One of my speech teachers in college was former Navy Captain, Sheldon Hayden, who taught me a lot about communicating. He was well suited to the task, having been trained as one of Dale Carnegies first instructors. He shared with me a winning, three-part formula for persuading anybody to buy anything. And it has helped me to close innumerable sales. This simple outline, he asserted, could be used to inform, to persuade or sell, and even to entertain. (1) First, you make a POINT. (2) Second, support that point with EVIDENCE. (3) Third, repeat the main POINT. He called it his PEP Formula, and I can tell you from long and wondrous experience in using it, that it certainly lives up to its name. Ive personally used it to inform, to persuade and to sell, and to entertain. Moreover, its PEPPY, lending energy, coherence, and dynamism to your talks, to your reports, to anything. If you take a quick moment to review the sequence of this article, I promise youll find at least one major PEP talk in it. Many of us use a variant of this unconsciously. If you listen to the most credible and sincere sounding salespeople, youll be able to trace this outline. Try using PEP in your everyday chats with family, friends, and co-workers. Hows this one? Sorry, you cant go out and play, because: 1. You havent eaten your lunch; 2. You havent done your homework; and 3. You havent cleaned your room. So, Im sorry, but you cant go out and play! In future articles, Ill show you some of the more exciting dimensions of PEP, but in the meantime, try using it at least once a day, especially in selling, to prove its value to yourself! Dr. Gary S. Goodman 2005 |
