Thursday, April 26, 2012

Have your 8-sec pitch ready, but...


People think at 600-800 words a minute, but only speak at 115 to 300.

Which is why people only have eight seconds to gain someone’s attention.

The only time this isn’t the case is when giving a presentation.

Speakers have about 30 seconds—if they’re saying something valuable to the audience. *

As if all that doesn’t make sales difficult enough, how it is said is actually more important than what is said

We are visual creatures. We believe what we see more than what we hear.

Here’s the breakdown:
          Body language = 55 percent,
          Paralanguage (tone of voice, pitch, volume) = 37 percent.
          Words = 8 percent. **

Regional dialects and class accents—which often carry stereotypes—also complicate the matter.  Think "street slang" versus "erudite academic".

Individual words also have positive and negative connotations or feeling responses, which affect people without them being consciously aware of it.  

Have your elevator pitch ready, but in the long run, being genuine, interested and compassionate works better than a canned pitch.

For more information, call Dell Richards Publicity at (916) 455-4790 or visit www.dellrichards.com.

*Max Potentials seminar

** Albert Mehrabian’s “3 Vs”