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Leadership: Gaining Favourable Attention

Monday, 06 July 2009 21:36

Successful leaders follow a unique, almost hidden communication pattern to pass the "A" of the ACID test.

Step 1: Grab the audience’s attention
Step 2: Stimulate desire
Step 3: Reinforce with reasons

To 'sell' your idea, product or service, you must pass the ACID test.

A. Gain favorable Attention,

C. Inspire Confidence,

I. Build Interest to where

D. Desire surfaces.

When 'desire' surfaces, the other person takes the lead in the conversation while you begin to provide the evidence necessary to justify your proposal.

Step 1: Getting the Audience’s Attention

In an experiment with 60 executives, researchers found the most important factors in grabbing their attention were:

1. A personalised message

2. Evoking an emotional response

3. A trustworthy source

4. Concise language

In fact, personalised messages that evoked emotion were more than twice as likely to resonate with the group.

Social scientists have shown that negative messages are more attention-getting than positive ones.

To get an audience’s attention, share:

· Stories about the audience’s problems

· Stories about the problems’ worsening trajectory

· A relevant story about how you dealt with adversity

· A surprising question or challenge that will interest the audience--like "How well is monthly sales or stock rotation program working for you?"

Source: Coach2Coach newsletter, June 30 2009

Last Updated ( Monday, 06 July 2009 22:40 )