5 Keys to Persuading the Audience

Hollywood has done a wonderful job of making courtroom dramas compelling — particularly closing arguments when prosecutors and defense teams attempt to persuade the jury one final time.

One of the best closing arguments comes from the 1982 film The Verdict, starring the great Paul Newman.

Newman plays alcoholic lawyer Frank Galvin, who represents a family who lost a sister, against a powerful Boston hospital, defended by the best and most expensive firm in the city.

Galvin, shaking from his self-imposed detox, approaches the jury box, speaks softly, and begins to offer his reasons for why the jury should side with his client.

He gives its members a clear idea of what he’s asking, in this case, faith in the legal system.

“Act as if you had faith… {pause} and faith will be given to you.”

(beat)

“If… If we would have faith in justice, ….(pause) we must only believe in ourselves.”

We all have beliefs at one point or another that we want to convince others of. While being the loudest voice in the room may capture attention for a brief period, it often falls short of persuasion.

To convince others, we really need to follow the same path as Galvin:

1. Know your audience. Understand who you are trying to convince and what might appeal to their senses. In the movie, most juries were working-class people who understood the rich always win.

2. Search for the perfect example. Using storytelling, we can find perfect examples of why our arguments are pervasive. Galvin understood those on the jury were much like him, powerless, tired of being lied to. He allowed them to feel the power—for a brief moment, he tells them: “But today, you are the law. You are the law…and not some book, and not some lawyers to marble statues and the trappings of the court…all they are is symbols.”

3. Within every story, interject real-life examples. Galvin, frail, shaking from not having a morning cocktail, reminds the jury about being beaten down by those above us, “We become weak. We become the victims and doubt ourselves.” He is trying to make the jury feel as if they were like his clients.

4. Show passion. Demonstrating passion and energy without screaming or yelling is a powerful persuasion tool. Using the right words—pausing, allowing the words to resonate, drawing the perfect picture you are trying to paint.

5. Support with Facts. Using a story to persuade, you can inject facts to support your reasoning. Facts inside a story serve as a connection which makes them more readily understandable.

Because it’s Hollywood, naturally, Galvin wins the case.

But his methods stretch far beyond the big screen. They can serve as a model for all of us — and provide us with the basic roadmap we need to win our own respective cases.