79 The Skills of Persuasion Try to create a single sentence. Remember that you can’t
express an idea without uttering a sentence. Above all, this idea
should be
new
to the listener. After all, there’s no point in trying
to persuade them of something they already know or agree with!
Once you have decided on your message, consider whether
you think it is appropriate both to your objective and to your
listener. Does this sentence express what you want to say? Is it in
language that the listener will understand easily? Is it simple
enough?
Now test your message sentence. If you were to speak this
sentence to your listener, would they ask you a question? If so,
what would that question be? If your message is a clear one, it
will provoke
one
of these three questions:
• ‘Why?’ • ‘How?’ • ‘Which ones?’ If you can’t imagine your listener asking any of these questions,
they’re unlikely to be interested in your message. So try another.
If you can imagine them asking more than one of these
questions, try to simplify your message.
Now work out how to bring your listener to the place where
they will accept this message. You must ‘bring them around to
your way of thinking’. This means starting where the listener is
standing and gently guiding them to where you want them to be.
Once you are standing in the same place, there is a much stronger
chance that you will see things the same way. Persuading them
will become a great deal easier.
People will only be persuaded by ideas that interest them.
Your listener will only be interested in your message because it
answers some need or question that already exists in their mind.
An essential element in delivering your message, then, is
demonstrating that it relates to that need or that question.
Here is a simple four-point structure that will bring your
listener to the point where they can accept your message. I
remember it by using the letters SPQR.
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