Presentation Ready by Terri L. Sjodin

Author:Terri L. Sjodin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McGraw Hill LLC
Published: 2024-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Understanding the Issue of Failing to Create Connection with Listeners

When examining an individual’s overall message, it can be difficult to pinpoint why certain presenters connect with some audiences and not others. People generally tend to gravitate toward those with whom they share interests, outlooks, and values. Speakers and listeners might also bond over mutual challenges, concerns, and dislikes. There are many different levels and kinds of connection, and establishing a rapport with an audience exists on an ever-changing continuum.

Entrepreneur Patrick Henry is very intentional about the people he does business with, and he’s always on the lookout for genuine partners and reliable connections. To that end, he selects team members, clients, and other partners based on how well they pass what he calls “the boat test.” After weighing what he knows and has observed firsthand, he asks himself if he’d want to spend four to six hours on a boat with that person. Would the person be fun, safe, interesting, and dependable and have any of the other qualities needed for a pleasant day on the water? The answer determines whether he moves the relationship forward.

This chapter explores the dynamic, nuanced subject of connection and its significant effect on persuasive communication. Connection drives action. History and data have repeatedly demonstrated that speakers who form a connection with their listeners are more likely to persuade them to listen, change their minds, or decide to act. It makes sense, and yet it remains a sticking point for today’s professionals.

The process of building connection can seem a bit mysterious and subjective, but we can quantify parts of it by analyzing what it means to fall short in this area. In the State of Sales Presentations research study, participants provided examples of observed behaviors relating to the mistake of failing to create connection with listeners, which include:

Not listening to clients

Failing to understand and adapt to audience concerns

Interrupting the audience

Doing a poor job of acknowledging audience cues

Doing most of the talking and not engaging with the audience

Not pausing to determine if the information is of value to the listener

Stereotyping or prejudging prospects

Not asking enough questions to create engagement

Speaking in an unfriendly or off-putting style

Ouch! While no one does these things intentionally, they happen every day. Most speakers intuitively know the importance of connecting with listeners, but the above missteps are all too common. One reason speakers fail to create connection is that they spend more time on explaining their product or service and too little time on setting the mood and establishing the common ground that will help bridge the gap between them and their listeners.

What can persuasive speakers do to hone their ability to create connection? The answer to this question includes exploring a speaker’s personal communication style as well as the substance of the message being shared. We will delve into style in the next section on delivery. In this chapter, we will explore substance.

Aristotle’s fourth-century work Rhetoric contains a classic, even timeless, formula that can be applied to any persuasive presentation to build a better, stronger connection with listeners.

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