Persuasion Secrets

August 29, 2012

Interview with Terri Sjodin, author of the book Small Message, Big Impact: The Elevator Speech Effect

________________

Mike Carruthers:
When you need to persuade someone or give a presentation you usually don’t get much time to do it so you need to be concise - which isn’t easy.

Terri Sjodin:
Winston Churchill is quoted as saying, “If you want me to speak for 2 minutes it’ll take me 3 weeks of preparation. If you want me to speak for 30 minutes it’ll take me a week to prepare. But if you want me to speak for an hour I’m ready right now.”
 

Terri Sjodin, author of the book Small Message, Big Impact, says when you have to be brief your goal is to intrigue more than it is to inform. So…

The first question that you want to ask yourself is, “Ok so what’s the so-what point?” Why do people need to hear what it is that you’re about to share with them? And people…I’ll often say to them, “Well why should I listen to you, why should I hear your message, why do I need you, why do I need your product, why do I need your service?” And they’ll say, “Well you know because I care.”  And I’ll say, “Oh that’s a lovely reason but it’s really not compelling.” Or they’ll say, “Because we give the best customer service.” And I’ll say, “Ok that’s nice but it’s really not compelling.”

For your message to be compelling it has to be a value to them.

For example they want to know how are you going to save me time? Or how are you going to save me money? And what people get caught up in is that they are far too informative versus persuasive and they’re not building a persuasive case that moves people to want to hear more.