🤯 The cognitive trick that will make you instantly more persuasive

If there was one thing you could do to take your presentations to the next level this week, try this…

Questions are far more persuasive than statements… Especially when the facts are on your side.

In the early naughties, a cognitive psychologist called Leon Rosenblit came up with a theory known as the Illusion of Explanatory Depth. Long story short, it's a cognitive bias that leads people to believe that they understand the world with far greater detail, coherence and depth than they really do.

So instead of overloading our presentations with logic and reason and going into these situations feeling like we've got to get our audiences onboard with our own way of thinking, consider asking questions that are likely to highlight gaps in their knowledge or plant a seed of doubt.

A great way to do this is by asking a 'Did you know' question. For example…

Audience reaction? ‘No I didn’t…’ and 🤯.

Result? Suddenly an audience that might think they’ve got their sales strategy nailed, is open to learning more.

It works on the big stage too, as proven by Mohammed Qatani at the Toastmasters World Championship final (he won).

So the next time you need to persuade someone who doesn’t want to be persuaded, stop them in your tracks with a ‘Did you know…’ question!

Found this newsletter useful? Share this link with others!

Alex

P.s. Did someone forward this to you? Each week my readers get one tip a week to supercharge their presentations. You can read them all and subscribe here.

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