Communication is an art that you can grow and develop. It involves listening and conveying information in an understandable and comprehensible way. Cultivating this skill can have significant benefits in your professional and personal life.

Communication is an essential skill for every human being. Your ability to communicate will help you stand out in the crowd. Therefore, how to improve your communication skills is a subject that bears the capacity to mould effective communicators and plays a significant role in career advancements.

Why Communication is Important?

Effective communication involves offering empathy, open-mindedness, and helpful feedback based on what you hear. The following are some of the benefits of communication:

Builds Trust

Gaining trust, especially as a leader, is not easy. A study by PNAS.org explains how your level of power impacts people’s trust in you. Listening attentively to others, and embracing various points of view, will have others see that you are making optimal decisions.

Effective communication that combines exemplary body language and vocal tone can help convey your message confidently. Understanding your audience well also helps build trust. Additionally, managing your own emotions will help you adapt to the emotional needs of others when it comes to building trust.

Improves Productivity

One of the main pillars of productivity is accountability. For example, when people are held accountable at their workplace, their standards increase which helps them reach a higher potential. Additionally, people feel fulfilled when they know they are operating at their highest level. As Ron Malhorta quotes, “The only fear we should have is the fear of wasting our potential”.

But how is this accountability achieved? One of the ways is through effective communication. Through effective communication, clear and definite instructions will arise, enabling the recipients to work according to what is required.

When people understand their roles and expectations, they can focus more on what they are required to do. It will also help resolve conflicts within a team, resulting in greater productivity.

Improves Relationships

Effective communication can help build stronger relationships. It helps build mutual respect when people feel heard and understood. If you want to speak about something authoritatively, framing it with a value statement can go a long way in pleasing others. As Ron Malhorta quotes, “Respectful disagreement is fine. Disrespectful disagreement is not.”

Also, let your communication connect to your audience. Learn to speak from understanding their mindset and needs.

Increases Engagement

According to a study, only 15% of adult employees are engaged with their employers. Improving your communication skills can significantly help increase engagement amongst team members.

Increased engagement will help boost your retention rate, spur greater employee loyalty, build happier employees, increase employee safety, and lower absenteeism.

Helps To Solve Conflicts

Clear communication is the best way to solve any conflict from arising. It will help you understand another person as you get your points across clearly.

Effective communication will help solve misunderstandings quickly whenever they arise. It will help build trust, ease tension, strengthen relationships and make people feel at ease because they are mutually understood. Therefore, communication is the basis of any long-term and prosperous relationship.

Types of Communication Skills

There are various types of communication skills. They include:

Verbal Communication

Verbal communication refers to words used to share information with others. It typically involves oral and written communication.

Oral communication involves what we say to others through words. Its effectiveness depends on the words you choose, how you pronounce them, and how you reinforce them with nonverbal gestures. Verbal communication can include intrapersonal, interpersonal, small group, and public communication. Intrapersonal is your route for vocal conversation, while interpersonal is one-on-one verbal communication.

Conversely, small group communication is where your communication grows from one person to a group of several people, while public speaking involves speaking to a large number of individuals. This type of communication saves time, helps one get feedback quickly, and is the most convenient and precise method of communication.

Also Read: Top 10 Communication Skills in the Workplace and How You Can Master Them

Non-Verbal Communication

This type of communication is nonverbal, such as facial expressions, eye contact, posture, gestures, and body language. It can include distance, kinetics, social cues, and physical appearance. Facial expressions play a considerable portion of nonverbal communication. Surprisingly, this expression is similar globally regarding happiness, sadness, anger, and fear.

Facial expressions and gestures are among the most common forms of non-verbal communication. Gestures usually relate to movement and signals to convey a message without words. Some of these ways include; waving, using fingers to indicate numbers, and pointing.

Written Communication

Written communication, unlike verbal communication, relies on grammar, word choice, and punctuation. It is a type of communication where you relay your message in writing. However, it is worth noting that developing these skills requires keen attention to detail and practice.

Written communication can enhance an organisation’s image as this type of communication skill is more succinct and precise. Practical writing communication skills depend on five pillars: clarity, conciseness, tone, active voice, grammar and punctuation.

Visual Communication

This type of communication depends on visual elements to communicate ideas or information. They can include GIFs, videos, screenshots, pie charts, slide presentations and infographics.

Visual communication aids understanding through technology that combines words and images to communicate ideas. It also helps support oral communication.

Listening

This point is one of the most vital communication segments. However, the act of listening shouldn’t be confused with hearing. Hearing is the awareness of sound and its meaning, but listening involves engaging with another party to understand what they are trying to communicate.

Listening will help build respect, enhance clarity, build better relationships, increase likability, and better understand shared information.

11 Tips to Improve Your Communication Skills

You can become a better communicator by following these 11 tips:

1. Learn to Be a Good Listener

A good listener is an active listener. Active listening can enhance proper communication by encouraging honesty and openness. When you pay attention to the other party you communicate with, they feel heard. This situation builds trust, and they think that your conversation matters.

Good listening requires practice. Practice will improve your communication skills and ability to connect with others. It will also increase your capacity to retain information. It would also help if you had one conversation at a time to help you maintain undivided attention. For example, if you are responding to an email, don’t speak on the phone simultaneously.

2. Take Notes

Writing things down during a meeting or a conversation can help you greatly when your memory fails.  Note-taking will keep you active and help you avoid feelings of distraction. It also makes your mind actively involved in what you hear.  Furthermore, note-taking will also allow you to think, make connections between point discussions, process information and ask practical questions.

Taking notes is also helpful as it brings more structure and organisation to your life, giving you more clarity along your path.

Also Read: Top 10 Communication Skills in the Workplace and How You Can Master Them

3. Be Brief But Specific

Brevity is another way to improve your communication skills. Based on the Oxford English Dictionary, the definition of brevity is “The quality of using few words when speaking or writing”.

William Shakespeare wrote, “Brevity is the soul of wit.” It would help if you made every effort to communicate the compelling, essential points very concisely yet clearly.

Brevity will save you time, and few people will question you when you don’t mince words. This point applies both to verbal and written communication. For instance, if you are replying to an email, do not ramble with words. Read and understand the entire email, then craft a brief and specific response. The more you practice, the better you will become.

4. Don’t Be Accusatory

Life will constantly throw us challenges. It could be a marital disagreement that calls you to a discussion. However, you need to maintain your cool even when you feel the other person is in the wrong.

Accusations can hinder effective communication. When conversations begin with accusations, the other party often receives it as an invitation for a fight. Human beings’ reactions to accusations are often defensive, and usually, nothing constructive comes from such a conversation.

5. Plan and Practice What You Will Say

Practising what you say at a particular place can work wonders as far as developing your communication skills is concerned. There is absolutely nothing wrong with practising what you will say in a planned conversation. However, there are impromptu conversations where you don’t have the opportunity to prepare, so practice what you will say if you get a chance.

Practising will also instil great confidence and help you perform at your best. Besides, it will help you make necessary adjustments before the actual conversation and minimise apprehension.

 

6. Maintain Eye Contact

Maintaining eye contact is not always easy. Nevertheless, it plays a fundamental role in communication. Eye contact makes the other person feel that you are paying attention and also makes them feel important. It helps the communicating parties bond and improves understanding between people.

Additionally, eye contact helps maintain focus and concentration. Failing to make eye contact makes you look less authoritative and less believable. If you fail to maintain eye contact, the other party is less likely to look at you.

 

7. Have Good Posture

Maintaining good posture aids in communication. Posture passes on information about personal traits such as assertiveness, confidence, and openness. Someone sitting down is more likely to take in information and respond effectively than someone standing up. Maintaining good posture will make you feel calm and confident inside, whether speaking on stage or during a call.

8. Be Simple

Simplicity can help you improve your communication skills. Learn to use simple sentences and words. Do not overcomplicate with jargon that people do not understand. It helps if you keep your sentences no longer than two sentences.

Choose words that will effectively relay your ideas and clarify your message. Simple sentences or phrases will help convey or express your message clearly to the readers. Short sentences are also easier to read and result in easier processing.

 

9. Understand Your Audience

Understanding your audience can help you better craft your message so that they can receive it the way you intended. How you communicate with your friend is not the same way you will communicate with your boss. You can use informal language when writing with your friend, for instance, unlike when writing to your boss.

The use of acronyms, for example, may not be understood by the other person because different acronyms are understood differently by different people.

10. Think Before You Speak

Thinking before you speak can be another game-changer when communicating. It will help you become more tactful and understand how to balance positivity and negativity.

Also, you might say something out of pure emotion that might cause you to regret it later. However, if you think before speaking, you are unlikely to hurt anyone.

What happens when you speak without thinking? You may give off the wrong impression, resulting in the reader apprehending incorrectly and taking inappropriate action. The result could be troublesome where there is a misunderstanding.

11. Practice Self-Awareness

Specific conversations can be challenging where emotions are involved. It would help if you had a solid grasp of your feelings. Self-awareness can help you take over the conversation effectively when you are upset or over-excited.

Self-awareness will help you to admit when you are wrong. For a moment, it might feel like a big blow to your ego, but you will build integrity and respect.

To Conclude

Effective communication is a learnable skill. By following the tips outlined above, you will become a better and more effective communicator. Proper communication will elevate you above the crowd as a leader. Always remember to communicate using verbal and nonverbal cues.

Also, learn to listen carefully to what other people have to say. Lastly, ensure your conversation content sticks with the audience.

Research reveals that people began sharing stories over 30,000 years ago. Now, storytelling is essential when convincing customers to buy goods for business and entertainment purposes. Storytelling creates a strong sense of community and brings people together as we all share the same feelings of emotion, such as joy, fear, grief, horror, hope, and anger.

In a business setting, influential public speakers use various storytelling techniques to boost their listening skills to entertain listeners, and entrepreneurs can leverage storytelling skills to further their career or business growth.

To effectively capture and maintain your audience’s attention, you must learn captivating storytelling methods. These methods will keep your audience hooked, longing to know what happens next.

The following 9 storytelling tips and tricks will help you improve your skills and strengthen your engagement with the audience.

 

1. Be Aware of The Age of Your Audience

When telling a story, take into account the age of your listeners. Age determines the content of the story, means of narration, and the appropriate time of narration.

Also, different generations have different speech styles, slang and understanding of specific words. When addressing teens, use simple, easy-to-understand language alongside imagery to paint a mental picture to your audience, enabling them to understand your message quickly. It may also be helpful to incorporate the latest slang trends and phrases, so they find relatability to what you are conveying. When addressing adults, you can vary the complexity of language depending on their levels of education. For example, if you speak to executives and professionals, you will talk in a more formal manner that suits their level of education.

With this storytelling tip, you may also need to customize your message and ensure that information intended for adults does not reach children. Share adult stories when children are asleep and children’s stories in the evening after school. Many parents shy away from listening to sensitive matters touching on adulthood with their children.

This storytelling tip helps retain your audience’s attention as your audience feels a deeper connection with you when you speak directly to them in a way they understand.

 

2. Be Creative

Creativity is the process of emerging with new ideas and techniques. With storytelling, you must find innovative ways to share your story uniquely. Also, devise a mechanism that will enable you; for example, when sharing a story with children, use drawings and pictures to make the story more vivid, lively, and memorable.

The most common storytelling method to catch listeners’ attention involves sharing visual content such as photos and videos, as it allows your audience to visualize better and follow your storyline.

By helping your audience tap into their right brain (its primary function is creativity, imagination, and visualization), your product, service, or idea will help them remember your story much better than logic and facts alone.

Incorporating creativity as a storyteller makes your story perceived as more credible, accurate, and reliable. This storytelling tip also helps build trust with your audience. As Ron Malhorta quotes, “Earning trust is the ultimate marketing strategy.”

 

3. Create Suspense

The technique of creating suspense is when you leave your audience hanging about what happens next in your story. Release information in a controlled way to create a thirst for your audience to follow you to the end of your story.

Let’s say you release too much information at the introduction of your story. In this instance, the audience will not pay careful attention to you as you progress since the audience presumes they already know everything. The plot has no opportunity to thicken. Avoid sharing important plot information, for example, the death of a significant character in the story before it happens in the storyline.

In addition, you can increase suspense in your story by introducing conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist. Doing so will keep the audience eager to listen to know what happens next. The struggle between opposing forces makes for an exciting story and an effective storytelling tip, the same way stories are written in world-class novels and movies. If there is no obstacle or challenging hurdle to overcome, there is no story.

Also Read: 13 Leadership Qualities That Make You an Exceptional Leader

 

4. Keep The Story Clear, Concise and to The Point

Avoid sharing stories that carry too much information as too many words can create confusion in the minds of your listeners. If they need to expend too much energy to understand and follow your story, you may find that they “zone out” as it’s easier to stop paying attention than it is to continue listening. Many people, especially business executives, don’t have time to listen to long stories about your product or service. Instead, carefully select your words to ensure the usage of fewer words than carry heavy and more profound meaning to keep the story short, concise, and to the point.

While doing so, it’s important to thoughtfully and intelligently order the story’s introduction, body, and conclusion without omitting necessary information about your products or services to your prospective customers.

Ensure to capture the most important details that hook your listeners, keeping them eager to continue listening. If you have an excellent memory, it will help you retain vital information during the narration.

There is always a way to share complex processes in a simplified, easy-to-understand, condensed version and avoid unnecessary details that deviate you from the story’s core theme. Once a listener has “dozed off”, it’s tough to regain their attention as they may have missed integral parts of the story that connects one scenario to another.

 

5. Choose Your Words Wisely

The diction used in storytelling influences how impactful your story is to your audience. Use enticing and fun words but avoid clichés to avoid putting a damper on your listeners’ desire to listen to your story. Also, eliminate repetitive words as it shows a lack of creativity that could lead your audience to boredom.

Use words that carry emotion to connect the listeners to your story. Emotional phrases swing your listeners into action, such as purchasing and using your product. If you must refer to a particular term multiple times, consider using its synonyms for variety.

 

6. Have a Purpose and Structure for Your Story

Ensure your reason for telling the story is clear. Have a reason for telling the story, such as enlightening the listener in a way that stimulates their imagination, or teaches them a valuable lesson.

A good story structure is also vital for keeping listeners’ attention glued to your narrative. If your story has an important moral lesson, you need to draw your audience’s attention to this lesson. As Ron Malhorta quotes, “The greatest life lessons come from painful experiences.” Your audience will find the story more intriguing if there is a valuable lesson they can take away from it. A clear blueprint navigates you in storytelling, restricting you from deviating from the core message.

 

7. Create Conflict Between Story Characters

One of the most essential tips for good storytelling is creating conflict in the storyline. Conflict entails disagreement or opposition between the story’s central characters in storytelling. You can use three types of conflict to develop your story’s plot; the main character’s conflict with self, the conflict between two main characters in the story, and disagreement between the main character and the society.

This storytelling technique offers you an opportunity to build tension that affects your listeners’ moods and emotions. Craft your story by introducing conflict at the start of the story, developing it in the body, and solving it at the end. This acts as a compass that directs your story. Conflict advances your story and aids the characters in developing and growing their problem-solving skills.

Create conflict in your story by determining what the main character intends to accomplish, and then place an obstacle along the way. It is best not to devise your story in a way that enables your main characters to obtain what they intend to obtain too quickly because when your characters have obtained what they want too easily, the story loses meaning.

 

8. Concentrate on One Person At a Time

When addressing a large audience, craft your message as though you are speaking to one person only. Trying to speak to the entire crowd may take away your concentration from the story, and have you to lose your trail of thoughts.

To be a compelling storyteller, you need to be able to connect well with your audience by communicating in a lively manner that keeps your listeners entertained. To help you do this, set aside time to get to know and understand your audience before you commence your story.

Mentally assume that you are talking to one person and address all the questions they may be having. This allows you to understand their expectations, guiding you to share your story in a more relevant and captivating way with them.

Also, engage your audience to bring more excitement to the room. You can liven up your story by asking your audience questions. This interactive storytelling tip and method allows your audience to be entertained and feel involved and valued throughout the entire process.

Also Read: Dos and Don’ts of Public Speaking with Pro Tip

 

9. Capture Your Audience’s Full Attention First

When you gain your listener’s full attention, you can start to share your story. Begin by setting the story’s mood by employing tonal variations and hand gestures to make the story more lively. Start your story with a shocking opening statement to best capture your audience’s attention.

People are always searching for solutions to their challenges. Therefore, general remarks in the introduction dampen your audience’s interest. Instead, use an eye-catching statistic that motivates your audience to learn more about it and how it could potentially help solve their problems.

If your listeners are not paying full attention at the start of your story, it is difficult for them to understand the series of events if they only begin to pay attention halfway through the story.

To Conclude

Storytelling has evolved from traditional means of passing the time in the evenings to a modern marketing tool for businesses to connect and engage with an audience. Entrepreneurs can leverage these storytelling tips and tricks to create a more memorable brand image. Consumers are less likely to remember a product or service based on its features and benefits and more likely to remember a story that pulled on their heartstrings.

The most profound way to get the most out of storytelling is by helping your audience tap into their imagination through your story. Your audience needs to visualise how your product works and the value it can provide. These storytelling techniques all save you time and allow easy transfer of information to customers.

These types of storytelling methods are not so much innate as they are learned and refined by practice. By practising, you can develop and perfect your storytelling method. The more you relay your story, the more you can gauge how people react, what words land with them, and what tone of voice engages them the most.

A sales pitch is a meticulously crafted, personalised message with an aim to persuade a prospective customer to engage in business with you. Whether it is a sales pitch presentation, an email sales pitch or an elevator pitch, it is vital for businesses to hone their sales pitch into a clear, concise and brief manner, especially as the attention span of people in today’s society dwindles as the adoption of technology skyrockets. A product pitch is similar to a sales pitch, but it is entirely focused on pitching the features and benefits of a single product alone, rather than an idea or service.

Businesses must take advantage of any small window of opportunity to persuade a prospect and convince them why their offering is superior, and how it suits their needs. An effective sales pitch not only helps you optimise your time, but also maximise your efforts. As Ron Malhorta quotes “Underachievement and mediocrity is the result when people are not skilled at optimising their time and maximising their efforts.”

A sales pitch can either be formal or informal. The style and tone of voice should match the environment you are in, the audience you are speaking to, and the nature of the idea, product or service itself. According to a report published by the University of Florida, 20% of top sales reps close 80% of all sales deals, meaning that it is up to the salesperson to perfect their pitch, tone, method, and style of delivery.

The audience may know nothing about the idea, product or service, or they may have previously expressed interest. The average win rate of closing a sale after getting the opportunity to offer a proposal or give a quote, is 47%. Whether or not the deal is closed, largely depends upon the salesperson’s technique and ability to hook the prospect based on the value they offer.

Types of sales pitches include a presentation sales pitch, “elevator” pitch, phone sales pitch, email sales pitch, start-up pitch, cold call pitch, subject line sales pitch, or social media pitch. A combination of sales pitches may be required for a single prospect, across multiple touch points.

 

How to Write a Sales Pitch

 

1. Know your prospects needs before offering a tailored solution

The first step in the process of writing a good sales pitch is to identify your target audiences’ needs. The more specific the understanding you have of their needs, the more you are able to offer a tailored solution that enables you to solve their key problems.

By finding answers to the below, you will gain a strong understanding of your target audiences’ needs:

• What is your target audience demographics? (Age, profession, location)
• What is their budget or ideal price range?
• What are their pain points and main challenges?
• How do these challenges affect them on an emotional level? 
• What are they currently doing that is not working?
• What is it costing them to remain in the situation they are currently in?
• What are their desired outcomes and overall goals?

By listening with intent, and having deep understanding and knowledge of your offer, you will be able to come up with a well-crafted tailored solution with ease and on the spot if required, as you engage with your prospect. It’s vital to know the specifics of your offer in detail, so you can present your solution with utmost confidence and certainty.

 

2. Share a story to create a deeper connection with your audience

One of the most powerful and effective methods for a good sales pitch is storytelling, as it acts as a means to tap into your audience’s innate human desires. A successful salesperson will know how to captivate their audience and create an emotional connection with customers, educating them in a way that resonates with them far more deeply than just informative and educational talk alone.

The storytelling technique also helps make a product or service more interesting, which then helps your audience remember your brand. This helps keep you at the forefront of their minds, as they go through the stages of their decision making process.

Lastly, stir your audience’s emotions with your sales pitch. People love to hear about “heroes” who come up against obstacles and what they did to overcome them. Storytelling helps to create a connection with your audience in a way that is deep and meaningful. How well you can connect with your audience will have a lasting impact on the entire length of the customer relationship.

 

3. Find a hook that pulls at your prospect’s needs and desires

Emotional trigger selling is a technique that ensures the audience creates an emotional connection and bond with your brand and offer, and drives them further towards purchasing. Help your audience to deeply visualize how their life will feel as a result of purchasing your product or service, as pursuing their own personal needs and desires play a major part in their decision making process.

On written forms of copy, according to Copyblogger, 80% of people will read your headline and only 20% will read the rest. When pitching your idea, product or service, consider the below ways to have them become the “heroes” of their own story, through stirring an emotional trigger.

• The feeling that they are more unique, heroic and powerful
• A greater sense of belonging and community
• The joy of having achieved their goals
• Their relationships have improved and they are happier
• A boost in social status amongst their peers
• They are on the path of least resistance and effort

If you can convince your audience that you are the person who can take them from their current state to their desired state, they will not only find a lot more value in your offer, but also be willing to pay a premium price to have those needs and desires met.

Also Read: 13 Leadership Qualities That Make You an Exceptional Leader

 

4. Emphasize the benefits not just the features

Describing features alone, means you completely miss the key factors that help the target audience understand how those features can improve their lives in beneficial ways.

Listing features are still important however, as describing what the product or service does helps set you apart from your competition. Benefits on the other hand gives your customer a reason to purchase and helps you to justify the current price, or justify your reason to raise the price. The more you understand your audience’s problems and desires, the more you will be able to explain the benefits in a way that suits them specifically, in a tailored fashion.

 

5. Describe how their life will look after they purchase from you

The more you can describe in detail how their lives will positively change, the more they will be able to visualise it in their minds.
By nature, people seek to fulfill emotions such as happiness, joy, love, connection, significance, belonging, and freedom. Ask questions that prompt them to visualise their life if they purchased your offer. For example, a business coach or mentor could ask their prospect “in what ways would your life change if your business bought in an extra $1,000 a week?”.

Also Read: 7 Mistakes to Avoid During The Closing Remarks of a Speech

 

6. Be ready to answer any objections

Objections can throw off a great sales pitch. However, if you are prepared, you can overcome the audience’s objections in a natural and smooth manner.
First, you must actively listen and acknowledge your prospects’ concern. Make them feel heard, and understand that their concern is valid. By asking questions about their concern, you can then leverage any social proof, data or references to help back your claims. When done in a relaxed and smooth manner, you can lead the conversation into either closing the sale, or setting a time to follow up. You do not want to react negatively, or act in a defensive manner, as your audience may perceive that you are only in it for the sale, as opposed to acting in their best interests to help them fulfill their needs.

 

7. Back it up with data and references

Statistics and figures that prove as a testament to the legitimacy and effectiveness of your offering is crucial, as it builds trust and credibility. Testimonials are an example of a reference you can show your audience. 72% of consumers say that testimonials make them trust a company more. This is because consumers are more likely to trust one another, rather than a sales pitch on its own.

Backing up your claims with statistics, as well as future trends, can also influence a person in their decision making process. This way you also educate your customer in a way where they can better foresee and visualise their desired situation.

 

Final Thoughts

As Ron Malhotra quotes, “Million dollar ideas are common. Million dollar executions are rare.” It is easier to believe you can come up with a sales pitch on the spot, or even “wing it”, however, it is important to venture outside of your comfort zone no matter how uncomfortable it may feel. The more times you present your sales script, the more natural it will feel and the more confident you will become in the process. Your audience will know that you truly care about fulfilling their needs and they will look to you as someone they can trust to help take them from their current state to their desired state.

 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

 

How long should a sales pitch be?

Aim to keep your pitch concise and brief. Constantly refine your pitch by removing any irrelevant information and features that may cause the prospect to experience information overload. Your pitch will vary depending on the format. For example, a cold call sales pitch should be no longer than 8 minutes. According to the conversation intelligence platform, Chorus, 7.5 minutes is the average length of a cold call that converts into the next step in the buyer process.

An email sales pitch should be no longer than 300 words, and a sales presentation should be no longer than 20 minutes. Any longer and you can expect your audience’s attention to wane.

 

What should be included in a pitch?

Your pitch should be carried out in a passionate and confident manner and include the following:

 

1. Introduce yourself in a way that leaves a positive first impression.
2. Share a story in a way that creates a meaningful connection with your audience.
3. Acknowledge the prospects challenges to show you understand their concerns.
4. Highlight the features and benefits of your offer.
5. Present the solution.
6. Ask for the sale with an irresistible call to action.

 

What is an elevator pitch?

An “elevator” pitch is a brief and persuasive description of your idea, product, or service, where you wish to engage the prospect within a short window of opportunity. An elevator pitch is typically no longer than 2 minutes. Within the 2 minute timeframe, you should be able to describe the specific problem you help solve, and the solution you offer in its most simplest terms.

Persuasion is an art and a skill that, when effectively executed well, is a potent proponent in achieving business goals. According to Very Well Mind, persuasion is a symbolic process in which communicators try to convince other people to change their attitudes or behaviors regarding an issue through the transmission of a message in an atmosphere of free choice.

 

 

Although everyone innately possesses some level of persuasive skill, we can all become more persuasive. Many will ask in wonderment, “How does one become more persuasive?” Firstly, by following this simple communication hack by Ron Malhotra, “Delete all the words not required.” Persuasion may require convincing words, but it’s still important to be concise and strategic.

 

 

The next step is to implement persuasive techniques. By utilizing persuasive techniques such as establishing trust and credibility, comprehending the reader’s purpose to align with your own, paying attention to language, and using tenets such as rhetoric and repetition, you are well on your way to being persuasive. These principles are all rooted in the fundamental techniques of effective persuasion – ethos (speaker’s status or authority), pathos (emotional appeal), and logos (audience reasoning ability).

 

 

 

 

1. Know Your Audience

 

 

It doesn’t matter what you have to say if you don’t know the people you are saying it to. Whether it’s a large crowd, a single person, or a panel of colleagues, equipping yourself with knowledge of who you are speaking to goes a long way in making your persuasion more effective.

 

 

If you’re addressing a crowd, then it is vital to know the demographic of your audience so you can craft your persuasion to appeal to them. If you’re using your persuasive techniques for a prospective client, your boss, or as a leader, you must know their dominant personality traits, strengths, and weaknesses. By knowing these factors, you can strategically play upon them, ultimately leveraging them to your benefit. This simple technique will aid you immensely when persuading in business.

 

 

 

2. Body Language

 

 

Even before you begin to speak, your body language is shouting from the rooftop. Perhaps the most underrated aspect of persuasive communication techniques is body language. A great way to be convincing is ensuring your body language is just as persuasive as your words.

 

 

A confident stance is one of the first steps in persuasion. Presenting yourself as self-assured to your audience creates a great first expression. Our body language sets the tone for the discourse that is to follow.

 

 

Open your posture, stand tall and make eye contact. Resist the urge to fidget or constantly dart your eyes. Actions of this nature make others feel uneasy and make you appear as lacking trust and credibility. Use your hands to gesture (but not too much) and loosen your facial expression to flow with the conversation.

 

 

 

3. Value Proposition

 

 

One of the initial setbacks to fully maximizing persuasive communication is the fear of manipulating people. A practical, compelling tool of leaders is persuasive communication without compromising integrity. The solution to this is the value proposition.

 

 

Science of People states that a value proposition, or positioning statement, is basically a 30-second elevator pitch of what you do and why your product or service is valuable. When you have the undivided attention of a decision-maker or someone you are trying to convince, your value proposition answers your audience’s questions. These questions include:

 

 

• What does your service/product/expertise mean for me?
• Why should I buy this product/service or hire you over all others we’re considering?
• How is your expertise/product/service different from others we’re looking at?
• What problem does your service/product/expertise solve?
• Why should I listen to you?
• Your value proposition will serve as an effective tool for propelling your persuasion in business communication.

 

 

 

4. Rapport/Be Relatable

 

 

Another great skill to employ for persuasion in business is the ability to build rapport with your audience rapidly. You do this by ensuring that you are personal. You start off with the universal language of a smile and you follow up by making your audience feel like they just happen to be having a kitchen table talk with an expert. Ensure you speak to your audience values by speaking with them and not to them, or worse above them. Persuasion is only possible if people are comfortable enough to be open to what you’re saying.

 

 

 

5. Emotional Resonance/Storytelling

 

 

A highly effective persuasive tip to increasing your relatability and garner a potent emotional response is telling a personal story.

 

 

When an audience hears a personal story, they latch on emotionally. When they can picture themselves in your situation, they begin to understand you better and greater levels of trust can be built. When you manage to persuade someone from an emotional stance, half of the work of convincing them is complete. Whether you’re selling a product or service, it is always wise to ensure you find an emotionally relatable ground. Don’t ever underestimate the power of leveraging personal storytelling.

 

 

 

6. Be Bold About Objections

 

 

One of the most effective persuasive techniques is acknowledging objections to what you’re saying. If you’re a speaker, this could be opposing studies or dogmas. If you’re a seller, then your objection can take the form of product and service competitors. It doesn’t matter the capacity as long as you identify, compare, and contrast the objections.

 

 

By doing this, you present yourself as fair and unbiased. It allows you to speak about something familiar to your audience and shows how your offerings are better. Recognizing opposing forces shows you aren’t stuck in your bubble and that you appreciate other words, people, and products that aren’t your own. Giving credence to objections shows that you are confident in what you feel, so highlighting the competition only makes you look even better. Stuck asking yourself how to be more persuasive objectively? Then this is one of the best persuasive tips you will ever encounter. Always remember, “Massive success, requires massive courage” (Ron Malhotra)

 

 

 

7. Be An Authority

 

 

A persuasive conversation is only possible if you are an authority on the topic of discussion. You can only persuade someone if they believe that you are coming from a place of knowledge. You must be the best in your arena and with evidence to boot if you wish to persuade anyone.

 

 

Presenting yourself as a thought leader or an expert with accolades ensures your audience won’t think twice about what you’re telling them. If no one thinks you’re of the ilk to be dispensing the information, they simply won’t believe.

 

 

 

 

There is no such thing as too much credibility when persuading your audience. But be sure to do this without coming across as arrogant.

 

 

 

8. Be Passionate

 

 

Being passionate is just as crucial as being an expert. People love accolades as much as they love someone who is impassioned about their products or services. Don’t hold back on the love you have for what you’re doing. Bubbling over with passion also goes a long way in helping to invoke a strong emotional response in your audience. There is nothing more gripping or convincing than someone who has a genuine love for what they do.

 

 

People can quickly pick up on inauthenticity and lack of interest. No one wants to buy something that the seller does not appear to be genuinely interested in. If you truly believe that your product and service is worthwhile, people will more quickly be persuaded by you.

 

 

 

9. Be The Solution

 

 

Another critical component of persuasion is being the solution. The surefire way to achieve persuasion in business is solving a problem that almost seems insurmountable.

 

 

When you couple your authoritativeness with confidence, critiques, and a solution, you won’t have much left to do in convincing anyone that you’re the best choice. Be bold with your assertions. Don’t be afraid to say you are the best. The easiest way to persuade someone is to be clear and concise in who you are, what you do, and how well you do it.

 

 

So be bold. Don’t say, “I think” or “I believe.” Instead, confidently quip, “I know.” Stop adding qualifiers to your speech. If you think something will work, say it will work. If you believe something will work, give reasons why it will work. The minute you second guess yourself, everyone else will realize it, and you lose your advantage and the opportunity the persuasive conversations hold.

 

 

When presenting yourself, ideas, or products as the solution, you must eliminate the idea of any potential risks. By eliminating any perceived risks, you encourage people to accept your idea or try your products safely. Methods such as authentic positive testimonials, money-back guarantees, and being open to providing additional information or education surrounding the concept can help eliminate the potential loss-aversion that could prevent someone from fully engaging with your ideas or products.

 

 

 

Final Thoughts

 

 

A persuading conversation is not merely words but a mixture of engaging dialect, assertive body language, and solutions. It doesn’t matter the audience, the industry, or product; persuasive communication in business is the key to consistent success.

 

 

Pick your words carefully, be straightforward, ooze confidence, wave your accomplishments and be prepared to persuade like the professional you are.

 

 

It won’t be easy; persuasion is a time-honored skill that needs to be perfected. But guess what, nothing in life worth having is easy. Ron Malhotra said it best when he posited, “Life is hard, but it’s harder for those who expect it to be easy.”

 

 

 

FAQ

 

 

Why is persuasion important?

 

 

Persuasion is important as it allows you to directly influence someone’s thoughts and responses to a specific situation or topic. Effective persuasion will see your influence resulting in a scenario favorable to you.

 

 

What is persuasion in business?

 

 

Persuasion in business is the ability to lead customers, peers, or staff to create your desired outcome. In business, through marketing, you persuade customers to purchase products or services, thus driving up sales and increasing profits. In corporations, being an effective leader is usually characterized by the ability to persuade your team to align with each other and work with specific materials or technologies to maximize productivity.

 

 

What is a persuasive repetition technique?

 

 

Persuasive repetition is the technique utilized to elicit resonance with your audience. According to psychologists, you eventually convince your audience that what you’re saying is true when you use repetition. The more you say something, the more your listeners will be inclined to believe.

 

 

What is heuristic persuasion?

 

 

The heuristic model of persuasion is a theory detailing that persuasive messages can be digested in two different ways – systematic and heuristic. Systematic processing is the careful assessment of the merits of relevant information in the persuasive content. The Heuristic method of processing is the use of a subset of the information in the content as a foundation for determining if the message should be accepted.

 

 

What are persuasive techniques in advertising?

 

 

Ethos, pathos, and logos are the three categories of persuasive advertising techniques. Each type describes a different appeal between speaker and audience. Ethos calls upon the speaker’s ethics, or the values. Pathos speaks to the emotional resonance of the speaker to the audience, and logos appeals to the audience’s logical reasoning ability.