“Of the modes of persuasion furnished by the spoken word there are three kinds. The first kind depends on the personal character of the speaker; the second on putting the audience into a certain frame of mind; the third on the proof, or apparent proof, provided by the words of the speech itself.“
—Aristotle
Want Your Audiences to Remember What You Say? The Importance of Clear Structure
Your message, no matter how important, will not be remembered if you don’t recognize the importance of structure. Here are some practical ideas that can immediately make you more effective.
Your Structure
Can you write the premise or objective of your talk in one sentence? If not, the chances are that your thinking isn’t clear enough for the audience to understand your purpose. And if you don’t organize your material so the audience can remember it easily, they’ll have a hard time grasping your message. They may be dazzled by your pizzazz and laugh at your stories, but little will stay with them afterwards.
Communicate for Profit with Your Convention Exhibit
Having an exhibit at a convention or trade show is a major opportunity to position your company or Association as a real player in your industry. Sure, it costs money, but it can become a major moneymaker for your organization. (It’s also a big convenience for your members and suppliers.)
Here’s how to make the most of your investment.
Read More...What Talks Louder Than Money? Try Coaching!
(Your chance to eavesdrop on a conversation between Patricia Fripp and her friend, mergers and acquisitions specialist Mike Sipe.)
My friend Michael Sipe is a brilliant mergers and acquisitions specialist. Here’s a great business tip he gave me that you might adapt to your own business.
“We were involved in an acquisition search for a client I’ll call ‘Jane.’ I became aware that an internationally famous giftware store was for sale through a general business broker. My client was very interested, but the broker had already received three full-price offers.
“I could have just stopped there, but I had a good relationship with this brok er and persuaded him that my buyer might be a perfect match. I knew a little about the seller and suspected he had not hit it off with any of the other potential buyers who just wanted to pay their money and take over. I had a hunch the seller might be interested in more than money. He had personally built up the business over the years, regarded it like a child and his business was an integral part of his identity. My guess was that, while he wanted to sell it and retire, he secretly hoped to continue to be an influence in the business and to be connected after the sale. The other bidders apparently had no interest in his ‘interference,’ once they owned it.
Read More...Tips for Marketing Success
From Fripp’s Confessions of an Unashamed Relentless, Self-Promoter audio album and book: Make It! So You Don’t Have to Fake It.
Does your marketing match your image?
If you deliver a quality product or service, your marketing materials should reflect this.
Your image, reflected by your advertising, should do two things:
- Convince people you’re worth doing business with.
- Position you in the market.
Whether you’re at the top, middle, or bottom of the price scale, your image needs to communicate that. If your image isn’t consistent and compatible with your pricing and your level of service, you’re going to confuse and alienate your customers.
Bill McCurry, co-author of Guerrilla Marketing for the Imaging Industry, told Garfinkel about the experiences of a client. This retailer visited a trade show and was attracted to a distinctive and obviously costly booth for a design firm. He asked them to send him some information. When the letter came, it was on shoddy looking stationery, sloppily typed.
Read More...Fat and Skinny Words a Great Technique to be Understood
This is a great technique to be understood.
If your goal is to sound clear, concise, and credible this advice is invaluable.
Nothing can turn your audience or prospect off faster…
… than using fat words when they’re hungry for skinny ones. Or vice versa.
I learned this exciting concept…
… from Dr. David Palmer, a Silicon Valley negotiations expert. In his negotiations training, he described “levels of abstraction.” Unless you can match your message to the expectations of your audience or talk at the same level at which they are listening, you won’t connect as well as you would like. This is true whether your audience is one person or one thousand.
Suppose you write the word “automobile” on a pad.
A simple concept. Going up to the next level of abstraction, you could write above it that the car is a “wheeled passenger vehicle,” then “surface transportation,” then “major force in the world’s economy.” This is making the word “automobile” fatter and fatter, larger and larger. These big ideas and abstractions are “fat words.” They are great for conveying the big picture, for inspiring ideas, for motivating.
Read More...
