Persuasive Speech: Six Practical Speaker Principles for Effectively Influencing Your Audience. Persuasive speech: six practical principles of a speaker for effectively influencing the audience Speech to convince that you are right

To understand how to convince a person or audience of anything, you first need to find common ground. Find out where your points of view converge and you need to move on from there. When a person is directly told, “I’ll now prove it to you...”, then the thought arises, “Well, try...”, and it will take a lot of time to prove something to a person who has taken a defensive position.

Where to start a speech

The conversation begins with a neutral introduction and continues with a list of similarities. The more “Yes” in your favor at first, the better. If a person constantly agrees with you, truly understanding that you are right, he will not be able to say “No” after listening to a specific fact. You can prove something to an audience, or you can prove something to a specific person.

It is much easier to prove to one person that you are right than to an entire audience, because if there are a lot of people, they look not only at you and your behavior, but also occasionally get distracted to look at the reaction of others, so they have a choice. And if you present specific facts to one person, then he will not be able to get away, since he can only rely on himself.

Points of contact may vary. You can simply start with “We are all people...”, which is enough in some situations. But in order to be sure of victory, provide specific similarities in interests. Remember, never propose an argument directly to a person, and categorically refuse such directness when speaking in front of an audience.

The art of convincing people is a skill that not everyone is gifted with. Many people study this for years, using a wide variety of techniques, consulting with the most experienced specialists. There is no doubt that having the gift of persuasion, you can achieve what you want much faster.

Rules of Persuasion

What rules must be followed in order for a stranger to believe in you, as in himself, to continue your ideas, to defend your point of view among others?

1. Be well aware of what you say. Before an important conversation or interview, it is necessary to understand in great detail the issues that may be raised during the dialogue. Try to predict the speech of your interlocutor, the moments that may cause him doubt. When telling a story, you should not “float” in theory. Moreover, only clear, impeccable awareness of all the nuances will help you win.

2. Watch the timbre of your voice and body movements. Very often it is a trembling voice or an uncertain posture that gives us away. Why? Because our opponent reads the information he needs and needs on a non-verbal level. A self-confident person radiates firmness, steadfastness, and stability. It is these qualities that help to win over your interlocutor.

Gaze and eye movement are of particular importance. When convincing someone of something, you shouldn’t constantly look away. If it is difficult to look your opponent in the eyes, look at the bridge of the nose, eyebrows or eyelashes. Try to get positive answers from your interlocutor at first. When a person says “yes” at least three times, then by inertia he wants to repeat this word further. This rule is skillfully used in network marketing.

How to get three yeses? Very simple. Say those phrases and sentences with which one cannot but agree.

For example: “Your office has very comfortable furniture.” When convincing someone of something, do not forget about the personal benefit of the person you are convincing. Each person most effectively assimilates exactly the information that is interesting or beneficial to him. If you constantly talk only about your own bonuses, the dialogue will quickly turn into a monologue and your interlocutor will get bored. And here you won’t be able to convince anyone of anything.

3. Maintain a peaceful, even tone. Aggression begets aggression. You shouldn’t be too intrusive in proving that you’re right or trying to persuade a person to your point of view. Only an even and calm tone can withstand any criticism and doubt. Emotions in this matter are not the best adviser.

They should generally be disabled if possible. The main thing here is not to overdo it, so that your interlocutor does not think that you are indifferent to his person or don’t care about his interests and beliefs.

Remember that any rules work well combined with experience. There is no need to stop at the achieved result or give up after the first failure. Forward and only forward! This is exactly the option when labor justifies the means. The main thing is to believe in yourself, and others will believe in you!

INTRODUCTION

Persuasive speech is the process by which a speaker conveys a message designed to reinforce a particular belief of the audience, change it, or motivate the audience to action. We'll look at specific techniques designed to help you achieve your persuasion goals. These principles will help make your speech more effective.

PRINCIPLE #1

You are more likely to persuade an audience if you can be specific and clear about what you want your listeners to believe or do.

Your persuasive speech will likely be designed to either shape or change your listeners' opinions, or to move them to action. You are declaring a desire for your listeners to do something. Here are two purpose statements that express the desire to achieve action:

I want my listeners to make monetary donations to this candidate's campaign.

I want my listeners to come to the play staged by the students of our college.

PRINCIPLE #2

You'll be more likely to persuade your audience if you formulate your goals and present information based on the attitudes your listeners hold.

An attitude is a predominant or persistent feeling, positive or negative, associated with a person, object, or issue. In words, people usually express their attitudes in the form of opinions. Thus, the phrase: “I think it is important to be in good physical shape” is an opinion that reflects a person’s positive attitude towards maintaining good physical shape.

You need to find out what positions future listeners occupy. The more data you collect about your audience and the more experience you have with audience analytics, the better your chances of making the right assessment.

Audience attitudes (expressed as opinions) can be distributed along a continuum, from extremely supportive to hostile. Although in any given audience some opinions may be located at almost any point in this distribution, in general the opinions of the audience tend to be concentrated around a certain point. This point of concentration represents the generalized attitude of the audience towards the subject.

You should characterize your audience as having a positive attitude (listeners already hold a given point of view), no opinion (listeners are uninformed, neutral or indifferent), or having a negative attitude (listeners hold an opposing point of view). Then you can develop a strategy to adapt your speech to this setting.

The continuum of opinions can be represented as follows:

Hostile

Dissent

Moderately Disagree

Neither for nor against

Moderately favorable

Favorable

Extremely supportive

1. Positive attitude of the audience. If you think your audience already shares your opinion, then you might want to consider redefining your goal to focus on a specific program of action.
2. Lack of a definite opinion. If you think your listeners don't have a clear opinion on your topic, you can set yourself the goal of shaping their opinion or persuading them to take action:

If you think your audience has no opinion because they are uninformed, then your strategy should be to give enough information to help them understand the point before you make a compelling appeal for a particular cause. opinion or incentive to action.

If you believe that the audience is neutral in relation to the subject, then listeners are able to reason objectively and accept reasonable arguments. In this case, your strategy should involve presenting the best arguments possible and backing them up with the best information you can find. If your estimate is correct, you have a high chance of success with this strategy.

If you believe that your listeners have no opinion because they don't care about the subject, all your efforts should be aimed at moving them from this indifferent position. Instead of focusing on information when speaking to such an audience, you should focus on motivation. You will need to use less material that supports the logical chain of your evidence and more material that speaks directly to the needs of the audience.

3. Negative attitude of the audience. If you think your listeners disagree with you, your strategy will depend on whether their attitude is mildly negative or completely hostile:

If you think your listeners are moderately opposed to your proposal, you can present your arguments quite directly to them, hoping that the weight of these arguments will persuade them to come over to your side. When speaking to a negative audience, take care to present the material objectively and present the case clearly enough that those who slightly disagree with you will want to consider your proposal, and those who completely disagree will at least understand your point of view.

If you think your audience is hostile to your goal, you might be better off approaching the topic from afar or consider setting yourself a less ambitious goal. If you make a modest proposal that calls for just a small change in attitude, you may be able to get your listeners to at least think that your message might have some value. Later, once the idea has taken root, you can invite them to take it even further.

PRINCIPLE #3

You are more likely to persuade your audience if your speech contains good, reasonable arguments and evidence to support your goal.

People pride themselves on their ability to be rational; we rarely do anything without some real or imagined rational reason. To satisfy this need among listeners, the main points of persuasive speech are usually formulated as arguments, that is, statements explaining why a proposal is justified.

How to find good arguments.

Arguments are statements that answer the question of why we should believe or do something. If you are knowledgeable about your subject, you most likely already have some arguments at your disposal.

Once you have a list of possible reasons, weigh and evaluate them to choose three or four good ones. Here are some criteria for evaluating the proposed arguments.

1. Good arguments must be supported by factual evidence. Some arguments sound impressive, but cannot be supported by facts. You may be surprised to discover how many arguments mentioned in various sources that you have to discard when preparing a speech because they are not sufficiently supported.
2. Good arguments must be relevant to the proposal. Sometimes statements look like arguments, but in fact they do not contain any real evidence.
3. Good arguments must have an impact on the intended audience. Even if an argument is well supported, it will not work effectively in an audience where the majority does not consider the criterion you used to be the main one for evaluating the situation. Although you don't always know exactly what impact your argument will have on your audience, you can roughly estimate its impact based on the audience analysis you've done.

You should ask yourself at least three questions to ensure that you are going to present a truly compelling case.

1. From what source is the information taken? Just as some people's opinions are more trustworthy than others, some printed sources are more reliable. If the evidence comes from an unreliable or biased source, seek confirmation from other sources or exclude the evidence from your speech.
2. Is the information up to date? Products, ideas and statistics are best fresh. Information from five years ago may be incorrect today. Moreover, the article published last week in the newspaper may use information from five years ago.
3. Is this information relevant to the case? Make sure the evidence directly supports your argument. If it's not, discard it.

PRINCIPLE #4

You'll be more likely to persuade an audience if you tailor your arguments to your intended reaction.

The most common patterns in which you will structure your persuasive speech are the methods of presenting rational arguments, problem solving, comparative merits, and motivation.

Method of presenting rational arguments. It's a straightforward structure in which you present your best-supported argument to the audience in this order: the second-strongest argument at the beginning, the strongest argument at the end, and the rest in between. This method will work if your listeners have no particular opinion about the subject, are indifferent to it, or are perhaps only slightly pro or con.

Problem solving method. You can clarify the problem and clearly explain why the proposed solution is the best. The structure of a speech constructed using this method is often organized around three main points:

1. there is a problem that requires action;
2. this proposal will help resolve the problem;
3. this offer is the best solution problems because it provides positive results.

This method also consists of a straightforward presentation of the argument, so it will work best in cases where the subject matter is relatively new to the audience - when they are simply unaware of the issue, or when the audience has no opinion, or to a moderate degree either for or against the proposed solution.

Method of comparative merits. The structure of the comparative merits method allows the speaker to shift the focus to the merits of a proposed course of action. Instead of presenting the proposal as a way to solve a major problem, this method portrays it as something that should be accepted only because of its advantages over what is currently being done. This scheme is most effective when the audience agrees either that there is a problem that needs to be solved or that the proposal is better than all alternatives, even if there are no specific problems at the moment

For a comparative merits speech, the organizing logic linking the arguments and the purpose of the speech can be expressed as follows: if the reasons presented show that the proposal provides a significant improvement over what is currently being made, then the proposal should be accepted .

Method of motivation. Combines problem solving and listener motivation. It follows a problem-solving framework but includes necessary steps designed to enhance the motivational effect of the speech.

A motivational scheme typically consists of five steps:

1. step of attracting attention;
2. step of stating the need, fully revealing the nature of the problem;
3. the need-satisfaction step, which provides an explanation of how the proposal satisfactorily solves the problem;
4. a visual representation step showing what the sentence means personally for each listener;
5. step - a call to action, highlighting a specific direction in which listeners should act.

PRINCIPLE #5

You are more likely to persuade your audience if you speak in a way that motivates them.

Motivation, or “the forces acting externally and internally on the body that initiate and direct behavior” (Petri, 1996), often arises from the use of stimuli and emotional language. For a stimulus to have any value, it must be meaningful. The salience of a stimulus means that it evokes an emotional response. The impact of a stimulus is most powerful when it is part of a meaningful goal.

1. The power of incentives. People are more likely to perceive incentives as meaningful when those incentives indicate a favorable cost-reward relationship. Let's say you ask your listeners to donate an hour a week of their time to participate in a charity program. The time you ask them to spend will most likely be perceived as a cost rather than an incentive reward; however, you can describe the charitable work in such a way that it itself is perceived as providing a rewarding, meaningful incentive. For example, you can make your listeners feel like they are civically minded, socially responsible, or noble helpers by giving their time to such an important cause. If you show in your speech that these rewards or incentives outweigh the costs, your listeners will be more likely to want to participate in the program you support.
2. Use incentives that meet basic needs. Incentives are most effective when they serve basic needs. One of the most popular theories in the field of needs comes from Abraham Maslow (Maslow, 1954). According to this theory, people are more likely to act when a stimulus offered by the speaker is able to satisfy one of the listeners' important unsatisfied needs.

What is the point of such analysis for you as a speaker? First, it describes the types of needs that you can address in your speech. Secondly, it allows us to understand why a certain line of speech development can work well in one audience and lead to failure in another audience. For example, in economically difficult times, people are more concerned with satisfying physiological and safety needs and will therefore be less likely to respond by appealing to social sentiments and altruism. The third and perhaps most important point is that if your offer conflicts with a felt need, you must have at the ready a strong alternative from the same or from a more fundamental category of needs. For example, if implementing your proposal will cost people money (say, raising taxes), you must show that the measures satisfy some other, comparable need (for example, making them safer).

PRINCIPLE #6

You're more likely to persuade your audience when they see you as a credible source.

For a speech to be effective, the listeners' trust in the speaker is important. If you intend to persuade with your speech, in addition to being well prepared, emphasizing your interest in the well-being of your listeners, and demonstrating enthusiasm in your appearance and manner of speaking, you must behave ethically. The following four rules are the basis of ethical persuasive speech.

1. Tell the truth. Of all the rules, this is perhaps the most important. An audience that agrees to listen to you places trust in you and expects you to be honest with them. Therefore, if people think you are lying or later find out that you have lied, they will reject you and your ideas. But telling the truth does not only mean avoiding deliberate, outright lies. If you are not sure that the information is true, do not use the information until you have verified it. Ignorance is rarely accepted as an excuse.
2. Keep your information in perspective. Many people become so excited by the content of the information they communicate that they exaggerate its significance. Although a slight exaggeration may be completely natural, when it begins to look like a distortion, many people view it as a lie.
3. Refrain from making personal attacks on those who disagree with your ideas. Almost everyone seems to agree that insults and other irrelevant personal attacks are detrimental to the speaker's image as a trustworthy person. Responsible listeners understand that such tactics add no force to the speaker's evidence and constitute an abuse of the privileged status of the person at the podium.
4. Provide sources of any negative information. The origin of ideas is often as important as the ideas themselves, especially if the statement contains disparaging or damaging information. If you are going to discuss some misdeeds of individuals or organizations or subvert an idea based on words or ideas you gleaned somewhere from the outside, cite the source from which you take your information and arguments.

CONCLUSION

speech argument ethics

Persuasive speeches are delivered in order to shape or change the audience's opinion or motivate listeners to take some action. The principles that should guide you in composing and presenting such a speech to the public follow the steps we have described for preparing an informational speech.

1. Write down a clear goal of a persuasive speech—a statement that says what you want your audience to think or do.
2. Analyze the area of interest and level of knowledge of the audience and its possible relation to your goal.
3. In the body of the speech, provide compelling arguments -- statements that answer the question of why the proposal should be accepted.
4. Structure your speech so that its organization matches your purpose and your analysis of the audience. There are four generally accepted organizational structures for persuasive speeches: presenting a rational argument, solving a problem, comparing merits, and motivating.
5. Try to motivate your listeners by working extra on your language so that you can awaken their emotions, especially in key places of your speech, at its beginning and conclusion.
6. Justify the trust that is placed in you. One of the most important things needed to gain the trust of your listeners, especially in the case of persuasive speeches, is ethical behavior. Deliver your speech in a persuasive manner. Good presentation is especially important when you want to persuade others with your words.

Details Category: Selections from magazines for the director Published: 11/24/2015 00:00

Persuasive speech is the process by which a speaker conveys a message designed to reinforce a particular belief, change it, or move the audience to action. Let's look at specific techniques designed to help you achieve your persuasion goals. These principles will help make your speech more effective.

Principle 1: You are more likely to persuade an audience if you can be specific and clear about what you want them to believe or do.

I want my listeners to make monetary donations to this candidate's campaign.
I want my listeners to come to the play staged by the students of our college.

Principle 2: You are more likely to persuade an audience if you formulate goals and deliver information that your audience adheres to.

An attitude is a predominant or persistent feeling, positive or negative, associated with a certain person, object or In words, people usually express their attitudes in the form of opinions. Thus, the phrase: “I think it is important to be in good physical shape” is an opinion that reflects a person’s positive attitude towards maintaining good physical shape.

Audience attitudes (expressed as opinions) can be distributed along a continuum, from extremely supportive to hostile. Although in any given audience some opinions may be located at almost any point on this distribution, in general the opinions of the audience tend to be concentrated around a particular point. This point of concentration represents the generalized attitude of the audience towards the subject.

The continuum of opinions can be represented as follows:

Hostile
Dissent
Moderately Disagree
Neither for nor against
Moderately favorable
Favorable
Extremely supportive

1. Positive attitude of the audience. If you think your audience already shares your opinion, then you might want to consider redefining your goal to focus on a specific program of action.

2. Lack of a definite opinion. If you think your listeners don't have a clear opinion on your topic, you can set yourself the goal of shaping their opinion or persuading them to take action:

If you think your audience has no opinion because they are uninformed, then your strategy should be to give enough information to help them understand the point before you make a compelling appeal for a particular cause. opinion or incentive to action.
If you believe that the audience is neutral in relation to the subject, then listeners are able to reason objectively and accept reasonable arguments. In this case, your strategy should involve presenting the best arguments possible and backing them up with the best information you can find. If your estimate is correct, you have a high chance of success with this strategy.
If you believe that your listeners have no opinion because they don't care about the subject, all your efforts should be aimed at moving them from this indifferent position. Instead of focusing on information when speaking to such an audience, you should focus on motivation. You will need to use less material that supports the logical chain of your evidence and more material that speaks directly to the needs of your audience.

3. Negative attitude of the audience. If you think your listeners disagree with you, your strategy will depend on whether their attitude is mildly negative or completely hostile:

If you think your listeners are moderately opposed to your proposal, you can present your arguments quite directly to them, hoping that the weight of these arguments will persuade them to come over to your side. When speaking to a negative audience, take care to present the material objectively and present the case clearly enough that those who slightly disagree with you will want to consider your proposal, and those who completely disagree will at least understand your point of view.
If you think your audience is hostile to your goal, you might be better off approaching the topic from afar or consider setting yourself a less ambitious goal. Expecting a complete upheaval in attitudes or behavior as a result of just one speech is probably pointless. If you make a modest proposal that calls for just a small change in attitude, you may be able to get your listeners to at least think that your message might have some value. Later, once the idea has taken root, you can invite them to take it even further.

Principle 3: You are more likely to persuade an audience if your speech contains good, reasonable arguments and evidence to support your goal.

People pride themselves on being rational. We rarely do anything without some real or imagined rational reason. To satisfy this need among listeners, the main points of persuasive speech are usually formulated as arguments, that is, statements explaining why a proposal is justified.

How to find good arguments? Arguments are statements that answer the question of why we should believe or do something. If you are knowledgeable about your subject, you most likely already have some arguments at your disposal.

Once you have a list of possible reasons, weigh and evaluate them to choose three or four good ones. Here are some criteria for evaluating the proposed arguments.

Good arguments must be supported by factual evidence. Some arguments sound impressive, but cannot be supported by facts. You may be surprised to discover how many arguments mentioned in various sources that you have to discard when preparing a speech because they are not sufficiently supported.
Good arguments must be relevant to the proposal. Sometimes statements look like arguments, but in fact they do not contain any real evidence.
Good arguments must have an impact on the intended audience. Even if an argument is well supported, it will not work effectively in an audience where the majority does not consider the criterion you used to be the main one for evaluating the situation. Although you don't always know exactly what impact your argument will have on your audience, you can roughly estimate its impact based on the audience analysis you've done.

You should ask yourself at least three questions to ensure that you are going to present a truly compelling case.

What source did the information come from? Just as some people's opinions are more trustworthy than others, some printed sources are more reliable. If the evidence comes from an unreliable or biased source, seek confirmation from other sources or exclude the evidence from your speech.
Is the information up to date? Products, ideas and statistics are best fresh. Information from five years ago may be incorrect today. Moreover, an article published last week in a newspaper may use information from five years ago.
Is this information relevant to the case? Make sure the evidence directly supports your argument. If it's not, discard it.

Principle 4: You're more likely to persuade an audience if you tailor your arguments to your intended response.

The very patterns by which you will build your persuasive speech are methods of presenting rational arguments, problem solving, comparative merits and motivation.

Example sentence. I want my listeners to vote on the tax on the November ballot:

The funds raised will allow schools to revive important programs (the second strongest argument).
The funds received will be used to increase teachers' salaries, which they desperately need as the cost of living has increased.
The real cost to each member of society will be very small (the strongest argument).

there is a problem that requires action;
this proposal will help solve the problem;
this proposal is the best solution to the problem because it provides positive results.

This method also consists of a straightforward presentation of the argument, so it will work best in cases where the subject matter is relatively unfamiliar to the audience - when they are simply unaware of the existence of the issue, or when the audience has no opinion, or to a moderate degree or for or against the proposed solution.

Lack of money leads to serious problems in public education (problem statement).
The estimated revenue from the tax will be enough to solve these problems (solution).
Today, the introduction of a school tax is the best method of solving the problems of public education (positive results).

For a speech constructed using a problem-solving framework, the logic linking the speaker's argument and purpose can be expressed as follows: If the problem presented is not or cannot be solved by current measures, and the proposal is capable of solving the problem in a practical way, then the proposal should be accepted.

This scheme is most effective when the audience agrees either that there is a problem that needs to be solved or that the proposal is better than all alternatives, even if there are no specific problems at the moment. An approach to the issue of introducing a school tax from the standpoint of comparing merits would look something like this.

Example sentence. I want my listeners to vote for a school tax on the November ballot.

Revenue from this tax will allow schools to improve the quality of their programs (Benefit 1).
Revenue from this tax will allow schools to hire more qualified teachers (benefits 2).
Revenue from this tax will allow schools to purchase more modern equipment (benefits 3).

Method of motivation. Combines problem solving and listener motivation. It follows a problem-solving framework but includes necessary steps designed to enhance the motivational effect of the speech. A motivational scheme typically consists of five steps:

step of attracting attention;
the need statement step, which fully reveals the nature of the problem;
the need-satisfaction step, which provides an explanation of how the proposal satisfactorily solves the problem;
a visualization step showing what the sentence means personally to each listener;
step is a call to action that highlights a specific direction in which listeners should act.

The motivational outline of a speech in defense of a proposal to support the introduction of a school tax would look like this.

Example sentence. I want my listeners to vote for a school tax on the November ballot.

Comparison of students' math and science test scores different countries, makes us pay attention to our education system (attention).
The lack of money that results from cost-cutting measures is negatively impacting the ability of our schools to provide quality instruction in basic academic subjects (need, problem statement).
The proposed tax would generate enough revenue to solve this problem, since it would allow more funds to be allocated to educational needs (meeting a need, as the proposal solves the problem).
This will be your contribution not only to the education of your children, but also to returning our educational system to the level of world standards to which it once met (a visual representation of the meaning of the sentence personally for everyone).
We have a vote coming up soon where you can "yes" to show your good will and willingness to support a much-needed school levy (a call to action indicating a specific course of action).

Since a motivational scheme is a variant of a problem-solving scheme, the logic of organizing speech here is largely the same: if current measures do not solve the problem, a new proposal that can actually solve it must be accepted.

Principle 5: You are more likely to persuade your audience if you speak in a way that motivates them.

1. The power of incentives. People are more likely to perceive incentives as meaningful when those incentives indicate a favorable cost-reward relationship. Let's say you ask your listeners to donate an hour a week of their time to participate in a charity program. The time you ask them to spend will most likely be perceived as a cost rather than an incentive reward; however, you can describe the charitable work in such a way that it itself is perceived as providing a rewarding, meaningful incentive.

For example, you can make your listeners feel like they are civically minded, socially responsible, or noble helpers by giving their time to such an important cause. If you show in your speech that these rewards or incentives outweigh the costs, your listeners will be more likely to want to participate in the program you support.

2. Use incentives that meet basic needs. Incentives are most effective when they serve basic needs. One of the most popular theories in the field of needs comes from Abraham Maslow (Maslow, 1954). According to this theory, people are more likely to act when a stimulus offered by the speaker is able to satisfy one of the listeners' important unsatisfied needs.

The third and perhaps most important point is that if your offer conflicts with a felt need, you must have at the ready a strong alternative from the same or from a more fundamental category of needs. For example, if implementing your proposal will cost people money (say, raising taxes), you must show that these measures satisfy some other, comparable need (for example, increasing their safety).

Principle 6: You are more likely to persuade your audience when they see you as a credible source.

Tell the truth. Of all the rules, this is perhaps the most important. An audience that agrees to listen to you places trust in you and expects you to be honest with them. Therefore, if people think you are lying or later find out that you have lied, they will reject you and your ideas. But telling the truth does not only mean avoiding deliberate, outright lies. If you are not sure that the information is true, do not use the information until you have verified it. Ignorance is rarely accepted as an excuse.
Keep your information in perspective. Many people become so excited by the content of the information they communicate that they exaggerate its significance. Although a slight exaggeration may be completely natural, when it begins to look like a distortion, many people view it as a lie.
Refrain from making personal attacks on those who disagree with your ideas. Almost everyone seems to agree that insults and other irrelevant personal attacks are detrimental to the speaker's image as a trustworthy person. Responsible listeners understand that such tactics add no force to the speaker's evidence and constitute an abuse of the privileged status of the person at the podium.
Provide sources of any negative information. The origin of ideas is often as important as the ideas themselves, especially if the statement contains disparaging or damaging information. If you are going to discuss some misdeeds of individuals or organizations or subvert an idea based on words or ideas you gleaned somewhere from the outside, cite the source from which you take your information and arguments.

Summary

Write down a clear goal of a persuasive speech—a statement that says what you want your audience to think or do.
Analyze the area of interest and level of knowledge of the audience and its possible attitude towards your goal.
In the body of the speech, provide compelling reasons—statements that answer the question of why the proposal should be accepted.
Structure your speech so that its organization matches your purpose and your analysis of the audience. There are four common organizational structures for persuasive speeches: making a rational argument, solving a problem, comparing merits, and motivating.
Try to motivate your listeners by working extra on your language so that you can arouse their emotions, especially in the opening and closing sections of your speech.
Justify the trust they place in you. One of the most important things needed to gain the trust of your listeners, especially in the case of persuasive speeches, is ethical behavior. Deliver your speech in a persuasive manner. Good presentation is especially important when you want to persuade others with your words.

Offer a drink. If you want to convince a person of something, offer him a hot drink, such as tea, coffee or cocoa, during a conversation. If you offer a warm drink, a person will subconsciously perceive you as a warm, pleasant and hospitable person. A cold drink may have the opposite effect. Typically, people feel cold and crave warm food and drinks when they feel socially isolated. Satisfy their need and they will become more receptive to your words.

Ask questions that assume a positive answer of “Yes.” Start the conversation by asking questions that suggest a positive answer, for example: “The weather is nice today, isn't it?”, “You want to buy a car at a good price, don't you?”

Once you get someone to say yes, it will be easier to get them to say, “Yes, I'll buy it.”
It's best to ask vague questions, but make sure your wife knows why you're complimenting the other girl.

Break the barrier of touch. Whether you're closing a deal or asking someone out on a date, touch that person casually. A light touch can increase your chances of promoting a product or service - the interlocutor’s desire to get closer is activated on a subconscious level.

Don't put pressure on people! Try asking the person for a favor after a few weeks.
During the conversation, try to be as pleasant as possible. If a person is attracted to you, you will have a better chance of getting what you want.
There are several ways to look more powerful. You can wear a black suit, which is popular with judges, police and clergy, or keep a neutral face. But being dominant does not always mean being convincing. If you are a seller, you rather need to find mutual language with the buyer, and not to scare him. If you are a controller, you are more likely to keep people in your fist, ruling and dominating them.
Know when to stop. There are people who are very stubborn, and there are also those who simply avoid others.
If you agree to pay later, sign a contract and have a trusted third party be present.
Use the same methods as the sales assistant to take revenge on him and scare him away. For example, when buying a car, have a conversation. Ask questions to which you know the answers: “Car sales are down, aren’t they?” “Guys, I think you should write off the 2012 car already!” Thus, the seller will bend over backwards to sell the product. Remind employees that they wage declined, doing it by chance.
Share your opinion regarding the situation in which the person finds himself. Let's say someone discovered that they could see the future. Tell him how scared you were to discover something similar in yourself. Perhaps at first the person will not share with you a story about his gift - wait a few days. Then tell him about the famous psychic. Perhaps now the person will open up. You need to act step by step - this is often how people open up.
Don't talk too much. Your task is to understand potential clients, not to get into their wallets. Demonstrate the ability to listen and understand so that people see that you are willing to serve for their benefit. Too many words are a waste of time, both yours and your potential clients'.
Make them think, “This is what I need!” This will make it easier to convince people.

Sometimes the success of our endeavors largely depends on our ability to convince people to accept our point of view. But, unfortunately, this is not so easy to do, even if we have truth and common sense on our side. The ability to persuade is a rare but very useful gift. How to convince a person?

Persuasion is a way of influencing people's consciousness, directed towards their own critical perception. The essence of persuasion is to first achieve internal agreement with certain conclusions from the interlocutor using logical argumentation, and then, on this basis, create and consolidate new ones or transform old ones that correspond to a worthwhile goal.

Persuasive communication skills can be learned both at various trainings and on your own. The principles and techniques of persuasive speech given below will teach you the ability to persuade, and they are equally effective in persuading one person or an entire audience.

How to convince a person

Persuasive Speech Principle #1 – A CLEAR UNDERSTANDING OF YOUR OWN INTENTIONS

In order to change or shape the opinions of people, or in order to induce them to take any action, you yourself need to clearly understand your intentions and be deeply confident in the truth of your ideas, concepts and ideas.

Confidence helps to make unambiguous decisions and implement them without hesitation, taking an unshakable position in assessing certain phenomena and facts.

Principle of persuasive speech No. 2 - STRUCTURED SPEECH

The persuasiveness of speech depends on its structure - thoughtfulness, consistency and logic. The structured nature of speech allows you to explain the main points in a more accessible and understandable way, helps to clearly follow the intended plan, such speech is better perceived and remembered by the listener.

Introduction

An effective introduction will help to interest and attract a person’s attention, establish trust and create an atmosphere of goodwill. The introduction should be brief and consist of three or four sentences indicating the subject of speech and telling the reason why you should know what will be discussed.

The introduction sets the mood and tone of the speech. A serious beginning gives the speech a restrained and thoughtful tone. The humorous beginning is laid positive mood, but here you should understand that starting with a joke, setting the audience in a playful mood, it will be difficult to talk about serious things.

Main content of the speech

It must be understandable, clear and meaningful - persuasive speech cannot be incomprehensible and chaotic. Break down your main points, thoughts and ideas into several parts. Consider smooth transitions that show the connection between one part of the speech and another.

statement of facts that can be verified;
expert opinions, judgments of people with authority in this field;
quotes that enliven and explain the material;
specific cases and examples that can explain and illustrate facts;
description of your own experience and your theory;
statistics that can be verified;
reflections and forecasts about future events;
funny stories and anecdotes (in a small dose), meaningfully reinforcing or revealing the points in question;
literal or figurative comparisons and contrasts that illustrate statements by showing differences and similarities;

Conclusion

The conclusion is the most difficult and important point persuasive speech. It should repeat what was said and enhance the effect of the entire speech. What is said in conclusion, a person will remember longer. As a rule, it is at the end, along with a summary of what has been said, that a call to action sounds, which describes the actions and behavior of people necessary for the speaker.

Principle of persuasive speech No. 3 - EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT YOUR IDEA

For the most part, people are rational and rarely do anything that is not beneficial to them. Therefore, in order to convince a person, you need to find good arguments explaining the justification and expediency of the proposal.

Arguments are thoughts, statements and arguments used to support a particular point of view. They answer the question of why we should believe something or act in a certain way. Persuasiveness of speech largely depends on the correctness of the selected arguments and evidence. Having compiled a list of arguments, evaluate them carefully, think about whether they are suitable in a particular case, whether they will affect a given audience or not. After weighing all the pros and cons, choose the two or three that are most effective from the remaining ones.

What should be the criteria for evaluating and selecting arguments:

The best arguments are those that are supported by solid evidence. It happens that a speech sounds convincing, but is not supported by facts. When preparing your speech, make sure your arguments are sound.
Good arguments must be intelligently and concisely built into the proposal. They shouldn't sound out of place.
Even if your argument is well supported and justified, it may not be accepted by a person. People react differently. For some, your facts and arguments will sound convincing, while others will not consider the arguments you used to be the main ones for assessing the situation. Of course, you cannot know for sure what impact your argument will have on the person being persuaded, but you can at least approximately guess and estimate what the result will be based on the analysis of the personality (audience).

To ensure that you are presenting a truly compelling case, you should ask yourself at least three questions::

Where did the information come from, from what source? If evidence comes from a biased or unreliable source, it is best to either exclude the evidence from your speech or seek confirmation from other sources. Just as one person's words are more trustworthy than another's, so some printed sources are more reliable than others.
Is the information current? Ideas and statistics should not be outdated. What was true three years ago may not be true today. Your generally persuasive speech may be questioned due to one inaccuracy. This should not be allowed!
What relevance does this information have to the case? Make sure the evidence clearly supports the arguments you are making.

Principle of persuasive speech No. 4 - PRESENTING INFORMATION AND FORMULATING GOALS WITH AN ORIENTATION TO THE AUDIENCE’S ATTITUDES

An attitude is a stable or predominant feeling, negative or positive, associated with a particular issue, object or person. Usually people verbally express such attitudes in the form of opinions. For example, the phrase: “ I think thatmemory developmentvery important both for everyday life and for professional activities“This is an opinion that expresses a person’s positive attitude towards developing and maintaining a good memory.

To convince a person to believe First of all, you need to find out what positions he occupies. The more information you gather about it, the better your chances of making a correct assessment. The more experienced you are in the field of audience analysis, the easier it will be to make your speech persuasive.

The attitudes of a person or group of people (audience) can be distributed on a scale, from openly hostile to extremely supportive.

Describe your audience as: having a negative attitude (people have a completely opposite point of view); does not have a clear opinion on this matter (listeners are neutral, they have no information); positive attitude (listeners share this point of view).

The difference of opinion can be represented in this way: hostility, disagreement, restrained disagreement, neither for nor against, restrained favor, favor, exceptional favor.

If the listeners completely and completely share your opinion, understand what you are talking about and agree with you in everything, then you need to adjust your goal and concentrate on a specific plan of action.
If you think your audience doesn't have an opinion on your topic, make it your goal to persuade them to act by forming an opinion:
- If you believe that the audience does not have your point of view, because she is not informed, then your primary task is to give her sufficient information, help her understand the essence of the matter, and only after that make convincing calls to action.
- If the audience in relation to the subject neutral means she is capable of objective reasoning and can accept reasonable arguments. Then your strategy is to present the best arguments available and back them up with the best information.
- If you believe that those listening to you do not have a clear position because the subject is deeply indifferent to them, you must direct all efforts to move them from this indifferent position. When speaking to such an audience, you should not focus their attention on the information and use material that confirms the logical chain of your evidence, it is better to focus on motivation and address the needs of the listeners.
If you assume that someone disagrees with you, then the strategy should depend on whether the attitude is completely hostile or moderately negative:
- If you assume that a person is aggressive towards your goal, it is definitely better to go from afar or set a less global goal. It makes no sense to count on persuasive speech and a complete revolution in attitude and behavior after the first conversation. First, you need to change your attitude a little, “plant a seed,” and make you think that your words have some kind of importance. And later, when the idea settles in a person’s head and “takes root,” you can move forward.
- If a person has a position of moderate disagreement, simply give him your reasons, hoping that their weight will force him to take your side. When talking with negative people, try to present the material clearly and objectively, so that those who slightly disagree will want to think about your proposal, and those who completely disagree will at least understand your point of view.

Persuasive Speaking Principle #5 – THE POWER OF MOTIVATION

Motivation, which initiates and guides behavior, often arises as a result of the use of incentives that have a certain value and significance.

The impact of an incentive is greatest when it is part of a meaningful goal and indicates a favorable reward-cost ratio. Imagine asking people to donate a few hours to participate in a charity program. Most likely, the time you convince them to spend will not be perceived as an incentive reward, but as a cost. How to convince people? You can present this charitable work as a significant incentive that provides rewards. Let's say, you can make the public feel the importance of the cause, feel socially responsible, people with a sense of civic duty, feel like noble helpers. Always show that the incentives and rewards outweigh the costs.

Use incentives that match people's basic needs, they work better. According to one popular theory of needs, people express a greater propensity to act when a stimulus offered by the speaker can satisfy an important unmet need of the listeners.

Persuasive Speech Principle #6 – CORRECT MANNER AND INTONATION OF SPEECH

Persuasiveness of speech and ability to persuade assumes a rhythmic and melodic structure of speech. Speech intonation consists of: sound strength, pitch, tempo, pauses and stress.

Disadvantages of intonation:

Monotony has a depressing effect even on a person who has the ability to listen and does not allow him to perceive even very interesting and useful information.
Too high a tone is annoying and unpleasant to the ear.
Too low a tone can cast doubt on what you are saying and convey your disinterest.

Try to use your voice to make your speech beautiful, expressive and emotionally rich. Fill your voice with optimistic notes. In this case, a slightly slower, measured and calm pace of speech is preferable. Between semantic segments and at the end of the sentence, clearly pause. And pronounce the words inside the segment and small sentences as one long word, together.

It’s never too late to start developing your voice and diction, but if you want to convince someone who knows you well, sometimes it’s better to speak in a tone that’s familiar to you, without experimenting. Otherwise, those around you may think that you are not telling the truth if you speak in a tone that is uncharacteristic for you.

Do not forget that the persuasiveness of speech and the ability to persuade also depends on a number of skills and abilities, and in particular on:

application of some methods manipulating people;

from eye contact with the audience, which not only helps to establish a connection with it and simplify the impact (read - “The power of the gaze”), but also allows you to understand how much you are understood and whether what you say is interesting;

on the ability to present yourself (if you are communicating with a stranger or unfamiliar person) and make a first impression;

from the ability to behave naturally - when talking, it is necessary to give the body a free and comfortable posture.

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