they treat their communication scenarios like informal conversations and don’t analyse their audience, prepare their message, and they definitely don’t take the time to rehearse. They are likely to ‘wing it’!
- Expert communicators analyse their stakeholder, prepare their messages and even rehearse the delivery so they increase their chances of success.
- Expert communicators get into their stakeholder’s shoes and build strong rapport so they can present meaningful, needs based solutions. Expert communicators know how to design, persuasive, powerful, memorable messages and as a result, expert communicators hear the word ‘yes’ more often in their life.
- There are 3 phases to a persuasive presenting in business: Analysis; Design; Delivery.
- The 5 Step Analysis is as follows: Topic; Goal; Purpose; Leading Statement; Think/Feel/Do.
- Without some thorough analysis it’s possible you won’t be clear about what you really want to achieve.
- You can communicate with stakeholders from three positions. 1st position is where you are in your own shoes – completely self-indulgent and all you care about is yourself. 2nd position is where you are completely and utterly in your stakeholder’s shoes. 3rd Position is the helicopter view. From up in 3rd Position you can see your needs (1st Position) and you can see their needs (2nd Position) so from 3rd Position you can make some very good decisions about what is best for you and what is best for your stakeholder.
- Without some thorough analysis it’s possible that you won’t get into the shoes of your stakeholder and really understand where you are shifting them from and to, and this might mean you are an ineffective communicator.
- “It’s not about me, it’s all about the audience”. It’s not about what you want to say or the way you want to say it, it’s not about how you want to stand, sit or move your body, and it’s definitely not about the PowerPoint slides you want to show. It’s all about your stakeholder and what they need to hear from you in order to understand your message and change their behaviour accordingly. Understand this and you’ll never be ‘nervous’ or lacking confidence as a communicator again.
- 4Mat is the model for crafting a message so it sticks in your audience’s mind and they are compelled to take the action you require.
- 4Mat addresses the 4 x virtual questions in your audiences’ mind: Why? What? How? What if?/What else?
- Storyboarding is a technique you can use to Design a presenting in no time and so you don’t need notes.
- To Storyboard effectively brainstorm your ideas first, then put them in the 4Mat boxes, then put them in order.
- Aim for key words on the posts it notes. Not essays!
- You design your slides AFTER you’ve storyboarded!
- An icebreaker is one way to hook the attention of your audience. There are 3 steps to a great icebreaker: hook; intro/welcome; link to your content.
- There are three main types of objections: content, personal and logistics. It’s best to manage most objections BEFORE they are raised. We manage objections with the POO technique. POO stands for: Pacing Out Objections.
- There are 5 steps to the POO technique: state the objection; say ‘and’, ‘so’ or pause and say nothing, then say ‘actually’ or ‘in fact’, lead to a solution, and finally use the clever word ‘because’ with a meaningful reason.
- Be careful of saying ‘But’, ‘However’, ‘Alternatively’, ‘Although’ because they all negate what you have just said and activate the fight/flight response in the stakeholder and incite them to fight you! Choose to say “and”, “so”, or just pause and say nothing.
- Remember a call to action: ask for what you want!
I know you know this, it’s not rocket science, so take the time to plan your meetings and trainings in advance, analyse your performance at the conclusion of every meeting and continuously strive to be an expert communicator who masters the craft of persuasive communication.
Please connect to me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellebowdenenterprises/
© Michelle Bowden 2023. Michelle Bowden is an authority on presentation & persuasion in business. Michelle is a CSP (the highest designation for speakers in the world), best-selling internationally published author (Wiley), and a regular commentator in print, radio and online media. www.michellebowden.com.au