A number of years ago Yale University did a study of the most persuasive words in the English language. The most persuasive word is 'you'.
What we've begun doing in class is a Persuasive Word Audit. When I wrote out the text of a recent presentation I counted 150 '"you" or "yours." We count the number of times the persuasive words are used in a presentation and tally a final score. It's actually fun to see how many you can work in. Here's the entire list:
- You
- Money
- Save
- Results
- Health
- Easy
- Safety
- Love
- Discovery
- Proven
- Guarantee
It doesn't take long to find ways to sprinkle these into your speech.
Now you're gonna love this slide. We discovered how easy it is for you to save money and improve the health and safety of patients by using just a few proven tactics that are guaranteed to work.
I also love "we." We means all of us here in the room. I'll say, "We all mean to get more exercise and eat right. But it's hard for us, isn't it?" By including the audience and yourself in the "we" term everyone feels like they're on the same team.
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