The Art of Persuasion: Why Less Really is More

Persuasion is about planting seeds, not forcing harvests

By Rodger Dean Duncan

You have a great idea. It’s fresh and innovative. It meets a need. You know it will work.

Your “it” could be a recommendation, a proposal, a design, a procedure, or a tangible product. Whatever your “it” is, you’re seriously pumped. Your solution is so awesome people will gasp in wonder. You built it, and surely they will come.

Don’t bet on it. Good ideas don’t sell themselves.

Venture capitalist Michael Moritz was approached by a couple of Stanford grad students. They were in search of funding for their idea. Moritz had seen a long line of boring PowerPoint presentations, and he expected the worst. But to his surprise and delight, the two young guys could summarize their idea in fewer than ten words: “We organize the world’s information and make it accessible.”

The idea proposed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin was something called Google. The rest is history.

In an age of information overload, good communicators stand above the crowd. But they aren’t freaks of nature. They’ve learned how to persuade, and they practice. A lot. They deliver dynamic presentations and share compelling stories that sell products, grow brands, and inspire change.

Communication coach Carmine Gallo sat down with me to discuss some of the learnable practices that top communicators make seem so natural. His latest book is Five Stars: The Communication Secrets to Get from Good to Great.