The capstone project will give you opportunities to demonstrate your competence in the learning objectives for this Specialization. For the project, you’ll use formal, written methods and more casual visual and audio methods of communication to demonstrate your ability to use language appropriate for different business contexts. The goal of this course is to demonstrate competence in writing and presenting a plan using skills and language appropriate for business. Course Learning Objectives • Use appropriate vocabulary to write a mini business plan • Communicate a business plan orally in an organized and engaging presentation
Video: Being Persuasive
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Del curso dictado por University of Washington
Business English: Capstone Project
34 calificaciones
University of Washington
34 calificaciones
Curso 5 de 5 en SpecializationBusiness English Communication Skills
De la lección
Week 5: Being Persuasive
In Week 5, we will review lectures on being persuasive and you will complete a rough raft of your mini business plan.
Conoce a los instructores
Richard MooreExtension Lecturer, International & English Language Programs
UW Educational Outreach
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Your capstone project is to pitch your idea,
that is to persuade your listeners to give you money.
So to help you achieve this,
we'll review some ways you've learned in this specialization to be persuasive.
You can then use these techniques in your mini business plan and
in your presentation.
You’ll then complete your next milestone,
writing the first draft of your mini business plan.
Okay, let's talk about how you can be persuasive in your pitch.
Here are some important things that you want to show a potential investor.
First, let you know what you're doing, you need to show that you have
thought about your idea and that you've done some research.
It's also good idea to establish credibility.
Remember the C in the A, B, C, D guideline?
You can often do this by mentioning your previous experience.
For example the founder of Avenue, often mentions in her presentations
that she has a lot of previous experience working for
big clothing companies, when she pitches her technology to reuse clothing.
Next, that you are enthusiastic, that you are excited by your idea.
If you're not excited, your audience won't be excited either.
You can do this in a presentation by using your voice and using body language.
Then, that you have logical reasons and support for what you say.
If you say people are always losing their cell phone chargers,
you need to support it.
For example, you might say,
did you know that according to a leading hotel chain, last year, in the U.S.,
the number one item left in hotel rooms is the cell phone charger?
Next, you should show that there is a benefit for
the investors to give you money, that's the B in the A, B, C, D guideline.
The obvious way to do this is to explain that your product or
service will be successful and therefore make money.
However there might be other reasons to persuade someone to
invest in your product to service.
Maybe your idea will be helpful to the society or make the world a better place.
Avenue's pitch is differently aimed at
showing how the technology will make the world a better place.
And finally, in order to persuade someone that your product or service will be
successful, you need to show that it solves a problem or fills a need,
that it is special or unique and that it is better than the competition.
So, we've talked about how to be persuasive with the content of what
we write and say, let's now talk about how to be persuasive with our language.
You learned about some techniques in our previous course on presentation, so
let's review them.
First, you can be persuasive by choosing strong positive vocabulary.
Remember the mission statements we looked at?
Using strong words like inspire, strive can help you be persuasive.
When you describe your product or service in your mini business plan and
your presentation, you'll want to make it sound attractive.
So let's review the techniques and see some examples of how to do this for
your project.
If you want to emphasize that something is easy, you can use adjectives like these,
easy-to-use, user-friendly, efficient and simple.
For example, we have developed an easy-to-use device.
If you want to say something is the opposite, not simple, you can use positive
adjectives like these, advanced, sophisticated, smart.
For example, we offer an advanced solution to the problem of sand flies.
And this adjectives show that something is very new, modern, cutting-edge.
For example, we have a cutting-edge method to repair broken screens.
There are of course many more adjectives that you can use, so
chose some that are appropriate to your product or
service but here's some others that might be useful.
Attractive, durable, efficient, innovative,
high-quality, inexpensive, mouth-watering,
practical, personalized, revolutionary, and versatile.
As you learned, adverbs are useful to make your product and
service sound attractive when you are describing what it does.
Some common adverbs that you might use to describe your product and
service include efficiently, simply, quickly,
easily, beautifully, accurately, and reliably.
Here are two examples that show how you can use adverbs to make your description
persuasive.
Adverbs will also be useful when you want to make
the support of what you say stronger.
Adverbs like really, very,
extremely, especially, absolutely,
dramatically, totally and highly can do this.
For example, this will totally change how people reserve hotels online.
However, you have to be careful because in English, we like putting some adverbs
together with certain adjectives and verbs but not with others.
For example, we say it is highly likely that the market will continue to grow but
we don't often use, it's absolutely likely that the market will continue to grow.
Finally, you want to show that your product or service is better
than your competition, remember that using comparisons will be useful.
Our product will be cheaper than similar products.
And remember that you can also use adverbs to show that the difference is big
or small.
For example,
our product will be significantly cheaper than similar products.
We will offer a slightly different service than our competitors.
You might want to review the lesson on comparing services in the planning and
negotiations course on using comparatives.
You can also describe your product or service as special.
When you want to do this, you can use phrases like the only or unique.
For example, ByeFly is a unique solution to the problem of sand flies on the beach.
Or BeniLux is one of the only restaurants in Seattle
to serve authentic Belgian street food.
You can also use superlative phrases like the following, is the best game,
is the fastest method to, is the most advanced solution to.
Finally, when you describe how special your product and service is,
you can also explain how it appeals to the people you want to buy or use it.
For example, if something is environmentally friendly,
it would appeal to someone who is concerned about the environment.
If something is made of fresh organic ingredients,
it would appeal to someone who is concerned about the food they eat.
Other example adjectives are natural, healthy, green,
time-saving, fuel-efficient or fashionable.
Okay, when you write your plan and
do your presentation, remember to use these techniques to be persuasive.
But also don't overdo it,
if you try to be too persuasive by using really strong vocabulary every few words,
it might have the opposite effect, people might not believe you.
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