The Art of Persuasive Communication

Have you ever wished you could share information in a way that really motivates the listener to act, to buy or to use you and your services? It’s not secret. It’s just The Art of Persuasion.

The Art of Persuasive Communication

There are volumes written on the subject, but let’s break it down to 3 basic components.

First, what is your unique proposition or point you are trying to get across? Want a travel agent to carry your package or use your service? You need to prepare some valid reasons why your service, product, package AND why YOU are worth more or will bring a higher return. Do NOT tell the people listening to you all the details or all the facts. EVERY travel supplier will do that and you will just another lump of ‘something’ in the rojak.  Instead, focus on what the listener will get out of using your services or how much more they can make with you; how much easier it will be to resell your product or service. For example:

What can you do that no others can do?

What have other travel buyers loved about what you are offering? Who is paying more for similar offers in the industry but getting less?

How will the listener end up with more money, time, power, love, praise, joy, satisfaction or recognition by listening to you and buying what you are offering?

For example, we worked with Cragun’s Resort and Conference Centre in the USA. Their #1 complaint from travel agents was that they had no golf course while their top 5 competitors each owned a course. We got them thinking and in we determined that guests staying at one of their competitors needed 5 to 10 minutes to drive to the golf club from their lodging. For Cragun’s, it took them 5 minutes to 18 minutes to drive to ANY of their competitor’s club houses.  In an instant, they went from not having a golf course to offering 5 of the best courses at a discount. Their growth was exponential. They now bought out a competitor and built two more Trent Jones golf courses on that site.
Spending a few minutes to several hours thinking about what you have to offer and coming up with tangible answers will help you form a better and more unique proposition. If you can’t think of a unique proposition, you will never be able to persuade an intelligent buyer.

The second point is that communication is about both listening and presenting. Talking too fast, too slow or too much, can ruin a presentation. Likewise, emphasizing the wrong points or not emphasizing the key points can be disasterous. If you want to persuade others to use your service, work with you, support your team or follow your lead, think SET: Show – Emotion – Tell.

SHOW what you want to get across visually. PowerPoint®, posters, pictures, props, brochures, video. ANYTHING visual. 35% of the population are visual learners and will be persuaded if you can show them visually what you want them to agree to.

Then TELL the listener the reasons why it makes sense. Explaining every slide, graph, prop in detail, but not minutia. 25 % of population are persuaded in auditory terms.

Connect the SHOWING and TELLING with EMOTIONAL stories or reasons to trigger a response. “The last person I shared this with ended up with a nice ang bao to bring home to his family because…” Catch the drift on emphasizing some personal profit someone else received and if visuals and the words support the EMOTION, you have a pretty good chance of persuading the listener.

The third point, in ‘sales terminology’ is simply to, “ask for the order.” Never say, `What do you think?` That is cerebral. You want them to act. Best: “Then, with your approval, I will go forward with this so we can begin making you money; improving your selection; helping you win market-share; improve team morale as soon as possible.” It is assumptive and closes the communication.

Caution: Do not accept, “Let me think about it.” or “I will take it under consideration.” These are the same as NO! If someone wants to think about it, say, “Wouldn’t it be better to think about it while I am here so if you have any questions, I can share the reasons why you should…?”  or, from my friend Jeff Thull, “In other words, NO!” It is usually as hard for someone to say `no` as it is to say `yes`. If they say `no`, always ask `why` and push for specifics. If they have a valid reason, at least you know why. If not, it gives you another reason to push again for their agreement.

Learn the secrets of argumentation and persuasion to ensure results.

I will conduct a fantastic course and one-on-one coaching on public speaking this July.

Public Speaking as easy as ABCD!
Public Seminar in Singapore with Michael Podolinsky CSP

Seminar : 22 July 2010 (Thur) 9am – 5:30pm
One-On-One-Coaching : 23 July 2010 (Fri) 9am – 5pm

Registration starts at 9am and Training starts at 9:30am

Venue: PSB Science Park Building, 1 Science Park Drive, Level 1, Singapore 118221
Map: http://www.tuv-sud-psb.sg/images/img_abtpsb_PSBCorpMap.jpg

Brochure: http://pstinstitute.com/files/Public-Speaking-as-easy-as-ABCD-Brochure.pdf

Sign Up Now! Early Bird Ends 28 June!
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Got comments or questions about persuasive communication? Just leave your comments here.

How to Get Support for Your Ideas

Here are 3 suggestions on how to get support for your ideas:

Input: Did you ever notice how parents often blindly support their children? Giving birth and devoting countless hours to raising a child will do that to you. If you want people to support your ideas, you must allow them to go through child birth and rearing their young.

The birthing process of ideas involves input, planning and nurturing. The rearing process is pruning and watching pet projects take root and grow. The sooner and the longer you get people involved in the planning  and implementation of a project, the more they will `mother’  it, buying into its potential.

Immediate Benefits: `Achieve our team targets and the boss will get a fat increment (raise) and a promotion.` Does that sound like a motivator? For the boss maybe but not the team which needs to see immediate benefit for their efforts.

Compare that with, `Achieve our team targets and ALL of us will get a trip to X and a check for $Y PLUS individual efforts will be recognized by an additional $Z bonus.`The individuals have a reason to excel and to see that the team succeeds.

A mentor of mine in the 1970`s Clem Peterson, owned Century Manufacturing. He told me many times his sales people made a lot more money than he did. He was HAPPY to support his sales people this way; one reason he was a multi-millionaire.

Asking: Being asked instead of being told is the third way to get support. Many top performers are more than willing to help their organisation grow knowing in the long run it will help them too. Unfortunately bosses are busy and many times do not take the time to ASK them to perform but TELL them.  

Which sounds better to you?
1. Our goal is to reduce overhead by 21% this quarter while increasing market share by 8.5%. Get busy and do it please.

2. It is a tough goal to reach, but if we can reduce overhead by 21% and increase market share by 8.5%, that would be the catalyst for us to become industry leader in 2-years time. Do you think we can accomplish these targets and are you willing to work to achieve it?

Simply asking people instead of telling them gives you a lot more support and gives them the motivation as they feel treated with respect.

Getting worker input, showing them immediate benefits and asking for their participation are three very effective strategies to get support on projects and for achieving goals.

Smile Makers : 10 Odd thoughts to ponder.

1. A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a workstation.

2. If quitters never win, and winners never quit, who came up with, `Quit while you are ahead`?

3. What hair colour do they put on the driver`s licenses of bald men?

4. How much deeper would oceans be if sponges did not live there?

5. Clones are people TWO.

6. Go ahead and take risks… just be sure that everything will turn out okay.

7. No one ever says, `It is only a game,` when their team is winning.

8. As I said before, I never repeat myself!

9. Ever wonder what the speed of lightning would be if it did not zigzag?

10. Nostalgia is not what it used to be.

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Managing Crisis…How To Come Out of a Crisis?

Look at crisis as opportunities and benefit from it.
What companies can do to come out from crisis and prevent future failures?

Check out my below video.

To your success, find out how Michael Podolinsky will help you and your organization by browsing through the links below:

• Browse through Michael’s Products, Speech Topics, Seminar & Workshop Topics and  Public Seminars
• Check out what they say about Michael
• Click here to contact Michael to find out more about his training

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3 Quick Ways to Improve Your Writing

Everyone writes. E-mails, notices, letters and memos. Want to make them better? Here are 3 Quick Ways to Improve Your Writing.

1) Start with the end in mind. What do you want the reader to think, feel, know or believe? Most people ramble when they write, jumping from topic to topic because they do not think of the impact on the reader.

2) Outline or list key points first before fleshing them out. For an e-mail to your team, after, `Dear QC Team:`, write the 1, 3, 6 key words or thoughts you want to get across.

Example:

Dear Team:
Last meeting (return key)
Problem 1 (return key)
Problem 2 (return key)
Opportunity with X (return key)
Request suggestions.

Go back and type out what happened at the last meeting, the nature of each problem, opportunity you want to share and your request for suggestions. Organized and easy to follow. Leave a space between each point.

3) Cut any excess and be more active in your voice. Instead of `We may have been looking at two options but have since narrowed them down and settled for one.` Change to, `Two options became one.` Instead of, `Our growth has been at around 4% for the past 3 quarters and we are currently hoping to increase this figure to 5% in the coming quarter.` Write, `We need 5% growth next quarter.`

It is all about brevity for clarity. We all have TOO MUCH to read and what we read is rarely written in a clear and concise manner. If you have feedback or questions on how to improve your writing, just leave your comments here.

To your success, find out how Michael Podolinsky will help you and your organization by browsing through the links below:

• Browse through Michael’s Products, Speech Topics, Seminar & Workshop Topics and  Public Seminars
• Check out what they say about Michael
• Click here to contact Michael to find out more about his training

Join other Success Minded People by subscribing to the “Success Series Blog Tips” and GET the eCourse for FREE.

Someone once said, `They don’t care how much you know until the know how much you care.` I believe that is true so here are 8 ways to tell people that matter to you at work and at home, how much you care about them.

1. Active listening is probably the single most important way to say you care about someone. As they share, do not just nod your head. Repeat a bit of what they say and ask questions.

2.  Write a personal note. Putting a written note (not an email) on someone’s desk for them to find later is a powerful motivator and easy way to show care and concern. Simply stating, `I just wanted to say I appreciate what you did for me. Thank you so much. It is a joy to work with you.`

3.  Remember what that person likes and give it to them. If they like a special brand of chocolates, when you see them, buy a bar or box and present it at an opportune time.

4.  Say it with flowers. If someone does a favour for you, send them a small potted plant. Everytime they water it, they will remember that you cared enough to say `thanks`.

5.  Perform a favour. I can still remember the day in 1978 when I had a ton of orders to write up and my supervisor Karl Bjornson was leaving the office at 6 PM, saw me doing all that paperwork and put his bag down, grabbed some of the work and stayed an extra hour to help me.

6.  Laugh at their jokes. My father would always laugh at a customers joke, even if it was one he knew very well. Why? The reason for a joke is to make people feel good. Laughing at their jokes makes the teller feel good. Ever had someone say at the end of a joke you told, `I’ve heard that one before.` or `I don`t get it.`?

7.  Ask them to help you or to do you a favour. This may fly in the face of logic initially, but trust me, it works. Soliciting help in the right way endears people to you. `You know so much about this…`or `It is a lot to ask I know. Would you be willing to.` or simply, `I really need your help and expertise on something.` You stroke their ego and have more opportunities to thank them and bond with them along the way.

8.  Pray for them or better yet, with them. When my wife an I kneel and pray together as husband and wife at the end of the day and she hears me thanking the Lord for her in my life or when it is her turn and she thanks God for me, well, I just love her all the more.

Saying `I care about you.` takes a little thinking and a little work, but it can literally mean the difference between breaking even or exceeding targets; between surviving a relationship and thriving in it. Start letting people know how much YOU care, today!

8 Meetings Tips to Make Your Meetings More Productive (8 GEMS)

Are all the meetings you hold at work productive or do they sometimes fall short of your expectations? Well, here are 8 GEMS to help you make your meetings more productive (Actually, GGGEMSSS).

1.  Get with the Agenda. Have your agenda out well ahead of the next meeting you run. Far too often the full agenda is only available at the meeting itself and people come unprepared. Getting a weekly meeting agenda out to all a day in advance or a monthly meeting up to a week in advance allows people to have the relevant facts and data at hand.

2.  Groom your successor at every meeting. You will never be promoted until you have someone to take your place. Meetings afford you an opportunity to let your second in command get the practice necessary to fill your shoes. Then guide and nurture them depending upon their performance.

3.  Get control. If you are at a meeting that your boss is running, offer to take the minutes and then sit at the right hand of your boss. It is a position of power and if the boss or someone else rambles, you can say, “Sorry, for the minutes, are we still on agenda point 3 or have we digressed?” You can get the meeting back on track without the boss losing face.

4.  Easy to get input if you ask the right questions. Never ask, “What are your inputs on this?” People cannot think of something they cannot picture clearly in their minds. Ask questions they can picture like, “What 3 ways can we reduce the cost of this procedure?” What 3 ways can we increase the efficiency of …” You will get some real golden nuggets when you ask the right questions.. (tons more of these tips in our book, Mining For Goldú…Facilitation Skills to Unearth a Wealth of Ideas From Your Team)

5.  Meeting Milestones. Set not only an exact start and end time to the meeting and stick to it, but make sure you have milestones along the timeline. Assign a timer and tell her / him, we need 15 minute warnings so we keep on track for an hour long meeting and 30 minute warnings for a half day or longer meeting.

6.  Shoot out bullets. No longer have long minutes from meetings. Take them in short bullet form, that is, a bullet and then the basic concept. No need for a capital letter and a full stop, just concepts. Easier to record, read and will actually be USED.

7.  Stretch their imaginations. Have a 30 second group stretch every 30 minutes. Takes so little time but adds so much more energy to your meeting, getting you great results and solid gold productivity.

8.  Stand for Success. You have 45% more energy standing than sitting. Consider shorter meetings focusing on one topic and have everyone stand while they discuss the topic. The changed dynamic will also afford you greater creativity from your team.

These 8 tips are only one of hundreds we offer in our programmes, books and audio books.  How to get people to Open – Up and share their ideas in a meeting?   If you’d like to know more about how to facilitate meetings, check out my “Mining For Gold! Facilitation Skills to Unearth a Wealth of Ideas From Your Team” Package.

The “Mining For Gold! will show you how to:

• get people to open up in meetings
• gain control of meetings before you lose it
• set the ground rules
• keep people with more power from asserting it
• get ideas to flow smoothly and quickly
• keep meetings light and fun
• handle difficult participants
• and more…

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“Fun to read and easy to understand and apply, Michael Podolinsky’s Mining For Gold fiilled with useful information. If you want to reach your people – I mean really learnt what they are thinking – this is the book for you…”

- - Dato Lawrence Chan Kum Peng CSP
Founder & Executive Chairman, Personal Development Leadership Management Corporation (M) Sdn Bhd

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3 Speaking, Training and Meetings Tips! Speaking, training and meetings need not be hard nor should they ever be dry or boring to the participants. Here are 3 quick tips to make each one easier for you to deliver and a LOT easier on your participants.

1) Speak to individuals, never to the group. Even if I have an audience of 2000+, I only speak to one person at a time. Mother Theresa once said, “One never cares for a crowd, only for an individual. If I visualized a crowd, I’d never get started. The important thing is, the individual.” People get nervous speaking to crowds but rarely to their closest friend…an individual. By the way, it is far easier to look at a face in the crowd smiling at you rather than a hostile face. The smile feeds you energy and confidence while the frown or scowl takes it away.

2) Training is more about influencing behaviour than conveying words. Remember that. Why give them 10,000 words if they change nothing? Instead share what you would like them to DO, get their buy in by having them say it makes sense. Then have them practice it, rewarding them (praise, monetary, feed them, etc.) for successful completion. Now you have ‘trained’ your people.

3) Meetings are for a ‘meeting of minds’, not for attendance. You attend a funeral. You should not simply ‘attend meetings.’ If you are not going to speak, share, challenge or participate, you should not be there. If the meeting is simply to give information, skip the meeting and post the information on a Web site. Everyone at EVERY meeting should be sharing. Design your meetings to be true meetings, not passive ‘information dumps’.

Amazingly simple yet so profound…speaking, training and meetings need to be geared to involved individuals who take action.

If you’d like to know simple techniques for getting people to Open – Up and share their ideas in a meeting or a training session? Check out my “Mining For Gold! Facilitation Skills to Unearth a Wealth of Ideas From Your Team” Package.

I wrote this “Mining For Gold!” to help managers on facilitating meetings; trainers on running coaching sessions and how to extract great ideas from your participants.

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“Wow! “Mining For Gold! is a must read if you are in business it makes child’s play of turning a meeting with your people into a meeting of minds… and, when minds meet, action is the result.”

- Winston Marsh
Australian Marketing Guru

Public speaking is something everyone has to do from time to time. For some, it is a joy and an opportunity to shine. For others, a torment and a drudgery. Here are 3 quick tips to help you overcome the FEAR of public speaking.

First, remember FEAR is False Evidence Appearing Real. We think they, the audience, is not on our side. RUBBISH! I have never gone before ANY audience that was hoping I would be bad. Every audience wants you to be GOOD and wants you to be effective and interesting. In other words, they are on your side!

Second, NEVER EVER speak to a CROWD. Crowds are tough audiences. Speak to INDIVIDUALS. It is easy for most of us to speak to one person at a time.  That is, speak to just one person in the audience at a time. Speak to a friendly face for 30 seconds. Then look towards another friendly face and speak to him or her for 30 seconds. By speaking to just ONE person at a time, you minimise your fear and maximise the impact upon your audience.

Third, look at those who smile more. Happy, pleasant people feed you energy and relax you. Never look at those who appear to be sucking on a lime. They are the black-holes of your energy and enthusiasm.

If you focus on these 3 suggestions,  you are instantly a more confident and capable speaker. In future blogs we’ll cover dozens more ideas for speaking and presenting as well as ideas for career development, sales, time and stress management, leadership and team building.

Smile Maker: How can a wife tell when her husband is dead?

The TV is still on but no more beer is getting drunk.

You still don’t see him but the pay checks stop.

He starts to smell worse than his socks.

He no longer breaks wind.

You finally get caught-up with the dirty laundry.

You get your first good night’s sleep in years!

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