Good afternoon, dear readers. Probably, everyone had to be a participant in situations in which, thanks to a well-chosen word and a confident speech by the speaker, the mood of one or several people changed dramatically. And it’s not magic. Persuasive speech played a key role in this.
Persuasive Speech Principles
Not everyone has the ability to convince other people of anything with the help of words. But if you want, you can learn everything. It is enough to adhere to the following principles.
First: clarity of thoughts and statements
Careful preparation for the performance is the key to success. She needs to dedicate at least 2 days. And it is not only about drawing up the structure of the text, its repeated pronunciation and rereading, but also about thinking through potential questions and answers to them. Often even a clear structured speech after a few sudden questions can fade and leave associations that are completely undesirable for the speaker in the memory of the audience.
Your speech must include:
- Entry — 20%. It would be nice if in this part benefits, advantages or just facts are announced that will definitely intrigue the target audience and cause a desire to get acquainted with the information prepared in full.
- The main part is 60%. As many specifics as possible, facts, events, statistics and figures.
- Conclusion — 20%. The real or potential result of the stipulated things and events is voiced. Be sure to thank the audience for their attention. At the end, you need to ask if there are any questions from the listened material.
Successful speakers create a sense of dialogue with the audience throughout their speech. To do this, in the broadcasting process, it is enough to insert banal questions: “Do you agree?”, “After all, really?”. With this approach, each member of the audience feels like an active participant in the conversation, therefore, he fully perceives and realizes the facts he has heard.
Second: honesty and openness
The main advice is to imagine yourself in the place of the listener, and then it will become clear what and how to say in order to obtain approval and support for your positions.
The honesty of your statements will play a major role.
It is necessary:
- speak exclusively the truth;
- do not argue with those who do not support your point of view;
- do not exaggerate the results and do not «decorate» the facts;
- provide sources of your information, increasing the level of trust in your words.
Third: motivation
In order for listeners to catch every word, you need to motivate them. Voice the incentive — this is how people feel that you offer the best way out of the current situation or some kind of problem. You need to make the listener want to follow you.
One of the most common incentives is the appeal to civic duty. If people can be convinced that it is their choice that plays a decisive role, that their actions are important and heroic, then they will follow you without further questions.
Fourth: variety of speech
Your speech should never be monotonous. Facial expressions, gestures, volume of speech — all this should change, maintaining interest in your words. Periodically addressing the audience without waiting for a response will make your text more “responsive” and logical.
Although when a response from the listeners is still expected, this is also effective. After all, in this way you can understand the mood of the listener and identify for yourself the details that you should pay attention to. But also remember that having more than 2-3 questions can lead to confusion before your presentation. So don’t overdo it!
Fifth: control over the emotional background of the audience
The mood of the listeners can be understood almost from the first second of speech. Just a good look is enough. Experienced speakers know how to create and change certain emotions.
Initially, listeners may be positive or negative, or have no opinion at all. There are examples when, in the process of voicing reports or speeches, the emotions of listeners changed dramatically. That is, a person is so skillfully wielding a word that he can almost effortlessly convince other people in their judgments.
The rules by which you should plan your speech, depending on the emotions of the audience:
No dissenting opinion. In this case, you need to set yourself, as a speaker, a goal — to form a personal opinion in the audience in order to ultimately push it to action. Own opinion may be absent due to lack of information, indifference, neutrality. In such situations, you must:
- Uninformed — to inform, trying to convey information in the best possible way, with arguments and examples.
- Indifferent — to interest, selecting figures and facts that are potentially interesting to them. It is in this case that it will be possible not only to involve them in the course of the matter, but also to turn them into interested, ready to act.
- Neutral — to involve in the essence of the issue, to persuade to go over to one side. Your strategy must be based on arguments. It is a neutral audience that is prone to a deep analysis of the information heard, objectivity and balanced judgments.
Positive audience attitude. If you initially set up the listeners correctly, half the job will be done, and you will only have to focus all your attention on outlining a specific program of action and the expected result for them.
As a rule, if people know at the beginning about the specific details of the positive outcome of any situation, they act more smoothly and with great dedication. Outline the expected end in detail, voice specific steps to achieve the goal — and people will follow you without hesitation.
Negative audience attitude. If the situation has not gone beyond moderately negative emotions and turned into hostile, all is not lost. With the right construction of proposals, you can easily turn the situation in the right direction. The main features of persuasive speech are the listing of benefits from one or another potential choice, as well as a specific list of actions and only truthful facts.
If the crowd’s disagreement is moderate, feel free to give weighty arguments, trying to present the information objectively. Even if this results in the audience completely disagreeing with you, they will at least listen to you to the end.
In the case of a hostile attitude, try to approach the main issue in a veiled way, constantly looking for points of contact between the potential interests of the audience and your own. That’s when you see that there is a return, you can go to the heart of the matter.
However, it is pointless to expect that after just one of your speeches, people will completely change their beliefs and become like-minded people. You, perhaps, can make them think about some aspects of the issue, as a result of which they will be less categorical.
Sixth: Arguments According to the Audience’s Anticipated Reaction
Even the lightest and simplest speech will not leave an attentive listener indifferent. At least he has some emotions. It is good practice to align the speaker’s arguments with the audience’s intended reaction.
Speech containing facts can be built on the basis of methods:
- problem solving;
- presentation of rational arguments;
- comparative merits;
- motivation.
It is worth noting that the last method is the most common and one of the most effective.
Steps to Prepare a Successful Speech
A carefully prepared speech can not only change the mind of the audience, but also make people act in a way that is beneficial to the speaker. Compiling a presentation, report or speech should be done in steps:
- Goal definition — fix what you want to achieve as a result of your speech. This may be a search for like-minded people, a call for action, etc.
- Rest in your speech on the potential interests of the audience, cover only those aspects that can attract it.
- Voice only verified figures and facts, thereby building a trusting dialogue with the audience.
- At the beginning of the speech, get interested, then give facts, ways to solve the problem, and describe the benefits of this or that choice. In the final part, give a list of further actions to achieve specific results.
- Keep the audience interested with vivid examples, friendly phrases, intonation at the beginning and especially at the end.
- Down with pathos: give personal examples, do not hesitate to express your beliefs and emotions — openness will certainly be appreciated.
Repeated re-reading of the text will save you from inaccuracies, will allow you to optimize your speech before speaking. Therefore, do not neglect repeated reading. And if you have a bad memory, we recommend an article with tips on memory training.
Conclusion
Dear readers, I hope the information was useful for you. Now you know how to write a persuasive speech. By adhering to these principles, you will be able to manage the emotions of the audience and learn how to convince people and lead the team. Remember that skill comes with time. The more performances, the more productive they will be.
Good luck to you, attentive and responsive audience, see you for new useful conversations!
Also, we recommend reading the article with exercises to improve diction.