The Shortcut to Persuasive Presentations [Paperback]

Larry Tracy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 20, 2003

No less an authority on communication skills than President Ronald Reagan described Larry Tracy as "an extraordinarily effective speaker." In this book, he provides the "real world" experience-based lessons in presentation skills that earned him such praise. Like his acclaimed workshops for corporate executives and government officials, this book is based on the assumption that people who must improve their presentation skills, but are pressed for time, require a "shortcut," not lengthy books with numerous tips, checklists and page-filling anecdotes. This book provides precisely that: A succinct, timesaving method for busy people to become better, more persuasive speakers.
    The system outlined in the book is a three step process: In Planning, you'll learn how to "Get to the Point" and intersect your objective with your audience's needs and problems through Larry's proven 3-1-2 System. You will also learn how to always have a "Plan B Presentation" ready for those occasions when your allotted time is reduced at the last minute. In Practicing, you'll learn how to hone your speaking skills, eliminate "uh's" and "Y'knows," and anticipate questions and objections before the presentation with a unique practice method. In Presenting, you'll learn to convert your nervousness to audience-connecting enthusiasm, and to develop and use visuals, including PowerPoint slides, so they complement, not distract from, your message. You'll learn as well how to employ your voice and body language to reinforce content, including the use of rhetorical devices to make your presentations eloquent, memorable and persuasive.
    In summary, this book will show you how to organize and deliver your knowledge with laser-like intensity targeted to solving the problems of your various "audiences"-- Boards of Directors, shareholders, clients, customers, etc.-- so these audiences conclude that (1) what you are proposing is in their best interests, and (2) you are an outstanding speaker.

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

      How I came to Write The Shortcut to Persuasive Presentations by Larry Tracy
                                                            

To explain how Shortcut came to be written, I must explain how I migrated from Army colonel to presentation skills trainer. My biography outlines how I did more talking than shooting in my Army career, especially in front of senior executives and hostile audiences, and I need not repeat it here. I first got the idea of translating my real-world experience in speaking to a civilian career a few years before I retired from the Army. 

I attended a one-day seminar on persuasive speaking given by a well-known training company. I found I was perhaps the only person in the room who had paid out of my pocket, as all th others (almost 100 people) had their tution paid for by their employers. I found the instruction rather simplistic, and was surprised that my fellow attendees were so impressed by the content and the instructor whom I found steeped in theory withlittle practical experience. 

After I retired from the Army. I decided I could pass on the real world  experience I had gaind in the field of public speaking. I found many of the books on th subject  be filled  with theory and page filling anecdotes, and the workshops  not much better.   I believed busy people did not need the "glitz" ofthe professional speaker, but instead a "shortcut" method to deliver effective, bottom-line presentations. 

So I started doing workshops for governemnt agencies (I live inthe Washongton, D.C. area) and corporations. As I had suspected, there was a great need for such training, because of an interesting paradox: Public speaking, in survey after survey is  listed as one of the leading phobias in the United States, yet other surveys show the ability to speak coherently and persuasively to be one of the leading indicators of success in businees and life. I wanted to adress both elements in my workshops. Unlike many speech coaches, I do not believe people shoud seek to elimiate the fear, but instead it to convert apprehension to enthusiasm.

My wife realized I was happier in font of an audience than sitting at a computer, but she constntly urged me to put what I was teaching in a book. Eventually, I succumbed, and  the result is The Shortcut to Persuasive  Presentations.I started the writing process by following the outline of my workshops, and I have calld the book a "Workshop in a book."  

That, of course, is not completely accurate, because the workshops have an intensive "hands-on" element in videotaped practice presentations. But there is indeed a strong conguity between what I teach and what is in the book. Consequently, all attendees at my workshops recive a copy of Shortcut as a "take-away" which can reinforce what they learned and put into proactice in the workshop.

As in these workshops, the heart of the book is my S3P3 System-a Pyramod of Planning, Practicing and Presenting  supported by the pillars of Substance (content), Structure and Style. Within this System is found the "Backward drafting" 3-1-2 method, and the practice simulation I bring with me from the military-The "Murder Board." It's not a macabre as it sounds-it a simuated practice in which colleaueges role play the audience, enabling the speaker to anticipate question and objections (which, incidentally, removes much of the fear of speaking). The Murder Board is to speakers what the flight simulator is to pilots.

So that's how The Shortcut to Persuasive Presentations came to be written. I hope you'll  internaize the lessons of the "workshop in a book," and shorten your learning curve to become a more persuasive speaker.

About the Author

President Ronald Reagan described Larry Tracy as "An extraordinarily effective speaker." He was an Army colonel assigned to the State Department debating controversial foreign policy issues throughout the country. He is now cited as one of the top presentation skills trainers/coaches in the country in publications such as the Information Please Business Almanac and Sourcebook, published by Houghton-Mifflin, Best of the Best, published by Insight Publishing, and What to Say When... You're Dying on the Platform, published by McGraw-Hill.
     Larry's highly-acclaimed book, The Shortcut to Persuasive Presentations, published by Imprint Books, distills the techniques he teaches in his executive workshops, and is the text for the Oral Presentations Course at the Center for Leadership Education at Johns Hopkins University.
    He conducts his Presentation Skills in a Nutshell and Briefing the Boss workshops for corporations and government agencies, and trains corporate teams how to deliver winning oral presentations for government and commercial contracts. His coaching is not derivative classroom theory, but instead flows from his "real-world" experience. He served as Chief of the Defense Intelligence Agency's Presentations Branch--the Pentagon's top briefing team--responsible for daily intelligence presentations to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  He supervised and coordinated over 500 of these multi-media, multi-screen briefings, and delivered almost 100 of them personally.
     Because of his speaking skills, the White House directed the Army to detail him to the State Department. He subsequently spoke and debated almost 400 times on controversial foreign policy issues before some of the most demanding, even hostile, audiences in the country, leading to the comment from President Reagan.
 

 

 

Product Details

• Paperback: 190 pages
• Publisher: Tracy Presentation Skills (May 20, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591097029
• ISBN-13: 978-1591097020
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #353,232 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

President Ronald Reagan described Larry Tracy as "An extraordinarily effective speaker." He was an Army colonel assigned to the State Department debating controversial foreign policy issues throughout the country. He is now cited as one of the top presentation skills trainers/coaches in the country in publications such as the Information Please Business Almanac and Sourcebook, published by Houghton-Mifflin, Best of the Best, published by Insight Publishing, and What to Say When... You're Dying on the Platform, published by McGraw-Hill. Larry's own highly-acclaimed book, The Shortcut to Persuasive presentations, published by Imprint Books, distills the techniques he teaches in his executive
workshops, and is the text for the Oral Presentations Course at the Center for Leadership Education at Johns Hopkins University..
He conducts his Presentation Skills in a Nutshell and Briefing the Boss workshops for corporations and government agencies, and trains corporate teams how to deliver winning oral presentations for government and commercial contracts. His coaching is not derivative classroom theory, but instead flows from his "real-world" experience. He served as Chief of the Defense Intelligence Agency's Presentations Branch--the Pentagon's top briefing team--responsible for daily intelligence presentations to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  He supervised and coordinated over 500 of these multi-media, multi-screen briefings, and delivered almost 100 of them personally. Because of his speaking skills, the White House directed the Army to detail him to the State Department. He subsequently spoke and debated almost 400 times on controversial, contentious foreign policy issues before some of the most demanding, frequently hostile,
audiences in the country, leading to the comment from President Reagan.
 

 

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy formula for success, December 3, 2003

By 

Jim Hale (Alexandria, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Shortcut to Persuasive Presentations (Paperback)

I was given this book before going on national television to debate a highly contentious issue. The tips in this easy-to-read volume gave me the confidence to not only succeed, but excel! This guy has obviously been in the trenches before. He anticipates the minefields of public speaking, and lays out a simple plan for success. By the time I went on the air, I wasn't even nervous and reaction to my appearance has been very positive. If you want to improve your speaking skills, buy this book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Review of The Shortcut to Persuasive Presentations, May 20, 2011

By 

James K. McCarthy (Centreville, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Shortcut to Persuasive Presentations (Paperback)

The reader of this outstanding book should be careful not to equate Larry Tracy's "shortcut" with the pejorative techniques of cutting corners, bloviating fluffy superficiality, employing smoke and mirrors, or unveiling a clever formula for how to manipulate one's audience to agree with your position. Instead, think of this book's "shortcut" as jump-starting your effectiveness as a communicator. One achieves this head start by maximizing efficiency in preparing your presentation, and by delivering your coherently persuasive message economically and without obfuscation--while respecting the time and intelligence of your audience.

The "shortcut" offered in this book can be deconstructed to its most basic element: how to deliver your message of choice in the most persuasive manner possible to bring about the desired response or action by the maximum number of listeners in the quickest, most direct, and most efficient manner possible. That is what the book both promises and delivers.

In my profession, I frequently help senior executives pursue and win large government contracts often valued in the billions of dollars. The common denominator of all such pursuits is that the eventual outcome of each will likely turn on the executive team's ability to persuade the government evaluator that their team is the "best value" or right choice for the taxpayer. The persuasion may be formal or informal. The team's case may be advanced by an elaborate presentation, or by what appears to be off the cuff remarks. The point of view put forth may be in the form of a solution to a sample problem, or in response to a complex verbal test question. No matter the form or content, Larry's assembled toolbox of presentation wisdom contained in this book has direct and immediate application to a host of presentation scenarios. Pity the outgunned competitor who fails to avail itself of such imminently sound techniques as Larry's S3P3 System, Six Steps to Persuasion, and 3-1-2: Structuring Backwards.

The reader will quickly realize that The Shortcut to Persuasive Presentations was not hatched in some experimental laboratory or in some ivory towered classroom. Instead, Larry developed his methodology in the real world--the high profile "fishbowls" of the White House, and the national security, intelligence and defense establishments. All are high stakes crucibles where clear and concise communications can make or break decisions, policies, careers, and even administrations.

Larry Tracy is an accomplished public speaker, coach and trainer. But now that he is also a successful author, I address this word of caution to him: I fear that, if too many communicators, speakers, and presentation practitioners were to implement the practical techniques and sound wisdom found in this book, Larry's coaching and training consulting practice could experience a sudden downturn. Armed with this helpful book, the reader is well on his or her way to mastering the art of masterful and persuasive presentations.

Jim McCarthy
Centreville, VA

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shortcut to Persuasive Presentations, April 9, 2004

By 

Tom Morris (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Shortcut to Persuasive Presentations (Paperback)

This book (The Shortcut to Persuasive Presentations) by Larry Tracy is dynamite! Larry's 3-1-2 and Plan A/Plan B preparation advice is the best I've seen. This book is a quick, fast read that gives tips you'll use immediately. (For really important presentations you'll want to see the chapters on practicing before "murder boards.")

This book is a must for novice and experienced speakers alike!