E-10.13 Convince Others to Hire You, Buy Something or Embrace an Idea, Resist Sales Pressure
E-10.13 Convince Others to Hire You, Buy Something or Embrace an Idea, Resist Sales Pressure
Part Seven of Speaking: Oral Language Skills for Real-Life Communication = The Language of Selling: Persuasive Speech, pages 77-92
16 pages
Who It’s For: Teachers, Assistants, & Advanced Students of Language Who Accept—or Reject—the Necessity of “Selling” (Persuasion, Influence, or Force)
Why It’s Useful: (Unfortunately), the compulsion / drive to sell (ourselves, products or services, our [political] convictions) seems to have become “everybody’s business.” And the need to resist “insistent marketing”—or at least to comprehend, investigate, analyze or evaluate data or arguments—has become even more urgent. Perhaps learning “how to close a sale” non-competitively, cooperatively, honestly, beneficially, and with mutual trust will help to heal the acrimonious divisions in today’s world. Probably not. But Part Seven of Speaking: Oral Language Skills for Real-Life Communication (“the Language of Selling”) takes a relatively gentle stab at it.
What You’ll Do:
[1] Looking over the “Table of Contents” of Part Seven, note that its Oral-Skills Activities include simulated Interviewing, virtual Sales Talks, “Infomercials,” and competitive Games. Read (aloud) the “mini-lecture” explanation of (legitimate) purposes for trying to persuade, convince, or sell. Take in strongly-meant pieces of advice for “non-violent selling.” Then be sure not to employ “hard sells” or try to “get a sale at any cost.” Resolve to be honest, build mutual respect, stress benefits over features, handle objections through acknowledgement, and resolve differences.
[2] In Sample Conversations 7A, get and analyze typical questions and answers in Audio Job Interviews.” In Oral Practice 7A, apply what you’ve learned in the “Job-Interview Game,” in which group participants play the roles of interviewers and Job Applicants. Then in turn, give Mini-Speech 7A, the purpose of which is to “sell yourself” in response to some of the given questions or on a more important real-life issue.
[3] Sample Speech 7B is a pretend “Infomercial” on the benefits of the Speaking: Oral Language Skills for Real-Life Communication Program. In the 7-B Oral Practice, you get to compete with others in “selling a car” or some other item relevant to your schooling, work, or life. At the end of the Download, you (and a partner) get a chance for your own “Infomercial,” so be sure to choose a product, service, person, or idea you really want to sell to the world.