You know how it goes, we leaders are in a continuous search of ways to better communicate, take ideas across audiences and actually produce transformations on how people think and behave.
In that constant quest, I recently came across this article and podcast from Social Media Examiner where guest Pat Quinn talks about a 4 step framework for persuation. He highlights how the main goal of any communication is actually producing conversion, or actions from the audience beyond agreement or emotional response.
I just love how he said “cryers are not buyers” meaning that the goal is not to produce emotional response, not even agreement with ideas being communicated, but the main goal is to produce your audience to take a step further and join you in the journey.
I want to summarize these 4 steps here:
- Connect with your audience; don’t separate out of your audience with grandiosse experiences of yours, but connect, be part of them through story telling that touches / is familiar to most of your audience.
- Add value to your audience, help them the most you can for the time you have.
- Deliver one tactical call to action. One step (avoid multiple options) you want them to take.
- End with one emotional call to action. Also one step but this time it is a closure that will keep you emotionally connected.
Other elements I loved about it were ideas such as (1) being intentional on every word, every phrase and every movement you take on stage; (2) control the second conversation by offering them something to think about in the background; (3) these ideas apply not only to spoken conversations or communications but to all sorts of media, including email, tweets, linked-in posts, etc; and (4) persuation or communication that produces an action is the foundation of leadership, of teaching and of sales.
I want to end this little referential post with the ending words of Alvaro Gonzalez Alorda from Emergap, paraprhasing Mother Theresa:
“So you want to change your people? Do you know them? and do you love them?”