by Adam Noar

Have you ever wondered why some people are extremely persuasive when giving webinar presentations and always seem to land a ton of sales from them?

If you’re thinking that their webinar presentation success is solely due to luck, or their position and power, you’re wrong:

Although these factors are important, psychology plays a HUGE role.

So, how do you become insanely persuasive during your next webinar presentation and generate more sales? All you have to do to follow the five principles of persuasion that I will outline in this article. Even if you don’t give webinars you can apply these tips to your next presentation for maximum impact.

Let’s get started!

#1.] Reciprocity – give and you shall receive

People like giving back to people who give to them first.

For example, if you invite a coworker to your birthday party, then they will generally feel an obligation to invite you to their future party.

Think of this as “You scratch my back; I’ll scratch yours.”

So you might be thinking to yourself … “Alright Panda Man, so how would reciprocity work when giving a webinar presentation?”

Here’s another example:

Provide a free trial of your product or service:

Instead of just presenting your product or service cost options on a slide, you could tell your audience that you would be willing to let them try your product/service 3 months for free. By offering this free trial, people will see the value of your offer and will want to return the favor of your free trial by making a purchase.

And get this …

sometimes it’s not about what is given for free but rather how it’s given.

In a research study conducted at a restaurant, giving a mint increased a waiter’s tip by 3%. Two mints gave an increase of 14% in the tip left. But, if the waiter gave one mint, walks away but turns and says “But for you nice people, here’s another mint”, tips increase by 25%. This increase was not influenced by what was given, but how it was given.

Hopefully, you can now see how this could this applied when giving an important webinar presentation.

The key to applying this principle of persuasion is to make sure that your offer is personalized and unexpected.

I’m going to practice this principle in this article by giving you a free PowerPoint slide gift that you will learn about in the next persuasion principle:

Scarcity.

#2.] Scarcity – present a limited offer to get your audience to act right away

Things become more attractive when they a scarce.

For example, we often hear the phrases such as “for a limited time only!”, or “last 10 pieces left, hurry!” in advertisements. This is a way of increasing their product sales by making the availability limited.

The key to using scarcity when giving a webinar presentation is to point out what your audience will lose if they do not act right away.

Here’s a clever way you can apply scarcity in your next webinar presentation:

Create a slide showing a special limited time offer that expires using an animated countdown timer in PowerPoint. To make this easy, we have created this animated countdown timer slide for you. You can download it for free and then customize it however you like.

Click here to download the above animated countdown timer slide for free

Remember, people are always drawn to things that are special/exclusive and hard to come by.

#3.] Authority – include slides in your webinar that showcase your credibility

This persuasion principle is based on the idea that people will follow the lead of credible and knowledgeable experts.

Here’s a few examples of how you can apply the authority principle to your next webinar presentation:

Create an executive bio slide: Create a slide that shows off you and/or your team’s work and educational experience.

Slide example from “Influencer – PowerPoint Template”

Create an awards slide: Create a webinar slide that shows off any awards you/your company has achieved.

Slide example from “Influencer – PowerPoint Template”

Create an investors slide: If you have a board of investors, create a slide that displays all the board members.

Slide example from “Influencer – PowerPoint Template”

Demonstrate that you are great at what you do, and people will show you respect.

#4.] Social Proof – provide reviews to demonstrate how good your product or service is

People often look to the opinions of others to determine if your product or service offering is good.

A great example of this can be seen with Amazon. Before buying any product on Amazon, what do you usually do?

You look out for other people’s reviews, right?

The key to providing social proof is to simply point out how other people are reacting to your product or service.

When you provide reviews of people liking your product, your audience is more likely to be influenced. People often tend to look out for the actions of other people which have a direct influence on their own behavior.

Here’s an example of how you can apply the social proof principle to your next webinar presentation:

Create a testimonials slide: Design a slide that displays testimonial quotes of people using your product or service. The impact is even higher if the testimonials are from key opinion leaders in the industry you’re serving.

Here’s a great example of a testimonial slide from our Influencer template:

Slide example from “Influencer – PowerPoint Template”

Here’s another example of a testimonials slide:

Slide example from “Notes – Business and Webinar PowerPoint Template”

#5.] Be Highly Likeable – connect with your webinar audience on a personal level

People prefer to say YES and buy from people they like.

But what causes a person to like another? Persuasion science tells us that there are 3 important factors:

• We like people who are like us.
• We like people who compliment us.
• We like people who cooperate with us towards a mutual goal.

Want proof?

A research study conducted with two groups of MBA students where they had to give a presentation and then negotiate a deal with their audience. The first group was told to give a presentation where they were to get straight down to business (no rapport building before the presentation) and the second group was told to exchange some personal information before they started their presentation.

The results:

The first group (with no rapport building) 55% were able to come to an agreement with another person. In the second group, 90% were able to reach successful outcomes.

Another example of likeability we see all the time is Apple Inc. stores:

The sales people at the store wear jeans and t-shirts. Even though it’s informal, it gives the customers a feeling of similarity and they’re more likely to purchase the products.

Here’s some examples of how you be extra likable in your next webinar presentation:

• Build rapport with your audience before and during the presentation – before you start going through your slide deck, ask your attendees where they are attending from. People love to type in the name of their city and hear you call it out to the rest of the webinar audience.

• Create a slide that tells your personal journey – create a slide that includes some information about your background or journey. A great way to do this is by creating a timeline that shows some of the key events in your life. Here is an example of one that looks pretty sleek that you can download.

Slide example from “Startup X – PowerPoint Template”

• Compliment your audience members when they ask a good question – if your audience asks a good question let them know that. It makes them feel smart in front of their peers and makes them feel good about your webinar presentation.

The key to being likable is to create a sense of delight by looking for areas of similarity that you can share with others and by giving genuine compliments before you start influencing.

Final Thoughts  – apply these principles of persuasion for your best webinar presentation ever!

Applying these five principles of persuasion will increase your influence of others and help you achieve a perfect webinar presentation.

Here is my question for you …

Which of the methods discussed in this post do you like the most?

Sound off in your comments below… And please remember to be specific as possible.

Also, do you have a friend that is currently creating a new webinar presentation and could benefit from learning about these persuasive webinar examples? If so, send them a link to this blog post right now. I’m sure, they will return the favor to you one day!

Finally, if you enjoyed reading this post, please remember to like and share using the sharing icons to the left.

Hungry for more info on how to create awesome webinar presentations? Here are a few suggested posts:

How to design an amazing webinar presentation

These Webinar Presentation Tips Will Help You Create Your Best Webinar Ever!