TGIF BY KELVIN CHESSA ARE YOU PERSUASIVE ENOUGH?? PART 2 In my previous post, I had started you off on how imperative is the art of persuasion in selling out your idea to a prospective investor holding the purse strings to your idea. Today I’ll finish up on more skills even as we prepare to face the potential investors on 14th November at the entrepreneur’s event. 4. Winning ideas mean never having to say you’re sorry – it’s astonishing to me how often presenters apologize to their audience: “Listen, I’m sure you’ve seen so many pitched ideas like this, but,” or “I know you’re busy so I won’t take up too much of your time,” or “Let me just show you this idea; it’s not very long at all; I promise.” Even the seemingly harmless and permeating,” let me just quickly walk you through this,” has inherent apology laced through it. What you’re really conveying is “I know you find this boring, but if I get through it quickly you’ll be bored for a shorter period of time.” Give no apologies whatsoever even if it’s an implied one. Believe in your idea. 5. Visualize success- Help your bosses or colleagues envision how good the result can be if your suggested course of action is implemented. You must paint a specific and visual picture of what success looks like thanks to your idea. 6. Lead with your best stuff – You’re always playing a game of diminishing returns when it comes to capturing the attention and engagement of your audience. Gradually building to the strongest aspects of your idea is a bad strategy since some of your audience may have tuned out by that point. Start with your strongest and most convincing elements of your idea. 7. Channel your inner mastery –an entrepreneur’s pitch should be approached like a game of chess. Not only should you go in with your own strategy and game plan, but you also need to anticipate the other players’ likely moves. See if you can predict how the pessimists will express skepticism. Where will they try to punch some holes in your idea? Don’t be so enamored with your own idea that you can’t spot its potential flaws. When challenged in the meeting, don’t get defensive. In fact validate that you’ve considered the very doubt you’re now asked to address. All the very best to all the fresh and yet to be hatched out ideas in your hearts and minds in meeting potential ideas. May we make the world a better place by the virtue of our existence. Lets meet on top. Have a refreshing weekend.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 04:00:00 +0000
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