Last year, I went to see the film, The Intouchables, a French movie with subtitles. I hadn’t been to a subtitled film in awhile and I was delighted to see that they now have the words large enough on the screen so there is no struggle in reading and keeping up.
Also I realized that films are scripted to have simple, short, non-complex sentences easy enough for an audience to follow. So what does that mean to us as persuasive business presenters?
- Keep it simple. Use short sentences.
- Avoid complex language.
- Pace it well enough for your audience to pick up on what you are telling them.
- Use silence. Moments of pause is a gift to our audience. It’s in those blessed moments that they get to feel, absorb, and get on board to our message. It’s only then can they begin to buy-in to the intent of our pitch.
- Keep to your story. Structure it to have a flow from beginning to middle to end.
(NOTE: These techniques work well with visual aids using PowerPoint and other media.)
