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Delivering the Logic
After you’ve established your credibility and built a foundation of trust during your speaking presentation, it’s time to move on to the logic of your argument. If you share a core belief with your audience (known as a commonplace or a shared belief), you can start with it and proceed from the general belief to the specific conclusion. This is deductive logic and most logicians consider it the most powerful argumentative form. If you don’t have a shared belief with the audience, however, you’ll need to start with specific cases and proceed to a general conclusion. This is inductive logic. With deductive logic, you start with a shared belief. With inductive logic, you end with a shared belief. Learn more in the video.
Building Credibility & Trust
Your first task in delivering a persuasive presentation is to establish your credibility and show the audience that they can trust you. The Greeks called it “ethos” — it has to do with your character and your degree of fit with the audience. The audience will ask several questions of you. Does she respect us? Does she use our time wisely? Does she know what she’s talking about? Is she an egghead or does she have the practical wisdom to recommend a practical course of action? Does she share our values? These are all subliminal questions but your actions during the first five minutes of a speaking presentation will answer most of them. Find out more in the video.
The Perfect Structure
The Greeks loved things that came in threes. That’s certainly true with the “perfect structure” they designed for the persuasive presentation. You start with “ethos” — using your character and the art of decorum to establish credibility and a foundation of trust. Then you progress to “logos”, stating the logic of your argument. You conclude by touching on the audience’s emotions, what the Greeks called “pathos”. Ethos, logos, pathos — watch the video to see how it all fits together.
Persuasive Objective
When you give a persuasive presentation, should you focus on logic or emotion? Facts and data or character and trust? What will the audience remember? What do you want them to remember? The fact is, they won’t remember your facts. So, your most effective communication needs to focus on building a foundation based on trust. But trust is an emotion… so what do you do? Learn more in this video.
The Single Best Tip
Managing your time effectively is a critical component of a persuasive presentation. If you run overtime, you’re communicating that you don’t respect the audience, that you’re not an organized person, and that your company probably isn’t either. There’s an important corollary as well: presentations always take longer than rehearsals. Here’s how to plan ahead for better time management.
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