英语书籍：Well Said (节选5）

英语书籍：Well Said (节选5 The End）ZT

WELL SAID!; Presentations and Conversations That Get
Results by Darlene Price


CHAPTER 1: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

* The audience is the most important element of every presentation.

* Answer these ten questions to prepare for a persuasive
presentation:

1. Who is my audience?

2. What are their expectations and why are they here?

3. What are their main issues and challenges related to my topic?

4. How does my message address or solve their issues? How does it
help them?

5. What do you want them to do as a result of hearing your message?

6. What is the single most important idea you want to communicate to
this audience?

7. How much does your audience already know?

8. What are your audience's attitudes about you, the topic, and the
environment?

9. What are their personality types?

10. What objections or questions might this audience have?

* As you complete your "homework" by learning more about your
audience, find out everything you can about the venue, how you'll be
introduced, what the audience already knows, the objections you
could face, and the single most important idea you will want to
communicate.


CHAPTER TWO

How to Persuade a
Decision Maker

Be sincere, be brief, be seated.
--FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT


Imagine you and your colleagues are sitting in a business meeting
when suddenly you smell smoke. It's that smoldering stench that only
comes from a fire. Sure enough, smoke begins to ooze slowly under
the door. You can see fear fill the faces of everyone. Do you sit
tight and wait for help? Do you open the door and risk a rush of
flames? Should you jump out the window (from the fifth floor)? To
your relief, a fire marshal enters the room to help.

By the way, he's an award-winning firefighter with three decades of
experience. In fact, he teaches at the local fire department and
serves as a mentor to new volunteers. His workshops and lectures on
safety draw big crowds and everyone agrees he's a local hero. He
knows so much about the subject it's sometimes tough for him to
decide what to say.

Now back to the fire and your personal safety. Given this fire
marshal's extensive background, depth and breadth of subject matter
expertise, and impressive reputation, what would you like him to
talk about when he enters the room (just as you're beginning to
cough from smoke inhalation and the temperature is rising)? Consider
the following list of speaking points in his impressive repertoire.
Please circle the one(s) you would like him to say. And remember,
the building is on fire.


A. Allow me to show you the proper way to install a fire alarm.

B. It's time now to review your company's fire prevention policies.

C. The fossil record of fire first appears in land-based flora in
the Middle Ordovician period.

D. There's a fire on the first floor. Please listen carefully.

E. Today we'll discuss the biggest fires in history.

F. Scholars attribute the first use of controlled fire to Homo
erectus 400,000 years ago.

G.The nearest fire escape is down the hall, second door on the left,
marked with a red X.

H. Let's watch a step-by-step video on how to extinguish a fire.

I. Two million fires are reported every year in the United States.

J. For your safety, be sure to comply with the following
procedures...


Chances are you chose D, G, and J. Why? Because they are the only
ones on the list that are relevant to your situation and will help
you survive. Despite the fact that the fire marshal is an eloquent,
intelligent speaker and passionately lectures on the other seven
subjects, frankly you are only interested in three of them. The
reason is self-interest. As explained in Chapter 1, you are tuned to
radio station WIIFM--What's In It For Me? Can you imagine how
inappropriate, bizarre, and off-base it would seem for the fire
marshal to enter your smoke-filled room and begin lecturing about
anything other than your safety and an evacuation route?


WHAT DO DECISION MAKERS REALLY WANT TO KNOW?

Decision makers feel exactly the same way. They too are tuned to
WIIFM. As senior managers and leaders in the corporation, they are
putting out fires every day. Metaphorically speaking, they live in
smoke-filled rooms. When you, the fire marshal, arrive to say
something helpful to them--in a face-to-face conversation, a formal
presentation, a teleconference, or webinar--they only want to hear
D, G, and J. They want you to answer the questions, "Where is the
fire?" "What is the evacuation route?" "Briefly, what procedures do
we follow to get there?"

Persuasion is everywhere in human interactions. From the caring
efforts of a mother convincing her feisty five-year-old to eat his
vegetables to the overt attempts of advertisers trying to sell us a
new car, people and businesses seek to influence others. The
situations vary, but eventually there comes a time when you are
after just one thing: compliance. You need to direct another
person's behavior toward a specific course of action or a point of
view; you want them to do what "you" want.

This skill is critical in presenting to decision makers. Whether
your goal is to sell, inform, motivate, train, entertain, or build
goodwill, it's your ability to persuade an audience that ultimately
determines your degree of success or failure. When you finish
speaking, you want the decision maker to say "yes" to your point of
view.

To be successful at affecting the beliefs and actions of others, you
must not only understand what motivates people to act, but also how
to use that knowledge to your advantage. As Aristotle wrote, "The
fool tells me his reasons; the wise man persuades me with my own."