6 principles of persuasive speech: how to learn to be a speaker?

Often the result of undertakings is largely determined by the ability to convince people and recognize our opinion. Bringing this to life is often not so easy, even if we are right and sane.

What a man is, such is his speech. Socrates

The ability to persuade is a unique and useful talent.

Persuasion is a method of influencing people's minds, aimed at their personal critical worldview
.

The whole essence of persuasion is to, with the help of consistent justification, first reach the agreement of the interlocutor with specific conclusions, then, on this basis, form and strengthen new ones or transform former attitudes that correspond to the goal.

You can learn persuasive speaking skills at various trainings, as well as on your own. The methods and principles of persuasive communication listed below will help you learn persuasion techniques. These methods are very highly effective, both when influencing one person and the public.

Visual contact with the audience

We also give the following important recommendation for public speaking.

The persuasiveness of a speech also depends on the frequency of visual contact between the speaker and the audience. The more a speaker looks at his audience, the more qualified, knowledgeable, experienced, and also more honest and friendly he is perceived to be.

One way to ensure eye contact is to imagine your audience as a series of groups sitting in different parts of the room. Then randomly talk for 4-6 seconds to each group. For example, talk for a few seconds to the group at the back left of the room, then look at the people at the far right, then look at the group in the middle of the room, the group at the front left, and then the group at the front right. You can then reverse the order... This will ensure that you don't spend a disproportionate amount of time talking to those in front of you or in the center of the room.

What can a speaker do by maintaining constant eye contact with the audience? Firstly, this way listeners are more likely to focus their attention on the speech. Secondly, the public's trust in the speaker will increase, since eye contact is widely regarded as a sign of sincerity (so speakers who are unable to maintain eye contact with the audience are almost always perceived as insecure, often as insincere or dishonest). Thirdly, this way the speaker will see the audience’s reaction to his speech. By monitoring the behavior of listeners, he will, for example, be able to determine what he should change in his report. However, it must be taken into account that a person can actively listen for an average of 15 minutes. After this, you need to pause or make a slight digression, bring up some interesting fact, etc.

Main part of the speech

The main part should be clear and rich
. It is necessary to break down the main thoughts, ideas and provisions into component fragments.

You also need to think about measured transitions that will show the connection between the individual parts of the speech.

Ways to convey the main content:

• Explaining arguments that can be verified.
• The point of view of professionals and experts in this field.
• A citation that brings information to life and explains it.
• Examples and real events that can clarify and depict the facts.
• A statement of personal experience, as well as theories.
• Statistics that can be verified.
• Reasoning and predictions about future events.
• Funny stories and anecdotes that meaningfully support statements.
• Precise or figurative comparisons, as well as contrasts, that illustrate a statement by demonstrating differences and similarities.

The human brain is a magnificent thing. It works right up to the minute you get up to give a speech. Mark Twain

Persuasive speech: how to lie without your interlocutor noticing

The persuasiveness of speech does not make a lie look good if there is a lot of it. It is better to focus on the truth and omit unpleasant details. But sometimes it is necessary. To lie effectively, you need to believe your own lie, become part of it.

1. Watch your gestures. Stand in an open position, look your interlocutor straight in the eyes. Better practice in front of a mirror. Remember - you are not lying.
2. Think through everything down to the last detail.
3. Deny everything. Reinforced concrete evidence does not work against you. You're telling the truth, haven't you forgotten?
4. Don't make excuses.
5. Don't apologize or humiliate yourself.

Have you been refused? Was your lie considered too far-fetched? They turned around and left. The interlocutor is waiting for the moment until you start begging him: then he will take a dominant position. If you leave abruptly without getting into verbal confrontations, your chances of winning will increase.

Irrefutable arguments in support of your own idea

Most people think rationally, and occasionally do something without their own benefit.
Therefore, to convince a person it is necessary to find irrefutable arguments that explain the validity and appropriateness of the statement. Arguments are arguments, statements, and thoughts that are used to support a judgment.

. The persuasiveness of the dialect depends on correctly selected arguments and evidence.

After compiling a list of arguments, you need to evaluate them and also think about whether they are appropriate in this case or not. Then, after weighing the pros and cons, you need to choose 2-3 effective arguments.

The conditions for selecting and evaluating arguments should be:

1. Good arguments can be considered those that are supported by sound evidence. Sometimes rhetoric is heard convincingly, but at the same time it is not substantiated by facts. When preparing a speech, you need to make sure that the arguments are not unfounded.
2. Arguments should fit into the sentence skillfully and succinctly. They cannot sound distorted.
3. Often a well-supported and well-founded argument may not be perceived by a person. All people react to them differently. For some, the arguments and facts presented are convincing, but for others, they are not.

Undoubtedly, it is impossible to know exactly which argument will have an impact on the person being persuaded, but the result can be tentatively assumed and assessed based on the analysis of the individual.

It is necessary to answer at least 3 questions in order to ensure the strength of the evidence provided:

1. What primary source is the information taken from? If the evidence is borrowed from an unreliable primary source, you need to exclude it from your own speech or turn to other sources.
2. Is the information current? Statistics and ideas don't have to be old. Today, something that was true 3 years ago may become incorrect. Persuasive rhetoric is generally subject to disbelief due to a single flaw. This should not be allowed.
3. Is this information relevant to the material? It is necessary to ensure that the evidence directly supports the arguments presented.

Steps to Preparing a Successful Speech

A carefully prepared speech can not only change the audience's opinion, but also make people act in ways that benefit the speaker. Compiling a presentation, report or speech should be done in steps:

1. Defining a goal - we fix what you want to achieve as a result of your performance. This could be a search for like-minded people, a call to action, etc.
2. Focus your speech on the potential interests of the audience, highlight only those aspects that can attract it.
3. Voice only verified figures and facts, thereby building a trusting dialogue with the audience.
4. At the beginning of the speech, make it interesting, then provide facts, ways to solve the problem and describe the advantages of this or that choice. In the final part, give a list of further actions to achieve specific results.
5. Maintain the audience's interest with vivid examples, friendly phrases, intonation at the beginning and especially at the end.
6. Down with pathos: give personal examples, do not hesitate to express your beliefs and emotions - openness will definitely be appreciated.

Repeated re-reading of the text will save you from inaccuracies and allow you to optimize your speech before your speech. Therefore, do not neglect repeated reading. And if you have poor memory, we recommend an article with tips on memory training.

What is belief?

Persuasion is a way to prove your position, point of view in such a way that the interlocutor accepts it and acts in accordance with it.

Persuasion is used both in daily informal dialogue and when talking with colleagues, in the work team, with partners (business communication).

The purpose of persuasion is to prove the correctness of one’s own positions and justify their effectiveness. A person must understand that this is what needs to be done, because it is more profitable and more effective.

Persuasion is always inseparable from the concept of persuasibility - the ability of the interlocutor to accept the partner’s point of view.

While some can justify their position logically, demonstrating the benefits, resorting to the opinion of experts, others cannot do so in any way.

Since this type of people cannot engage in constructive dialogue , are not able to perceive information from the outside and consider their own opinion to be the only correct one.

Structure

Belief is divided into 4 factors:

1. Inductor . This is the sender of the information message, the person who convinces and conveys information. The success of the entire process partly depends on the personality of the inductor. If a person is pleasant to the interlocutor, then there is a high probability of accepting the point of view. He can be pleasant both physically (external attractiveness) and psychologically (respect for opinion, admiration for intelligence - when a person logically argues a position). The social factor also plays a role - the authority of the individual in society. If the speech is given by a well-known person who is competent in the topic he is discussing, trust automatically arises in him due to his significant authority. The persuasive skills of the inductor, his ability to choose the context and format of communication depending on the person also have an impact.
2. Message .
   The information that the inductor operates with for the purpose of persuasion. The better the inductor understands the interlocutor, the better he can adapt to his psyche and choose the right method of persuasion. The format of the message depends on the ability of the interlocutor to receive a certain type of information.
3. Message movement. In this case, we understand the analysis of what the interlocutor said, whether the information reached him. If he started to think about it, then he got it. This is influenced both by the inductor’s ability to operate with facts and other methods, and by a person’s ability to perceive information—cognitive activity. Cognitive activity is expressed in the search and acceptance of new data, in the ability to change one’s point of view in connection with newly acquired knowledge, as well as in a person’s curiosity and desire to obtain new information.
4. Recipient .
   A person who is persuaded. The success of communication depends on his character, social status, and personal values. For example, there is a type of people whose values ​​are a constant search for profit. Therefore, the message needs to appeal to the fact that if a person acts in a certain way, his situation will improve. For example, “Go to work on Saturday. The boss values ​​people who are efficient and loyal to the company, so he might consider you for a promotion next month.” Here the manager (inductor) talks about a significant benefit for the employee (recipient), and the latter understands what is best for him to do. Other people are socially dependent and pay attention to the opinions of others. In this case, the message “Most colleagues agreed to work on their day off” can be effective. The recipient will not want to go against the opinion of the overwhelming majority, to oppose himself to the team, and therefore he will agree.