Words That Sell – Use Persuasive Words

Persuasive words sell. There are multiple ways to weave persuasion into the fabric of your presentation. This week in Toronto, we had a lot of fun in our UPFRONT Persuasion workshop playing with persuasive words.

Thorough preparation and proper structure are essential for a compelling delivery: they foster confidence and your ability to walk through your presentation in a clear and logical way.

Part of your preparation should most certainly include developing relevant stories for social proof, analogies and evidence to support your … Read More

How to Be Persuasive: Eliminate Filler Words

How can your presentations be persuasive? Do you allow filler words to diminish the power of your message?

Words have great power to be persuasive as highlighted in our post The 12 Most Persuasive Words of the English Language.

But when words are used as fillers to replace what should be a pause, they do just the opposite. You risk losing credibility, your audience and your sales opportunity.

The following guest post by Judie Knoerle author of UPFRONT Persuasion Through Presentation gives you some tips on how to be … Read More

The 12 Most Persuasive Words in the English Language

Do you know what the 12 most persuasive words in the English language are? Are you paying enough attention to using persuasive words in your sales communications?

Words are simple things but they carry power that you can leverage in all your communications. You need to be using them in your day to day sales meetings, presentations, emails and voice messages. If you aren’t intentional about your choice of words you are missing out. That can cost you sales!

… Read More

Use Stories in Presentations to Persuade

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my years teaching and coaching better presentations and sales, it’s this: Stories persuade. Using stories in presentations capture the audience’s attention. Stories engage our emotions. They make us want to take action. They make us want to buy: stories sell.

I’ve seen it time and again. My clients in the financial services industry love their numbers and understandably so. But the most successful presenters move beyond facts and figures which aren’t as memorable as narrative They … Read More

How to Start a Presentation: 5 Ways to Create a Curiosity Gap

What’s a great way to start a presentation? Have you considered opening up a “Curiosity Gap”?

Here’s how you don’t want to start… How many of us have heard this opening line to a presentation:

“Good Morning. I know you’re very busy. I don’t want to waste your time so I’ll get through this information as quickly as possible.” Or, “I recognize I’m the only thing standing between you and lunch.”

On the surface these sound innocent enough – after all, you’re just … Read More

How to Be Persuasive: Avoid this One Voice Habit that Kills Credibility

If you really want to know how to be persuasive, here’s a voice habit you will want to avoid. Have you ever noticed this? In just about every workshop on presentations I deliver, there’s at least one or two people who do this while speaking:

Although they’re making a statement, their vocal tone rises at the end, as if a question is being asked, do you know what I mean?

While it sometimes sounds coy and feminine, … Read More

How To Prepare YOURSELF for Presentations: 5 Simple Steps to Stay Calm and Focused

How do you prepare YOURSELF for presentations? In my last post, I offered three simple preparation steps to be on target for your next presentation. But all the preparation in the world won’t get successful results if you’re nervous or appear to be. It’s important to know how to prepare YOURSELF for your presentations.

I once worked with a woman who said she gets nervous because she knows everyone is looking at her. My advice … Read More

How to Prepare Your Presentation: 3 Simple Steps to Nail It

How do you prepare for presentations? If you’re like most busy professionals when asked to give a presentation in an hour, or the next day, you probably first reach for a recent slide deck on the topic you’ll be speaking about. You rearrange the slides, create a couple more and you’re done! Right? Wrong.

I have a much better idea for you and it starts with your audience not your slides.

Research shows … Read More