Ten Secrets to Persuasive Presentations

A Half-Day Seminar

Objectives

To make sales or win support of your product, service or ideas with proven persuasion techniques.

To send a compelling, clearly focused message to your clients, partners and employees.

To enhance your image as a polished and professional organization.

Seminar Premise

Whether you are presenting to a handful of executives or to an audience of hundreds, your company’s future is on the line every time you give a presentation. With the widespread use of PowerPoint, the technology of presentations has gotten much easier.

But are your presentations as effective as they could be? The success of a presentation depends on much more than technology.

A powerful presentation is built on your ability to:

• Persuade your audience
• Craft targeted structure and content, and
• Engage your audience with a dynamic delivery style.

Powerful Presentations will give you the skills to create and deliver a winning presentation every time.

Seminar Overview

Every presentation has at its heart a persuasive goal to sell a product, service, or idea. You will learn the Ten Fundamental Secrets of persuasive presentations to gain support, whether to make a sale or an alliance. Key points are illustrated with excerpts from speeches by famous political and business leaders. You explore how to use both objective and emotional evidence to spur action and agreement.

1. Structuring to Persuade

Persuasive techniques are only as effective as the structure that contains them. You will learn the basic outline that each effective presentation should follow, and how each section builds on the others for maximum effect. You will identify the fundamental differences between written and spoken communication, and the specific strategies that work in speech.

2. Content That Persuades

Should you use a flowchart, table, or graph? You will learn the best technique to present each type of idea or information so that the audience will readily absorb it. Is it best to use note cards or memorize? You learn several techniques to aid in recall of personal speaking notes, and when to use which.

3. Delivery That Persuades

You will analyze video footage of well-known political leaders, and learn what makes or breaks a speaker’s delivery. In addition, through group work, you will get a personalized analysis of your own unique delivery style, including which gestures, body language, and vocal characteristics make your delivery most effective.

Seminar Content—What You Will Learn

Ten Secrets to Persuasive Presentations

1. Make a powerful connection with your audience
2. Communicate vision and conviction
3. Clarify your message and purpose
4. Build your credibility
5. Build a logical argument
6. Support your case with compelling data
7. Tap the emotional side of your argument
8. Inspire action with images and metaphor
9. Negotiate through objections
10. Get the agreement or action you need

1. Techniques of Persuasive Structure

• Organize your points for maximum effect
• Keep your audience on track and attentive
• Break through potentially fatal resistances

2. Techniques of Persuasive Content

• Use visuals and text when each is most effective
• Create speaking notes that allow for a flexible timeframe
• Trigger your recall of speaking points

3. Techniques of Persuasive Delivery

• Engage the senses with multimedia
• Project confidence with your voice and body language
• Develop a unique speaking style that appears natural

Return to All Whelan Group Seminars