- Hello again, friends, I'm Alex Lyon,
and this is Communication Coach.
In an earlier video we talked about
how to organize a presentation, intro, body, conclusion.
And, in the body, we talked about ways
to structure your main points.
Some of the ways were more informative,
like the chronological order or the topical order.
I mentioned in that video the persuasive style
of organizing your main points, problem, solution, benefit,
and it deserves a little bit of unpacking.
So let's go to the computer and look at some examples
to get a better handle on this.
I'd like to start by comparing persuasive presentations
to informative presentations, which are meant
to share information or teach the listener something.
If you've ever sat in on a how-to speech
or watched a how-to video, well that's informative.
In contrast, persuasive presentations
are meant to convince listeners.
You're literally trying to move their opinion,
or even their behavior, from point A to point B,
so that, at the end of your presentation,
you want your listeners to do something
or think something differently
than what they did at the beginning.
They're organized much the same way
as informative presentations.
They have an introduction, a body and conclusion,
but there are some changes in each of these sections.
In the introduction,
you're gonna have your four essential main parts
that I've talked about in other videos.
Just like an informative presentation,
you have an attention grabber where you start off
with that nice story, or a few statistics
or some rhetorical questions to get the ball rolling.
Number two, you tell your audience directly
what's in it for them.
Tell them why they should listen to your message,
what they're gonna gain by listening to it by the end.
The third and fourth point are different than they are
in an informative presentation.
The main point of the thesis in an informative presentation
is gonna be pretty straightforward
about what you're saying.
In a persuasive presentation,
you're gonna be straightforward,
but your gonna give an argument,
not just gonna tell them something or teach them something.
You want to show them that they have a need,
that there is a problem that they may
or may not be aware of that you are going to clarify,
so that later in the presentation
when you get to our solution,
they're much more willing to be persuaded by it.
So the main point of the thesis,
you don't really tell them much about the solution.
For example, if you're talking about retirement planning,
this thesis would sound something like this.
By the time most people get to retirement age,
they do not have the money to support themselves.
There's an argument that you're gonna then carve out
and explain in detail in the body of the presentation.
Similarly, the preview statement
is going to emphasize the problem but just imply a solution.
So, the preview statement might sound like this.
We're gonna talk about some of the key problems
around retirement planning,
and then we'll talk about something you can do about it.
So there is something you can do about it
is part of the preview,
but you're only implying the solution.
So again, in the preview
you emphasize the problem half of the equation.
In the body points,
just like in an informative presentation,
you're gonna have three main body points
with the relevant details below each of those.
Instead of just having a first, second, third, however,
in a persuasive presentation you have to organize it
this way, problem, solution, benefit.
I cannot emphasize this enough.
If you've ever been convinced by any commercial
or marketing or presentation, it is very likely
that it had these three main elements
and very likely in this order.
For example, if you're watching a commercial
on television about mattresses, I almost guarantee
they're gonna talk about the problem first.
They're gonna show someone that can't sleep
on their lousy old mattress.
They're exhausted at work,
and it really will be clear in the problem.
Then they'll tell you about their mattress, their solution.
And then, by the end, they'll show somebody sleeping easy
on their brand new mattress.
Problem, solution, benefits.
This is the classic foundation,
the persuasive arc that you're gonna see
in almost all persuasive presentations.
And each of these sections will be developed
with all the relevant supporting details to round them out.
In terms of an example,
let's talk about retirement planning.
Let's stick with that one.
The problem, according to this presentation,
you might say, for example,
that most people are retiring poor.
By the time they get to the retirement age
that they have hoped for,
they are just not financially prepared
to support themselves very well.
And you would hit this very hard.
This is the key.
Once you've really convinced them that there's a problem,
they'll be more ready to listen to your solution.
And, in this case, we're recommending that they begin
an individual retirement account, sometimes called an IRA,
or, if their employer has one,
you're recommending that they start a 401(k),
and maybe the employer even matches.
And then, in the solution,
you describe what it would take to get that rolling.
And then the last step to really seal the deal,
you emphasize the benefits,
so financial freedom and independence.
And in all of these you would give statistics and stories
and quotations in whatever order made sense,
so they were all fully supported.
And, if you can put these three points together,
it's very likely that your listeners
will care much more about your solution and the benefits.
If, however, you leave off the problem and just say,
hey I want to sell you a mattress, or why don't you
sign up for our 401(k) program here at work,
the first thing they're gonna ask themselves is why.
And so, if you miss the problem,
if you don't hit this hard enough,
they're probably not going to be very motivated
to move from point A to point B
in their beliefs and or their behaviors.
In terms of proportion and time and energy devoted to this,
you really want to emphasize that problem.
On an outline, you might see much more support
for the problem section of the presentation,
and then you're going to, of course, be thorough
and detailed about the solution and benefit,
but you really have to hit that problem hard.
When you get to the conclusion,
it's very similar to an informative presentation.
You signal the end, you say in conclusion,
or in summary, or whatever your favorite way
of bringing it in for a landing is.
Then you have your key takeaway where you circle back
to the thesis, that main message
you've been driving through the whole presentation.
And the third step is a little different
than an informative conclusion
in that you have to have a call to action.
If this is a persuasive presentation,
then you have to ask them to take that first key step
that in the solution that you've outlined above.
So let's say you're gonna ask them
to sign up for the company 401(k).
Well now, you pull out the forms it takes
to begin that process, and you say,
look, I want you to start it right now while we're here.
Put your name on there, put your address on there
and let's start this paperwork.
And you don't want to be manipulative.
I'm a big believer in ethics in communication.
You don't want to pressure people unnecessarily,
but a lot of times they are like, yeah, let's do this.
I'm ready to start, I'm convinced,
I want to start my own retirement account.
How do I do it?
Well, this is where you give them the opportunity to do it
by putting in the clear call to action, that first step.
And then the clincher is where you finish with a nice story
or statistic or something that echoes the attention grabber
you did in the opening of the presentation.
So that's how you organize a persuasive presentation.
It builds on the same basic foundation
of an informative presentation, but it adds a lot
of other steps, especially that problem, solution,
benefit arc in terms of how you organize the main points.
So, I would love to hear your comments
and your questions below.
What are your thoughts on how to best
put together a persuasive presentation?
What are some other elements that I may have left out?
I'd love to hear what you've got to say below.
So thanks, God bless, and I'll see you next time.