Persuasion is a skill with an ultimate goal of convincing your audience to complete a particular task. Alan Monroe, answering the question “how to get an audience to act” and developed Monroe’s Motivated Sequence as a guide. Monroe’s Motivated Sequence is a stable structure that ends in a specific action you want your audience to take. This paper describes the five steps in Monroe’s motivated sequence as a more efficient way of persuasion. The five steps include attention, need, satisfaction, visualization, and action.
Attention step is a crucial step in your speech. Your speech should have an exciting introduction that grabs the attention of your audience. It should not only grab one’s attention but also evoke one’s curiosity to know more about the topic. Persuasion starts from the beginning of your speech. To get your audience attention, start by telling a compelling story, interesting fact, poignant quote or a striking visual if possible.
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The second step is needed, where you establish/build your speech by stating the current state of affairs. This often includes the horrific, sad nature of events for example “There is lack of life-saving organs for those in need.”(Adler, Rodman, & DuPre, 2014). The primary goal is to leave your audience in an empathy state as you give relevant and reputable information.
The third step is satisfaction. By this point, your audience is already wondering how they will tackle the problem you described above. In this step, you sort to offer a solution. Simply, satisfy the need you have created above. Ensure you meet all the requirements you depicted in the previous step. For example donation for an organ can be a solution to the above problem.
The fourth step is visualization. This is metaphorically painting a good picture of how this solution will help curb the situation at hand. Alternatively, you can also paint a picture of how the situation will deteriorate if the answer is not implemented.
The last step is action. To be effective, this step has to be precise and clear.For example, if your audience is to sign up for something, have the forms ready. Explain exactly how they should implement the solution to solve the problem. Give your audience options to the answers for them to have a sense of ownership. End this step in the form of an invitation/call to action with a sense of urgency pegged to it.
Reference
Adler, R. B., Rodman, G. R., & DuPré, A. (2014). Understanding human communication. New York: Oxford University Press.
