You have laid a solid foundation, now to build your convincing strategy. Block by block, you need to assemble a story and proof that can withstand even the Big Bad Wolf.
Like the three little pigs in the fairy tale, you can build your house with a variety of raw materials. You can use straw or sticks, but like the smart little pig, I’d recommend you use bricks. In fact, I have some suggestions about what kind of blocks you should use.
Here are the five building blocks of convincing:
In the world of convincing, copy is text that you write. I’m not talking about how it looks (such as the font or style), I’m talking about what it says. When you write, keep in mind the Five Ws (and one H): Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How. When you edit what you wrote, make sure it satisfies the Five Cs: Is it Clear, Correct, Concise, Comprehensible, and Consistent?
Is your audience reading or listening? We read at 250 words per minute (wpm) and listen at 150. How many words do you need and time do you have? When you write to be read, learn from experts – like Copyblogger. When you write to be heard, you need a different style. Radio writer and producer Nancy Updike has some super advice in this two part series on Transom.org.
Written words convey a thought. While a great writer can use words to make us laugh or cry; most of us need the power of sound to bring emotion into our message. In the early days, radio shows like The Shadow were called “Theater for the Mind.” Can you use your voice, the voice of others, and location sounds to create visual audio that tells your story?
National Public Radio (NPR) is the king of documentary audio. Can you create what NPR calls a “Driveway Moment” for your listener/buyer? Whether you deliver your message in real time (such as a presentation) or delayed (such as recorded audio), if you follow theideamechanic I’ll give you lots of tips (like read Radio College) to help you create compelling messages.
“A picture is worth a thousand words.” Sometimes we don’t want a listener/buyer to imagine based on visual audio. When we need to prove we often rely on pictures. But these days, with tools like Adobe Photoshop, the line between reality and imagination can be blurry. Pictures are awesome, but make sure your buyer understands whether they are looking at fact or fiction.
“If a picture is worth a thousand words, then video must be worth 30,000 words per second.” Tongue in cheek, my friend was referring to the rate of 30 frames per second for video. Video can tell a lifetime of experiences in only a few minutes. (Have you seen the movie UP?) Keep in mind though, as your convincing moves up from copy to video, so will your cost.
Make it real. If I describe the concept of time, you might get it. If I show you a timeline of US history, you might grasp it better. But if I place an old fashioned alarm clock (you know, the one you wind and it goes “tick-tock”) in your hands and ask you to set it to the current time, then the abstract concept of time becomes physical.
Any idea can take a million shapes. But when you constrain it to an implementation, then it becomes a tangible product, service, or point-of-view. Even a point-of-view can be instantiated. The US constitution is an instantiation for the concept of freedom. Whether it’s a working prototype or the embodiment of an ideal, make it real for your buyer.
Tell a person there’s a million stars in the sky and they’ll believe you. Tell them there’s wet paint on the park bench and they’ll have to touch it to believe. Some of us learn audibly, some learn better visually, but most of us learn and remember best when we have the chance to “get our hands dirty.”
Kinesthetic comes from the Greek words “kinein” – “to move” and “aisthēsis” – “sensation.” A story well told will get a buyer’s attention. Presenting undeniable proof will lock them in. But giving your buyer an engaging, sensory experience (e.g. think of taking a car out for a test drive) will ultimately be the best convincing (actually self-convincing) approach you can take.
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So, now you have your foundation (5 principles) and your raw material (5 building blocks). To learn which key selling tools a master craftsman ALWAYS keeps in their toolbox, read the Five Tools in the Toolbox post next.
Getting Started article (6) of (10). Previous/Next
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