Four Ways to Improve a Presentation

Borrow rhetorical devices used by politicians and successful ad campaigns to make your presentations, pitches, and speeches more convincing

by Carmine Gallo

This July, Barack Obama gave a speech to a large audience in Berlin in which he deliberately repeated the phrase, "This is the moment." For example: "This is the moment when we must defeat terror and dry up the well of extremism that supports it.… This is the moment when we must renew the goal of a world without nuclear weapons.… This is the moment.…" If this technique sounds similar to Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, it should. It's called anaphora, and we have the ancient Greeks to thank for it.

Repeating a phrase at the beginning or end of successive sentences is a powerful rhetorical technique that business leaders can use to capture the attention of their audiences. It does not have to be reserved for political speeches. For example, I once heard a sales leader fire up his team by saying, "Our competitors are saying our products are inferior. We will prove them wrong. Our competitors are saying our customers will abandon us. We will prove them wrong. Our competitors are saying.…" Use repetition, or anaphora, to grab your listeners. Here are several other rhetorical devices you can use to make your presentations, pitches, and speeches more powerful and convincing.

Analogy. Analogies help us understand concepts that might be foreign to us. For example, you might have heard this one: "The computer chip is the brain of your computer." In many ways, the chip serves the same function in the computer as a brain serves in a human. The chip and the brain are two different things with similar features. When you find one strong analogy that works, stick with it.

Simile. During a commencement address at the University of Pennsylvania, U2's lead singer, Bono, said: "I don't think there's anything more unseemly than the sight of a rock star in academic robes. It's a bit like when people put their King Charles spaniels in little tartan sweats and hats. It's not natural, and it doesn't make the dog any smarter." That's a simile. It makes an experience more vivid. Al Gore uses plenty of similes in his documentary An Inconvenient Truth. When describing what melting ice looks like in Antarctica, Gore says: "What happens is the water tunnels to the bottom and makes the ice like Swiss cheese, sort of like termites." I've never been to Antarctica and probably never will until they build a Hyatt there, but I know what Swiss cheese looks like. In this case, the simile makes Gore's message more vivid.

Use similes to make an idea more relevant to your listener. The other day I was thinking of watching Bottle Shock, a movie about a famous wine competition. I love wine but wasn't sure the movie was for me—that is, until I read the headline of a review: "Bottle Shock is like Rocky for the Sideways crowd. The description convinced me to see the movie.

Metaphor. In one of his most famous speeches, former New York Governor Mario Cuomo called America a "shining city on a hill." That's a good metaphor. Today, many people are fond of sports metaphors. A sales manager might tell a new hire: "You're playing on the varsity team now." Metaphors are visual images that help stimulate your listeners' imaginations, creating that emotional connection required for persuasion. Language scholars have discovered that charismatic communicators like Ronald Reagan use more metaphors in their speeches than less inspiring communicators.

Triads. People remember three or four items in short-term memory. Give them 10 things to recall, and they will forget everything. That's why skilled presenters use the rule of three. They deliver three concepts. The new Apple (AAPL) ads for the iPhone 3G use triads: So what exactly is 3G? It's what helps you get the news twice as fast. Find your way, twice as fast. And download files twice as fast. There is more to the new iPhone of course, but it's easy to remember getting news, finding your way, and downloading files. Stick to the rule of three to give your presentations more impact.

There are other useful devices to jazz up your brand story—and many are revealed in these weekly columns, but these four techniques are simple to implement and can quickly make you more persuasive.

Carmine Gallo is a communications coach for the world's leading brands. He is a speaker and author of the new book "Fire Them Up"