How to Write a Persuasive Speech

You will learn how to write a persuasive speech. What I have done is I have picked four separate videos that were all designed to go together in the first place, and I have put them together here in one place for you. So let's learn how to write a persuasive speech together. (Upbeat music) It is much easier to understand what a persuasive message design is when we compare it to a more traditional, informational speech. Most presentations in professional settings are not technically persuasive. In fact, the goal of the vast majority is simply to inform listeners to one degree or another. We are often sharing information, showing people how to do things, training, teaching, or otherwise, to make people aware of a problem. Most informational presentations are centered around three basic parts that you will probably recognize, and that is the introduction, the body, and the conclusion. The main points are that the buckets in the body of the presentation are typically numbered first, second, and third. That bare-bones classic structure is what drives most informational speeches. What makes a presentation persuasive and not just informational, is not simply a matter of delivering the material in a compelling, convincing, or emotionally engaging way. What makes a presentation persuasive is when we are trying to change the listeners' opinions or behaviors by the end of that speech. Before the presentation, listeners are at point A, and at the end, you are trying to change their opinions or behaviors to meet you at point B. And to do that, we have to structure our message differently to draw listeners into that journey with us. Now, like an informational speech, a persuasive speech structure still has an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. In fact, the introduction of an informational and a persuasive speech are almost identical. You typically start by grabbing your audience's attention in some way, such as telling a story or sharing an interesting statistic. Some people call this your hook or your opening. Then you explain why the topic is important to your listeners. Next, you establish your credibility as a speaker worth listening to on this topic and for this audience. Then, you present your bottom line or thesis statement, and then you provide a preview or a roadmap for the rest of your presentation. With a few minor variations, the introduction of a persuasive speech is the same as that informational structure, but the three points in the middle of the body of the presentation are organized in a way that takes listeners on a persuasive journey. This is where most of the differences lie, and that is why we are going to focus on the three body points in this video. Instead of simply saying first, second, and third to inform listeners of these three elements or steps, persuasive messages organize the main points in the body around the problem, the solution, and the benefits in that exact order. Some people use different labels for these three main points. Instead of labeling the first point the problem, some people might call it the need. Instead of labeling the second point the solution, you will sometimes see it called the plan, the recommendation, or the satisfaction step, as in the Monroe motivated sequence. People usually label the third point, the benefits, but it is sometimes labeled the visualization step, or sometimes the visualization of benefits. The heart of these things is the same, although the labels may change. The foundation is problem, solution, and benefits. And now, are there other ways to organize the body of a persuasive message? Yes, and I will show you some alternatives in the next video, part two of this series. Using problem, solution, and benefits to organize your main points is really the classic way to organize the body of a persuasive speech, and I will prove that to you. I love old television commercials, classic commercials, because they use this recipe almost exactly. And the problem stage in a commercial, some athletes are shown, for example, in the middle of an important game and they are exhausted. That is the problem. Next, the solution is Gatorade, or some other sports drink. They show people in the commercial drinking some blue or red drinks. Then they show the benefits. The same athletes with renewed energy go out onto the field and play and win the game. A lot of those classic television commercials take place in the kitchen. They show a kitchen with some problems, such as the cabinets are all disorganized, and things are falling out because there are no good storage containers. And this causes stress and anxiety for this person in the kitchen. Next is the solution, which is a uniform interlocking system of plastic storage containers. They show the person using those containers to organize everything and sort it out, and they finish with the benefits by showing a beautiful, organized kitchen. The inside of the cabinets look great, but more importantly, everyone is happy about it. Advertisers love this because the problem, solution, and benefits points tell a story. This approach takes listeners on a satisfying, emotional, and psychological journey. Television advertisers have stolen this formula from the world of rhetoric dating back to Aristotle over 2000 years ago when he wrote a book on rhetoric called "Rhetoric." But for speeches, we do not want to come across as over the top as old television commercials. I am just using these examples to help us remember the problem, solution, and benefits points. So how can you use these points in a persuasive speech? We will use them in the body of the speech. Let us take a slightly more realistic example. In a professional setting, you might be giving a presentation in your organization where you are trying to persuade listeners to invest in a new and expensive marketing plan to grow your business. Let us say your company has not seen much growth, but has managed to survive mostly by cutting costs, but you want to persuade company leaders to change their approach and find ways to grow the business through more marketing. The problem point in your persuasive speech would likely be the fact that many customers are not aware of your product. You might focus on your declining market share. You might want to talk about the lack of current marketing efforts in your company to show that there is a real problem here that is not working. There is a clear gap or need to get the word out to potential customers, that is the problem. Next, you move to your solution point. In this particular speech, your solution is to recommend an ambitious marketing program. In that solution step, you have to lay out all of the relevant details, the exact steps that your proposed plan involves. You will talk about things like costs, the timeline, who will be involved, and then you move to the benefits step, which will help listeners see the potential positive aspects of adopting your solution. You will paint a vivid picture. You can use some success stories, for example, about similar organizations that have engaged in marketing campaigns like this. You can show data and results from past successes in your own company when you have made similar levels of investments. If this is a more technical presentation, you might use some simulations or modeling to predict future benefits. This example assumes you are talking to an internal audience like your team or your company leaders. These are people you already know to some extent, but the problem, solution, and benefits points work well with external audiences too, such as a potential client. Let us fill this in with another short example. This time we will pretend we are a recruiting firm, and we are talking to a potential client organization, a growing company that we want to do business with. The problem will be entirely focused on the challenges that this client is facing. Using persuasive speeches, you have to tailor your message at every step to fit your specific audience. For example, we know that this company is growing very quickly, and they are having a difficult time interviewing and hiring people fast enough to keep up with that growth. Because of the growth, they are experiencing internal pressure around responsibilities that are typically handled by an in-house HR department. Things like compensation and benefits and keeping up with everyone. The solution that we offer is to partner with us, and we will call it Recruiting X, Y, Z. We specialize in helping growing companies scale quickly. We streamline the interview and hiring process and we have a software package that streamlines compensation and benefits. We tell them exactly what the costs of the plan are, the steps involved, and how long it will take to implement this entire process. In other words, we tell them our proposed plan. We then move to our benefits point where we show them how this will save them time and money and give them the help they need so they can grow as fast as they want to. We show them how easy the process is to implement and roll out and we show them all about the kinds of success stories that we have seen with past clients, and the wins that we have helped other client organizations achieve that are just like them. That is how you build the body points in a persuasive speech using problem, solution, and benefits. Now, let us take a quick look at the conclusion. The first thing you do is signal the end of your speech by saying a phrase like "In conclusion" or some other phrase like that. You will then typically reinforce the bottom line, which is your main argument for this speech. I find it optional then to summarize your three main points in a persuasive speech. I always do that in an informational speech, but I find that it tends to slow down persuasive speeches and is not really necessary. But in a persuasive speech, you must have a call to action, which is mandatory, and then you finish with what some people call the parting shot. And that is to echo the hook from the beginning of the speech. And you should plan for your presentation to end on a high note like that, with a bang, as they say, not a whimper. This structure raises additional questions that we will answer in the rest of the four-part video series. One of the questions that is asked is are there other ways to organize a persuasive presentation besides problem, solution, and benefits? And yes, we will look at several other ways to do that, in part two of this series. Another question, how do you come up with all of these ideas and information that fill each of those main points in the body? Video three in this series will show you how to fill each of those buckets to maximize persuasive impact, and this video will also show you how to engage the hearts and minds of listeners equally when we fill those buckets. And the last main question that we will look at is how do you ask listeners to take the next step at the end of the speech, and that means that in part four of the series we will look at a persuasive conclusion, and I will show you 10 ways to call listeners to action at the end of a speech. (Upbeat music) We will look at three additional ways to organize the body of a persuasive presentation. In part one of this series, we looked at the classic problem, solution, and benefits design. This is part two in a four-part series. Today we will look at three alternative ways to organize your main points. They are very similar to your problem, solution, and benefits points, as you will see, but they have slight variations that will give you flexibility. The idea is that you will need to determine the best approach that fits your own message and the specific audience you are speaking to. I will give you recommendations, but you will ultimately need to use your best judgment to make that choice. I also encourage you to check out the free resources, classes, and group coaching options on my website. I will put links to the Communication Coach Academy in the description below this video. The first approach is actually the foundation of all persuasive messages, and that is the basic problem, solution, two main points. All persuasive messages that I have seen have a set of problems and solutions at their foundation. The most obvious difference between the problem, solution, and the problem, solution, and benefits points that we talked about in the first video in this series is that we leave off the benefits here. For example, I might be talking to some decision-makers in my company and explain a problem to them. They are having a lot of trouble getting new employees up to speed on how our workflows work. The solution that I recommend is to get the entire team together to review and map out how projects move through the organization. As this example shows, there might be many good reasons not to dedicate a full point to benefits. In this case, one reason for leaving off the benefits point is that the listeners may be very familiar with the problem, and they do not need the benefits explained to them in this way. One related reason for leaving off the benefits point is when there is a very close alignment between the problem that you have presented and the solution that you have offered. When you have this kind of message, your solution should eliminate most or all of the problems that you have already presented in a very clear way. My solution achieves that. If we get the entire team together and review and map out how projects flow through the organization, it might seem redundant to explain how this solution will provide benefits. It might be like saying, the problem is I am hungry, the solution is I will eat some food, and the benefits are I will no longer be hungry. If that benefits point is really obvious for any reason, you can choose to go from problem to solution and then move to your conclusion. But leaving off the benefits point is not the only difference during the actual speech. My example about company workflows is short, but when you use only problem and solution points, you often see speakers enhance or develop their problem point through two, three, or even four clear sub-points of the problem identified within that overall problem point. When crafting a full presentation on a topic, it looks as though these speakers are treating the problem point as a standalone speech about the problem. This is typically where the speaker will address the problem strongly and clearly to build a very strong case that there is indeed a problem with multiple problems that can be identified, and then they will recommend their solution. And in the same way, they can do that with the solution that they have come up with. And they might develop their solution point in an equally clear and detailed way with sub-points, as if it were a standalone mini-speech about their proposed plan. And that makes sense, because if your speech only has an introduction, a conclusion, and two points in the body, you need to make sure that you develop those two points fully. The second variation is using problem, cause, and solution main points. Clearly, you can still see that we are grounded in the problem and thinking about the solution, but here we are coming back to using three sets by explaining the causes of this problem. This essentially adds another layer to our discussion of the problem by explaining the drivers of this problem at a deeper and more detailed level. Sometimes, it will make your speech better. For example, I might be giving a presentation, and the problem that I am explaining is that our company's growth has been nearly stagnant for the past 18 months. Next, I would explain that the reason for stagnant growth is that all of our current store locations are at capacity, and we can no longer rely on continued growth from existing locations. They have already hit their maximum. The solution that I recommend is to open additional store locations so that we can continue to grow the company overall. I have often seen the problem, cause, and solution design used when we are talking to supervisors or leaders or decision-makers who are two or more levels above us in the organization. If that is the case, you might need an additional point explaining the causes of the problem because those causes may not be obvious to stakeholders who are not fully familiar with those underlying issues. You might also want to talk about the causes of the problem, and therefore the specific solution that you are about to recommend seems appropriate for the problem that you have explained. For example, adding new store locations is a more expensive proposition for growth compared to increasing sales at existing locations. But when I explain in my point the reasons why our existing locations are already operating at full capacity, adding new store locations becomes a solution that is seen as more aligned between the actual problem we are facing and the solution that we recommend. And that is why I sometimes recommend adding a point about causes. It might help you create a tighter logical flow between your main points, and it will tell a more cohesive story. The third alternative is to organize your main points around symptoms, causes, and cures. You will typically see this in areas related to healthcare. This is a bit specific and may not apply to your professional environment, but it is still worth learning about, because it will show you how pervasive persuasive messages are across industries, even though they may use different terminology. It may also help you add some nuance to the way you explain things to clients, your team, or supervisors. In healthcare conversations, articles, and presentations, you will hear symptoms, causes, and cures all day long. Let us look at an example and I will show you that this is really just a rearranged persuasive message design. For example, you go to the doctor to discuss some symptoms that appear to be diabetes. Increased thirst, frequent urination, fatigue, blurred vision, unexplained weight loss, and numbness or tingling in the hands and feet. Some of the causes are insulin resistance, autoimmune disease, hormonal imbalances, pancreatic damage, and genetic mutations. The cures are blood sugar monitoring, oral medications, insulin, diet, and exercise. Google almost any medical condition, and you will see the results laid out using symptoms, causes, and cures as an outline. This may seem fanciful or technical, but let me show you how this is just a change in the persuasive message design that we have already seen. Talking about symptoms is really just another way of talking about the problems that you are experiencing as a patient. The next point is about causes, and this point is the same. You are talking about the causes of any problem that you are experiencing. And the cure is really just another word for the recommended solution. This cure is intended to solve your medical problem or at least manage it. And it makes a lot of sense that healthcare professionals would use these main points. They are often trying to persuade their patients to adopt a particular course of treatment, so it is natural that they would organize their thoughts in a persuasive way. It is probably clear by now, but let us bring all of these approaches together and we will look at all of these approaches together and you will see a clear pattern emerge among them. Essentially, they all involve problem and solution points. Sometimes you want to expand on the causes of the problem. And other times you might want to clarify the benefits in a very clear way, as we did in the previous video. And symptoms, causes, and cures are mostly about using different words with very similar meanings. The reason why they all talk about the problem first is to create the motivation to adopt the solution. If you just jump to the solution and never explain the problem, it is not going to be a very persuasive message. These are three alternative ways to organize a persuasive speech. Feel free to let me know your preferred approach and your own message for your specific audience that you see yourself speaking to. And as we mentioned, this is part two of a four-part series on how to write a persuasive speech. In part three, we will look at how to engage the hearts and minds of listeners by filling those main points or buckets with the right balance of supporting material. (Upbeat music) You will learn exactly how to engage the hearts and minds of your listeners so that you can become a more persuasive speaker. This is part three in a four-part series on how to write more persuasive speeches. In the first two videos, we talked about how to organize the buckets in the body, the main points. For example, you can organize that around problem, solution, and benefits, or you can choose just two points, problem and solution. And we talked about the other variations too. But the question remains, when we get those main points, what do we put inside them? What supporting material do we fill our buckets with to make sure that the message is more persuasive? And that is what this video is all about. To be more persuasive, you need to engage the hearts and minds of your listeners equally. If you neglect either side of the equation, your message will not be as persuasive as it could be. First, if you want to be more persuasive, you need to appeal to the listeners' hearts. In this video, I will use the problem, solution, and benefits groupings that we talked about in a previous video as a basis. But the same advice should apply to all of the other alternative ways that we talked about to organize your main points. In terms of content, to engage the listeners' hearts, you need to include what we call specific types of supporting material within each of these three groupings, and there are four ways to engage the listeners' hearts, stories, real-life examples, vivid language, and quotes. All of these supporting materials should be specifically tailored to engage the listeners that you are speaking to specifically. In the context of the entire presentation, you should distribute these types of supporting material so that they appeal to the listeners' hearts all the way through, and the first way to do that is through storytelling. A story can be as short as 20 or 30 seconds, and if you are a skilled speaker and you are giving a longer presentation, some stories can last for several minutes. A good story has a clear beginning, middle, and end, and reaching people's hearts with stories is all about mentioning specific people, taking specific actions, at specific times and places. These details will help listeners visualize what is happening in the story in their minds, and this will engage their emotions and their hearts. Stories transport us into the world that the speaker is telling us about. A good story can take us away and engage our imagination and our emotions. Stories can be about you, or about people you know, or about stories you have read. But make sure you do not steal other people's stories. Give them proper credit and citations if you are referencing something you read or heard elsewhere. And in the same way, short, real-life examples appeal to our hearts as well. Examples do not tell a full story, they might be just two or three sentences long. But as long as they are specific, they will resonate with your listeners. To illustrate what I mean, I will go back to an example from a previous video where I was talking about how to organize a speech around the problem, cause, and solution framework. I was talking in that video about the problem, which is that our company has not seen any growth for the past 18 months. The cause was that all of our existing stores have reached their maximum capacity, and there is no longer any room or capacity for growth anymore. So the solution that I recommended was to open new store locations so that we could continue to grow our company. Let us say I wanted to put a short example in the cause grouping of that speech. I would say, for example, that CJ Company owns and operates one of our stores in Albany. Its sales are consistently high. They have no vacancies. Its costs are as low as they can possibly be, and that means there is no way for CJ and its staff to grow their business any further than it is right now. It is not a full story, but we can visualize and connect with real people in those real situations. And that appeals to our hearts in a way that raw data about sales figures does not. Another way to engage listeners' hearts is by using vivid language that paints a picture. You can enhance the emotional appeal of our message this way. If I were sharing an example or a story about a wealthy neighborhood, or a quote, or a wealthy neighborhood, for example, I would have to do better than using vague language, such as it looked beautiful or upscale. Instead, I would use vivid language that paints a picture in the listeners' minds. I would talk about the homes in this neighborhood having expansive yards with lush green grass. The streets are lined with old trees. I would talk about the professional-grade landscaping that surrounds these million-dollar mini-mansions that have three-car garages. Now, I do not know if this type of neighborhood appeals to you, but there is no denying that vivid language like this is much easier to visualize than general language about a nice-looking upscale neighborhood. The fourth way to engage listeners' hearts is through quotes, or at least some type of quotes. When you are in the preparation phase of your presentation, you will often come across great quotes from a writer, or perhaps song lyrics that capture the essence of the message you want to share, but the quote may say it with a little bit more emotional flair than your own words can achieve. There is this quote that I love that is attributed to the inventor, Thomas Edison, about hard work. He said, "Most people miss opportunity "because it is often dressed in work clothes "and looks a lot like hard work." That is clever. It has some humor to it. I could not have come up with that on my own. Every time I hear a great quote like that, I can feel a spark of emotion. So, as you are preparing your speech, be on the lookout for those great stories, examples, vivid language, and quotes that fire up your emotional engine. If they stand out to you, they are likely to stand out to your listeners. Then you distribute them in the appropriate grouping of your speech so that there is about every minute or so another piece of your message that keeps listeners' hearts engaged. Second, we need to engage listeners' minds equally if we want to be persuasive. If all we did was appeal to listeners' emotions, a significant portion of our audience would eventually ask themselves, well, that is a great story, I get it, but how big is the problem really? Appealing to emotions is about details, so you need to balance that by justifying your persuasive claims and information that establishes general support for your message. The four ways to engage listeners' minds are through facts, statistics, again quotes, and other types of hard evidence. Basic facts do not have a lot of emotion associated with them, but they speak to our rational side, our minds. Going back to a previous example, if I were talking about our company and how it has not grown in 18 months, I might mention the fact that we have not opened any new stores in five years. That fact would be really important when I move to my solution and recommend that we need to open a new store. In a previous video in this series, I was talking about the causes of diabetes, and I was mentioning just the facts, such as insulin resistance, pancreatic damage, and genetic mutations. Some facts may be obvious, but other facts can be drawn from your research. The next way to engage listeners' minds is by giving statistics that are expressed in numbers and percentages. I sometimes give a presentation in my college classes about the importance of starting with a retirement investment plan right after graduation. One statistic that I share is that 50% of Americans have saved almost nothing for retirement. You will often see statistics displayed on a chart or a graph, and displaying them visually can be very compelling because you can show trends, differences, and relationships between the variables that you are talking about. The third way to engage listeners' minds is again quotes. Quotes are on both lists because we are talking about expert quotes here. These quotes will contain the type of information that will support your point. If you are trying to persuade listeners that investing in a mutual index fund is a good way to start, you might need to quote an expert. For example, Warren Buffett, he is one of the wealthiest people alive and he has made a lot of money through investing. He has said for about the hundredth time, "The goal of most professional investors "should be to own a broad sector of companies "that in aggregate cannot help but do well. "And a low-cost S&P 500 index fund will achieve that goal." A quote like that from an expert is excellent evidence that will appeal to listeners' minds. Now it is not just you saying this as a speaker, but you are bringing expert voices into your speech through their quotes. I have mentioned quotes twice because it is all about the essence of the quote itself. So how do you know which is which? Well, it all depends on the specific quote. As a general rule, quotes that appeal to listeners' minds typically come from experts, researchers, and other types of subject matter authorities. Quotes that appeal to our hearts often come from authors, philosophers, and other types of writers, song lyrics, and sources like that. This is one of those times where you have to trust your judgment since every quote is unique. The fourth way to engage listeners' minds is through any other type of compelling evidence. For example, photographic evidence or videos can be incredibly persuasive. You might want to include relevant photos and discuss what they show in your presentation, for example. And this is very common in fields like law, healthcare, and other situations where visualization is credible. Another example could be citing the overall findings of a research study that shows a relationship between important variables. Sharing the details from research studies and findings will go beyond just a single fact or statistic, and it usually paints a comprehensive picture of strong evidence that appeals to listeners' minds. A positive or negative case study is another example of strong evidence. As you are preparing and developing your presentation behind the scenes, be on the lookout for facts, statistics, quotes, and other types of strong evidence, just as we did when we were appealing to listeners' emotions, we will distribute these types of supporting material within each grouping of our persuasive speech so that we keep the rational sides of listeners engaged throughout the message. And here is a pro tip on top of that. Within each bucket, make sure that you bounce back and forth between these two types of supporting material. I have found that when speakers present too many statistics or facts or strong evidence in a row, the information starts to lose its impact. It is much better to go back and forth, and present a statistic or engage listeners' minds in some way, and then immediately follow that up with something that appeals to listeners' emotions, such as a personal story or an example. This back-and-forth pattern is engaging and persuasive because it feels constantly fresh. Alternating like this as a general rule is a great way to engage listeners' hearts and minds equally. (Upbeat music) I will show you 10 practical ways that you can call your listeners to action at the end of a persuasive speech. This is part four of a four-part series on how to write a persuasive speech. Look for links to the entire series in the description below this video. One of the key differences between most other types of speeches and a persuasive speech is that there is always a call to action at the conclusion of a persuasive message. It is also one of the areas where many speakers struggle, so we will look at 10 practical ways to call listeners to action. The idea is that you will use only one of these elements near the end of your speech. Most of these ways work well with presentations over Zoom as well as face-to-face, but you will have to adapt my advice to your own situation. Now, I promise that we will look at 10 of them in a moment, but this is what I mean by a call to action in this video specifically for the public speaking situation. And this is what is not a call to action. It is not the same closing tactic that you might see salespeople use. Even in a professional setting, you should not use any kind of artificial pressure at the end of a presentation to make people feel like they have to agree with you immediately, or that the deal is off the table. I do not teach that garbage on my channel. Most persuasive presentations are the beginning of the presentation, not the end. And in the same way, a call to action is not a pointless manipulative pressure moment. A call to action in a speech should not involve, for example, a huge commitment or a challenging big step. Instead, think of the call to action phrase as nothing more than a clear and concise invitation. You are asking listeners, if they liked what they have heard so far, to take the natural next step toward the solution that you have already explained in the body of the presentation. A good call to action phrase should also be very clear, transparent, and simple, and it is an easy step for listeners to take. Here is a list of the top 10. There is a little bit of overlap between some of them, but you will typically want to choose only one. The main point is that you should be able to deliver each of these calls to action in just a few sentences near the end of your conclusion. First, you can have listeners scan a QR code on the screen that leads, for example, to a signup page or some other resources. Now, this has become very common these days, and I wanted to mention it and get it out of the way, but it is still useful. I use this quite often. If you have done your job well, throughout the rest of the presentation, many listeners will want to know more, and a QR code can lead to almost any online resource, and it puts listeners exactly where they want to be. The next step. Second, you can ask listeners to provide their email address in exchange for a one-time gift. There are many reasons why they might want to do that. They might want to get more information from you, or get a one-time gift, such as a workbook, a checklist, or some other important tips that you can provide them or other gifts. I do not personally do this, but many speakers will offer to send a copy of their PowerPoint slide deck to their listeners via email. Sometimes, an email reminder is the type of message that listeners will be grateful for, especially if there is some time-sensitive information or something happening on a specific date. Number three, in the same way, you can have some free items available in a physical form that listeners can take with them when they leave the room. This could be a printed booklet or any other type of physical handout. A few months ago, I was personally giving a presentation with Julianne Meriwether about our book, "Positive Communication for Leaders." Julianne always provides a postcard-sized diagram of her model, the Positive Communication Wheel. On that postcard, there is also a website and other contact information. This little postcard often leads to increased book sales and additional speaking invitations for Julianne. Offering something physical like a booklet or a postcard might seem a little bit old-fashioned, but many people still like it. Number four, you can invite them to subscribe to an ongoing newsletter. This again involves asking them for their email address, or perhaps their physical address if you send out a print version of the newsletter. Some people still do that. Instead of sending them a one-time free gift like a booklet or a checklist, you will invite them to sign up for actual ongoing newsletter correspondence with you. This can be high-quality information that you send out periodically, and it is a nice variation on this call to action because it does not necessarily have to be uniquely tailored for each speech or each audience. One of my consultant friends used this to send out a newsletter once every three months. It always contained expert-level useful information, and it was a great way for her to stay in touch with her repeat clients who were frequently calling her back year after year to do workshops and executive coaching. Number five, I have seen many speakers offer a one-time free phone call or consultation or follow-up meeting after the presentation. Like all of these other calls to action, you need to choose one that fits your goals and purpose, as well as something that the listeners will benefit from. Perhaps, for example, you are a financial advisor. In that case, a one-time free follow-up consultation might make sense for both of you. This could also be a small group meeting for follow-up. Years ago, I was attending a large presentation that was about helping young people become professional speakers. There were probably a few hundred people in the large room, but the call to action was for first-time attendees to have a small group follow-up meeting right after the big presentation. So I attended that meeting with about six or seven other young professionals, and the information was really useful and tailored for us, and it was worth our time. Number six, you can ask listeners to donate money, time, or help. You typically see this at the end of any type of presentation.

Non-profit. These speakers are often present to elicit various forms of support from their audiences directly. I know of a non-profit organization that runs residential facilities for young women who are dealing with various types of mental health struggles. The leaders use public speaking as one of their main fundraising strategies. They talk about how the organization helps a lot of people, and then at the end of the presentation in their call to action, they directly ask the audience to donate money to support the cause. Other speakers might ask the audience to donate their time or labor, such as helping to repair a building in the community. Number seven, some speakers who are speaking to an internal audience might ask the audience to make a decision to support whatever plan or project or cause they are there to talk about. In fact, this is one of the most common types of calls to action that you will see if you are speaking to your own company. But many speakers are not clear enough about their call to action here. So maybe you are speaking to your supervisor or a team of leaders maybe in your department. Your project might need their approval, or money, or just a formal yes. There is always someone working above us who can say yes or no. If you are giving a persuasive presentation to an internal audience, make sure you have a clear call to action where you directly ask them to support your project. They may not be able to say yes immediately and do not say it in a way that creates artificial pressure or puts them on the spot. It is certainly likely that the presentation will be followed up by more conversations, but you at least want to be clear about what you are asking them. Otherwise, if you do not ask directly, they may get the impression. You are just there to inform them about your project and generally let them know. Number eight, you can ask your audience to make a commitment to themselves. You will often be speaking about a topic that is really important, but there is nothing specific that the audience can do there. What I have seen some speakers do is ask the audience to stop and make a decision for themselves. I have even seen some speakers hand out, let's say a small card, a commitment card with some information about it. The commitment could be to exercise three days a week. It could be a commitment to read more books. The possibilities are endless. The idea is to ask the audience to do at least one small thing, even if it is just to write their names on the personal commitment card that they keep. This might be an extra step that motivates them to follow through on what you have talked about in your message. Number nine, this is similar. You can ask your audience to do something symbolic right away, a symbolic act or a little bit of practice. Let's say you are giving a speech to college graduates, whom I speak to often, and they are about to graduate and get their first full-time job. Your presentation is intended to encourage them to sign up for their future employers' 401(k) program when they start their careers. Obviously now, they are in the room with you, they are not in their employers' offices, and they may not even have a full-time job yet, but you would still ask them to take a symbolic action, something like you ask them, repeat after me. "When my employer asks me "if I want to sign up for the 401(k) program, I will say yes." And then they will say that with you. This type of call to action is useful when you can't do the actual thing, but it is a little bit more public than just a personal commitment card, for example, instead, ask them to practice out loud or do something symbolic to reinforce your message and number 10, invite them for a personal conversation right afterwards. I like this speech because it is very natural and it comes up at almost every time you give a speech, a certain percentage of people will want to meet with you and talk with you and interact with you in a room of 30 people you will hear a handful of them get your message and they will have a disposition, let's do it, so you can use this natural desire as a call to action. There are some terms that professional speakers use, and it is called "room sales back." Have you heard of this, where they will often mention at the end of their talk that they have books or other resources for sale after their speech in the back of the room. But what many speakers say is that the real benefits are what they call room sales, right in front of the speaking area. If they have done a good job with their presentation, they say, if you want to talk more, come down to the front after the presentation, I will be happy to talk with you. This usually leads to great conversations, and sometimes it leads to additional invitations to give more presentations to other client organizations. Here is a summary of the top 10 calls to action that you can do at the end of a persuasive speech, but just pick one of them for each speech. This will be done near the end of your conclusion, but you can still share a brief final story or otherwise go out on a high note before you actually end the presentation. I put my call to action in the second to last position in my presentations, and then I finish with what many people call the parting shot. This is the end of part four of this series, and this is my call to action for you. If you have watched this video, or if you have watched the entire four-video series, please say hello in the comments section below. And if you do, I will give you a heart, and I will congratulate you on finishing the entire series. In the meantime, feel free to take a look at my website and all the free resources there. Group coaching options, called the Communication Coach Academy. Links for all of that are in the description below. And until next time, thank you, God bless you, and I will see you soon.