Page 118 - Today’s Business Communication; A How-to Guide for the Modern Professional

WhY MUST I kNOW hOW TO INFLUENCE AND PERSUADE OThERS? 107

and help audience members retain the information for recall. So how can
we apply these ideas to our business communications?

Step 1 suggests that we need to get our audience’s attention. If you
recall, in Chapter 7, we provided you with a number of ways to
supercharge your presentation introductions (e.g., telling stories,
sharing statistics, and using humor). We gave you that advice
because we know that these are ways to get people to focus on your
message, to engage them right from the beginning. Message learn-
ing theory supports that basic approach.
Step 2 suggests that our persuasive messages must be comprehensible,
or easy to understand. We can accomplish this through a variety
of means. For example, Robert’s story near the beginning of this
chapter about banking ATM fees is a fine example of enhancing
audience comprehension. He mentioned writing a press release that
included consumer-friendly terms. The words we use go a long way
toward helping our audiences understand information. Organizing
information for audience members is another way that we make it
easier for them to understand the information. It is also important
for us to understand and meet our audience’s information needs.
Step 3 suggests that persuasive messages must be easy to recall. How
can we enhance recall? We have many tactics at our disposal, but
here are a few examples:
• Repeat important pieces of information.
• Provide information in small, digestible chunks.
• Employ mnemonic devices.
• Tie your message to something personally or professionally
relevant to your audience.
• Reduce or eliminate distractions from the message.

Our list is by no means exhaustive, but it should give you a good starting
point. Some research suggests—and rightly so—that simply retaining
information will not make that information more persuasive. In fact,
3
there are many factors that influence actual attitude and behavior change.
Perhaps most important is that not all people respond to information
in the same way. An argument that is persuasive to one person may not