But Florian, how can I apply all these stories and all these metaphors and all this emotional stuff in my everyday business presentations?
Do you have any idea how many times I heard this question? The simple answer is: It’s the wrong question.
All your bullshit bingo-driven business logic – win-win, synergies, critical mass, value chain, added value, value drivers, … – might sound super fancy and it might even make sense, but …
Will anyone stay awake?
Will anyone be excited about it?
Will anyone connect with you and your content emotionally?
And, most importantly, will anyone remember anything?
Four rhetorical questions in a row make more sense than any non-violent movement by MLK jr.
The question is not, How do I add pathos to my business logos? The question is, When do you begin?
Two ideas.
Wrap your logos
You can say,
Our conversion rate in our online business has improved by 27% in the last quarter.
Or you say,
The other day, Carol, my boss enters my office with a huge smile on her face. I ask her, What happened, did you finally dump your boyfriend? – No, she replied, I just wanted to say, Congratulations! – Why? – 27! – What? – 27 percent! – What? Our conversion rate has improved by 27% last quarter thanks to your online marketing campaign. Well done!
You can wrap any logos (facts, data, figures, …) in stories.
Speak to their body
Your business meeting participants experience their world through their five senses. They see, they hear, they smell, they taste, they touch. And yet, when we give our business presentations we tend to communicate visually – 100%!
- Our client satisfaction has dropped significantly over the last three months.
- We can double our client base, if we invest in x.
- I walked into the car dealer’s main hall and saw a mess of cars.
Visual is good, the other four senses are better. Right away you will speak much more to their body. When you speak to their body, you trigger memories. Memories go hand in hand with emotions. More emotional impact, more pathos. More pathos? More persuasive power.
Why not say…
- In the last three months, our clients have started to scream at us and what did we do? We put on earplugs.
- If we invest into x, we will touch twice as many clients’ hearts.
- I walked into the car dealer’s main hall and what I saw tasted like putrid meat with rotten eggs.
In another post I already talked about the power of the olfactory sense, for me the primus inter pares.
The more you dive into the scientific art of rhetoric, the more you discover that you can do anything with … creativity.
Do you want them to stay awake?
Do you want them to be excited about your content?
Do you want them to connect with you and your content?
And, most importantly, do you want them to remember what you say?
Then, start to wrap your logos in stories and speak to their body.
A good beginning.
________
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