Public Speaking International - Public Speaking Tips — How to Persuade an Audience

If you’re trying to get listeners in public speaking to accept your point of view--in business, politics, diplomacy, or social services you’re trying to persuade them.

"As the CEO of our company, I needed to speak at my very best for the corporate video we were shooting to attract investors. You got me right where I needed to be. I was amazed at how quickly you improved my on-camera performance and showed me how to make the script come alive. Your acting background is obviously the key to your success as a speech coach for film and video."
Susan E. Rice, Founder and President
Black Diamond French Truffles, Inc.

Every speech or presentation is persuasive to some degree.

If you’re trying to get listeners in public speaking to accept your point of view—in business, politics, diplomacy, or social services— you’re trying to persuade them. Even if your public speaking situation is an informative speech, you’re still getting listeners to accept that this information is worth retaining— and that means persuading them.

In Stephen Lucas’s book The Art of Public Speaking, the author discusses four specific types of persuasive speaking. At Public Speaking International, we’ve adapted that idea into what we call the C.U.R.E. Method of Persuasion for public speaking. You can think of it as a way to “cure an audience’s resistance to the message you think they need to hear. Here are the four components of the C.U.R.E. method:

Credibility: Credibility must be established early in public speaking if your listeners are to accept that you are worth listening to and that you have something worthwhile to say. Mention your bona fides, your years of experience, or your sheer joy concerning speaking on this topic.

Using Evidence: Your opinion may be clever and delightful, but as far as a public speaking audience is concerned, it is just your opinion. What evidence can you show to back it up? Use statistics, reports, testimony and expert opinion, stories, personal anecdotes, visuals, and anything else you think is relevant. If you back up your assertion with evidence in this way, you’ll be infinitely more persuasive in public speaking.

Reasoning: Public speaking audiences accept arguments that they find logical and well reasoned. Your speech or presentation therefore needs a logical framework. Your public speaking audiences will then be able to understand how you reached your conclusion. If your reasoning is sound, your audience will arrive at your persuasive point the same time you do. Wonderful!

Emotion: Emotion is a critical component of persuasion. Too often people shy away from emotion in public speaking, for no good reason. You should consciously use ethical emotional arguments to convince your listeners, because otherwise you’re leaving the human condition out of public speaking! Understand the mood or emotional climate in which the public speaking is taking place. Then, bring emotional language into your talk. Human beings make decisions emotionally then justify those decisions with a rational argument. Why shouldn’t you tap into this rich and essential component of persuasive public speaking?

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