Five and One-Half Steps to Persuasive Presentations

By Lawrence L. Tracy

Presented to the Greater Reston, Virginia Chamber of Commerce
April 17, 2002

Lawrence L. Tracy conducts presentation skills workshops for business executives and government officials. His clients include law firms, IT companies, financial institutions, the U.S. Defense Department and the U.S. State Department. His unique “Presentation Skills in a Nutshell” system is in use in more than 100 U.S. embassies. A retired U.S. Army colonel, he formerly managed and trained the Pentagon’s top briefing team. In a subsequent assignment to the State Department, he was described by then-President Ronald Reagan as "an extraordinarily effective speaker" for his efforts in debating controversial foreign policy issues before some of the toughest audiences in the country. For four consecutive years, he has been one only ten "Speech Consultants” from throughout the U.S. selected for listing in the country’s top business reference work, The Information Please Business Almanac and Sourcebook, cited as "the business bible" by CBS-Radio. In What to Say When... You’re Dying on the Platform by Lilly Walters, published by McGraw-Hill in May 1995, he is featured as one of the nation’s leading authorities on dealing with difficult speaking situations. His website, www.tracy-presentation.com, is in the number one position on the Google, MS.N, and Yahoo search engines in response to the search for “Presentation skills training for executives.”

© Tracy Presentation Skills 2002

Five and One-Half Steps to Persuasive Presentations

By Lawrence L. Tracy
Tracy Presentation Skills
Alexandria, Virginia
Presented April 17, 2002 to the
Greater Reston, Virginia Chamber of Commerce

Thank you, Wayne, for that wonderful introduction. It is certainly a pleasure to speak to my fellow members of the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce. As we all know, because of the growth of the IT industry here, Reston is now known as “Silicon Valley East.” On Sunday, I leave for California to conduct presentation coaching for IT executives in the real Silicon Valley. I will tell them I am happy to be in what we refer to as “Reston West.”

Over the last several years, numbers have played a large role in books on business theory and personal development. We had the Total Quality Management theory based on Deming’s FOURTEEN points. Then Covey’s SEVEN HABITS for success in just about anything. Now the rage is the statistical method for ensuring production quality--SIX SIGMA. I want to jump on this numbers bandwagon, but I don’t want to appear overly pretentious, so I am calling my talk to you today “Tracy’s FIVE AND ONE-HALF STEPS for Persuasive Presentations.” I know you are all wondering now “What’s the half step?” Patience. You’ll find out in a few minutes.

Let me take you to an unlikely place to find advice on public speaking—the comic strip Beetle Bailey, which recently contained valuable insight for presenters. As General Half Track walked into his office, his secretary, the aptly named Ms. Buxom, asked “How was Lt. Fuzz’s presentation?” The General replied “Like the Washington Monument.” Puzzled, Ms. Buxom said “The Washington Monument?” “Yeah,” said the General “It took a long time to get to the point.”

How often have we sat in a presentation and felt the same frustration of General Half Track because the speaker didn’t “get to the point?” Worse, have people sat in your presentations, exasperated because they didn’t know where you were taking them, didn’t know what was your point?

Who needs to perfect the ability to deliver “get to the point” presentations? How about those making the case for a company requiring capital infusion? Bankers want assurance they will get their money back and then some. How about a start-up that is looking for venture capital? It’s up to the company seeking funding to make its point quickly, coherently and persuasively, not have its potential value buried in an overly-technical and arcane presentation. How about a company responding to a Government RFP in a time-limited oral presentation? And, in everyday business, what about those occasion when you are called on to speak extemporaneously at meetings? It’s a wonderful opportunity to shine, to impress. It’s also an opportunity to fall on your face if you cannot deliver a hard-hitting, succinct message.

Your audiences, whether within your company or potential clients, have neither the time nor the inclination to listen to rambling presentations lacking focus. They want you to “get to the point” early, providing maximum relevant information (but not a data dump,) delivered in the minimum time and in the clearest possible terms centered on their needs. That’s a pretty tall order, but most definitely doable if a focused, disciplined approach is taken at the outset.

My “Presentation Skills in a Nutshell” training program provides busy people a "shortcut system" to learn how to package their substantive knowledge into a “Bottom line” presentation. A successful presentation must focus on satisfying the needs of "audiences"--a Board of Directors, shareholders, government contract evaluators, prospective clients or customers, etc.--so they conclude that what is being proposed is in their best interests, not just the speaker's.

Presenters must learn to make their point quickly, while blending substantive mastery and stylistic elegance for what is frequently and accurately called "the second business of every business"--making presentations. My objective today is to provide you the broad outlines of my “Shortcut system” so you can avoid having people comment on your presentation skills the way General Half Track critiqued Lt. Fuzz.

Before climbing those five and one-half steps, let’s address three questions which are central for anyone wishing to improve as a presenter.

First, “Are speaking skills important?” Your presence here today suggests you certainly share the prevailing view that being able to make a persuasive presentation is among the most important skills to have in business. Many mid-level managers’ have seen their careers go down the tubes because of their inability to communicate in high-pressure situations. Lee Iacocca, in his years at Ford and Chrysler, was a strong advocate of intensive training in speaking skills for his engineers. Keep in mind that it was his ability to communicate, not his engineering talent, that ultimately persuaded Congress to make the loan to "bail out" Chrysler. Reflecting on the importance of being able to speak well, Iacocca wrote in his autobiography:

“I’ve known a lot of engineers with terrific ideas who had trouble explaining them to others. It’s always a shame when a guy with great talent can’t tell the board or a committee what’s in his head.”

Iacocca was not the first to make this observation. He was repeating, in effect, the words of Pericles. Over 2500 years ago, that great Greek statesman and orator said:

“A person who can think, but cannot express what he thinks, places himself at the level of the person who cannot think.”

The second question is “Why is public speaking so feared in America?” In October 1973, the Sunday Times of London asked 3000 Americans what was their greatest fear. The results? 41% said speaking in front of a group, while 19% said dying. Jerry Seinfeld used this survey in the opening of one of his programs by wondering if this meant that most people would rather be in the coffin than deliver the eulogy. Surveys in subsequent years have consistently placed public speaking in the top three of things people would rather not do.

Last year, for example, U.S. News and World Report carried a survey of concerns of Americans in which fear of public speaking ranked behind only taxes and root canals. I provide that tidbit of information for accountants and dentists in the Chamber.

From my experience in training business executives and government officials I have come to the conclusion that the overarching reason many people are petrified at the prospect of speaking before a group is “fear of the unknown.” Specifically, they are paralyzed by what I refer to as the “Fearsome Foursome--First, fear of being evaluated by their listeners and found wanting, second, fear of being embarrassed, third, fear of having their mind go blank and forgetting what they were to say, and fourth, fear of unanticipated questions.

Many talented and competent people avoid speaking in public, choosing to remain on the sidelines. Others do make presentations because they have no choice, but hide behind the fatalistic myth that speakers are born, not made, and make no effort to improve their speaking ability. Ironically, they make the investment of time and energy to learn the complexities of computer sciences, engineering, the law or some other complex discipline, but remain convinced that being a good speaker is an innate talent, not one that can be acquired. How wrong they are, what a tragedy for them, what a waste of human capital for their companies.

Becoming a gifted speaker is an ability that anyone with vocal chords can master. All they need is the will. Becoming an effective and persuasive speaker is among the easiest skills to acquire if one follows the common sense method I’ll outline for you today, and perhaps has the right coach. Modesty prohibits me from saying just who that coach should be.

Applying the five and a half steps I’ll address shortly will help you lessen the fear of speaking, and make you actually eager to stand in front of any group. You may doubt that, but I have seen the transformation of people in my workshops from panicky and mumbling to confident and articulate.

Notice I said “lessen,” not “eliminate,” the fear of speaking. I have seen calm, confident speakers give thoroughly boring presentations, while other speakers, who clearly had butterflies in their stomachs, used this nervousness to give outstanding presentations.

The third question we’ll address before starting our climb up those five and one half steps is “What is the most important characteristic for presenters to possess? Let me tell you first what it is not. It is not mastering PowerPoint, nor is it the ability to turn a clever phrase, nor a mellifluous voice and extended eye contact.

Ladies and gentlemen, the most important characteristic you must possess to be an effective speaker is CREDIBILITY. Aristotle, father of public speaking training, used the Greek word Ethos to describe this characteristic. He maintained that an audience that knows little of the subject being discussed would be inclined to accept the point being advocated if the speaker had Ethos--credibility in our terminology. In my judgment, credibility flows from the fusing of three elements:

First, the speaker’s Expertise. The audience wants to benefit by the speaker’s knowledge, and therefore needs to know that the speaker has something worthwhile to say that will answer the eternal question of all audiences “What’s in it for me?”

Second, the speaker’s Believability. We want the speaker to give us the truth, not spin, not propaganda. If an audience perceives that the speaker is not being truthful, that speaker might just as well save his or her breath. An old saying sums up the need to be truthful: You can’t believe liars even when they are telling the truth.

Third, the speaker’s Likeability. Audiences accept information from people they like, reject it from people they dislike. This is actually a fault of all of us who listen to presentations. The speaker may be an expert, may be telling the truth, but because we don’t like the speaker, we tune out. Unfortunately, we cut ourselves off from valuable information because of our subjective, emotional reaction. The lesson for managers is that if you have people working for you who are experts and are truthful, but who cause the temperature to drop by ten degrees when they enter a room, make sure they work on interpersonal skills before addressing a board of directors or clients.

It may surprise you to hear me say that no one in this room, including me, can say we possess credibility when speaking on our particular field. Credibility is bestowed by audience members based on how they perceive our expertise, believability, and likeability.

Now, let’s start climbing those five and a half steps for persuasive presentations.

The first step is to have a definite and specific OBJECTIVE. You must know what you want the audience to do with your information. If you are vague in your own mind about what action you want the audience to take, you will not have the focus and thematic unity required in an oral presentation. A written document such as a memo can be poorly written and appear incoherent on first reading, but its obtuseness can be finally pierced on a second or third reading. The oral presentation must be understood immediately. There are no instant replays.

Your objective should certainly not be to merely “give a good speech.” The presentation is the means to a specific end, and the end must be for audience members to buy your product, service, or project because they see it as solving their problem. Once you have decided on your objective, type it, print it, and paste it on your monitor. Refer to it as you progress in your draft. It becomes a compass heading to assure you stay on course.

If your objective is solve the problems of your audience, you must know precisely what are these problems.

That leads to the second step, the GAINING OF INTELLIGENCE ON THE AUDIENCE. These people have a great deal on their mind, a complexity of problems, and probably only limited time to listen to you. You must know what are the hot buttons to push, and which hot buttons to avoid touching, lest you distract your audience from the focus of your presentation. Conduct research on the internet, talk to people who have spoken to this group before. The more information you have about the concerns, problems and idiosyncrasies of audience members, the better prepared you will be.

Let me address a few other aspects of that group we refer to as “the audience.” First of all, the term “audience” is misleading. It conveys the thought that the group is a single entity; in reality it is an a number of individuals, each with his her own experiences, needs and concerns. So your challenge if gaining intelligence is multiplied. Another disheartening characteristic of people in an audience is that they will probably only retain about 10% of the substance of your presentation. Your challenge, consequently, is to frame your presentation so that this 10% capacity includes your key points. To do this always remember that he main driver for all audience members is answering the question “What’s in it for me?”

Persuasive communication takes place at the intersection of your objective and the needs of the audience. If you fail to reach this intersection, concentrating only on what YOU want, you will not persuade.

Now to the third step—PASSION about your subject. You must have such a belief in your product or service’s ability to solve your audience’s problems that you have a sense of obligation to have them accept your message for their good, not yours. You must have this belief so firmly embedded in your psyche that you believe, if the audience doesn’t “buy,” it is because of your inability to articulate the benefits the audience, client or customer will gain. When you have this passion, it will come through in your presentation, and even those predisposed to disagree will listen to you, for they know you have grasped their problem, and really want to help. Passion provides the intensity that cuts through all the distractions and allows the speaker to connect with the audience.

Perhaps the best explanation of the need for passion in persuasive presentations that I have ever read was made by a minister in the Midwest in the 19th Century. His name was Lyman Beecher, and he defined persuasion as “Logic on Fire.” Doesn’t that say it all? The 19th century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli referred to persuasion as the Child of Knowledge. These two observations suggest you must have factual, verifiable data, but for it to hit the mark it must be delivered with verve and passion.

The fourth step is to STRUCTURE BACKWARDS. By that I mean to initiate your draft with your concluding phrase, those words that spring from the intelligence you have gained on your audience that will cause audience members to adopt as their own what you have established as your objective in step one. In my coaching workshops, I refer to this as my 3-1-2 System. Here is a drill I teach in my workshop:

Imagine you have prepared a 20 minute presentation, but when you arrive, you are told the client has a pressing engagement, and you can have only about one-minute. If you have prepared your presentation in the traditional way, you may be hard-pressed to deliver a persuasive, contract-winning, one minute presentation on short notice. But, if you have used my 3-1-2 System, you’ll have your Plan B ready, your contract-winning presentation distilled into one minute or less.

This traditional system, with us since elementary school, consists of drafting the presentation by writing in the order in which we will deliver the presentation--Introduction, Body, Conclusion. This "1-2-3" method is intimidating, like standing at the bottom of a steep hill and envisioning the long climb to the top. Just thinking about the task can cause procrastination. When finally initiated, the "1-2-3" system can lead to wasted time because it lacks focus.

The “3-1-2” method, in contrast, is less intimidating and results in a focused presentation with thematic unity, so necessary in an oral presentation. Start your draft with a "bottom line" phrase you believe will lead to achieving the objective of step one. Place this phrase on a 3x5 card marked “3.” Take another card, mark it “1,” and place words which grab the attention of the audience, spells out the benefits they will achieve by listening to you, and tells them what you are going to address. This is your “ROI” opening.

This opening message tells audience members what return they will receive on their investment of time and attention dedicated to listening to your presentation. By starting the draft with your conclusion, you now have a destination--you know where you are heading with your presentation. You also have a mini-presentation containing your strongest message. With the beginning and ending on cards, you establish the parameters of the presentation, and enumerating supporting data will be much easier and focused. Place this “meat” of your presentation on a series of cards marked “2A,” “2B, etc.” You’ll now be standing on top of the hill and contemplating your descent to the bottom--not as intimidating as the "1-2-3" method from the bottom of the hill.

The “3-1-2” system is related to what lawyers in the audience remember from law school as the "Doctrine of Recency and Primacy." Audiences--and juries--tend to pay more attention to what they hear at both the beginning and the ending of presentations, with much less comprehension during the middle. Thus the importance attached by trial lawyers to their Opening Statement and Closing Argument. Placing the focal point of the presentation at the end and the beginning of the presentation increases the likelihood the audience will listen, retain, and act upon this message.

One further bit of advice. Choose your words carefully and economically. The more words you have surrounding your core idea, the less likely it is that audiences will grasp and react the way you wish them to react. The old adage “Less is more” is particularly relevant in developing the key passages of your presentation. The World War ll Naval officer who reported “Sighted sub, sank same” knew how to get to the bottom line.

Now to the fifth step--THE MURDER BOARD. This is a practice session where you can hone your delivery skills, make mistakes when they don’t count, and anticipate questions and objections. Done right, it will build self-confidence. I believe this is the most important element I teach in my workshop, one that does so much to improve speaking skills. The better you anticipate, the better you respond. Conversely, the less effective you are in being able to anticipate, and thereby give crisp answers to audience questions, the more likely you are to fail.

The term “Murder Board” has its origins in the preparation of instructors at military service schools, and is analogous to the actor’s dress rehearsal, the "moot court" preparation of lawyers, and the flight simulator that prepares pilots to deal with emergencies.

To set up this “Murder Board,” request knowledgeable colleagues to act as a simulated "audience," playing the roles of key members of the audience. Share with these colleagues all the "intelligence" you have gained on your actual audience. The questions they ask should be realistic and tough. Ideally, this practice should be so rigorous and demanding that the actual presentation will appears tame by comparison.

Videotape or audiotape the this practice session, and then record all pertinent questions asked by your "audience" on 3x5 cards, as well as any questions you may think of later, placing the final version of your answers on the reverse sides of the cards. Review these "flash cards" at every opportunity. You will find you rapidly internalize the data through such constant reference. Knowing you have probably anticipated the questions the audience members will ask is a great confidence-builder, and will go a long way towards reducing your apprehension at speaking before a demanding, perhaps critical, audience. Finally, make last minute revisions to your presentation based on the Murder Board

And now, the moment you have been waiting for—the half step. The previous five steps take place before the presentation, and the half step takes place after the presentation has been concluded—immediately after. It is what I call THE POST-PRESENTATION ANALYSIS.

Conducting such an “after-action” analysis is counter-intuitive, for the human instinct after completing a challenging presentation, perhaps one for a lucrative contract, is to breath a sigh of relief. To not carry out this post presentation analysis, however, is to waste a golden opportunity.

You have prepared arduously for your presentation, and you want to now learn from this experience, so you can apply this hard-earned knowledge for the next presentation. Don’t think you can delay this review until the next day. Short term memory will vanish, and the lessons you could have learned will likewise vanish. The result will be you’ll have to reinvent the presentation wheel all over again.

So here is the guidance I provide participants in my workshop.

Have a tape recorder with you, and immediately after you have left the location of the presentation, sit down and record every question you were asked. Don’t worry about your answers, just get those questions down. Next, record your impressions of how you performed, how the audience reacted, anything that pops into your consciousness. Transcribe these notes to your computer, and then flesh them out. The actual questions asked by your audience can form the foundation of your “Murder Board” for your next presentation. I will do this today, and it will aid me for my next presentation. Take the time to do this, and you will find that each presentation becomes a practice session for the next one. Internalize this habit, and you’ll soon wonder why you were ever apprehensive about public speaking.

Let me close this brief review of how to be a more persuasive speaker by taking you back to that cradle of public speaking training—ancient Athens.

The Greeks of that era, while admiring the speaker with the stentorian voice, dramatic gesture and clever turn of phrase, nevertheless realized the purpose of any presentation was to cause the audience to take the action the speaker wished audience members to adopt. So it was said, in comparing the greatest speaker of the day with one who had lived many years before:

"When Demosthenes speaks, people say ‘ how well he speaks’. But when Pericles spoke, people said,‘Let us march."

Thank you.

________________________________________________

Larry Tracy, author of The Shortcut to Persuasive Presentations, is a retired Army colonel described by President Ronald Reagan as "an extraordinarily effective speaker.” He now conducts executive presentation skills workshops. Contact at him at (703) 360-3222, info@tracy-presentation.com. 

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