When I was a kid, my father was an NFL offensive line coach. In the early 70’s he coached for the Philadelphia Eagles. After games in the late fall, my family would return home to our house in South Jersey and sit around the table, eating comfort food and talking about the game.

And it wasn’t just any dinner.

In the fall, it was always my mom’s Pot Roast Crock Pot dinner. Pot roast, carrots, potatoes, onions, in a rich, brown gravy. The whole house smelled like love, and family, and an appetite brought to a peak. I’m getting hungry right now remembering those nights.

My mom created an emotional attachment to important family meals. And my dad, who usually kept a close eye on expenses, never asked my mom what she spent on those Sunday meals. The only question he asked was, “What time is dinner ready?”

Too often, business leaders forget this one critical step in the sales process: the emotional attachment. They jump right to the logic, service plans, delivery particulars, supply chain, and price. All of those things play a role but most people don’t shop and buy based on logic alone.

We shop, we choose, we decide frequently on emotion first. Then we use logic, data, and facts to justify our choice.

Leaders are always selling. They’re selling influence, ideas, a vision. And when you are selling those things, logic and data and facts alone won’t get the job done. Their presentation skills need an element of emotional connection.

You have to create an emotional connection first, and stories are a great way to do this. If the emotional connection is strong enough, our audience will use the logic, data, step-by-step instructions that follow to reinforce the emotional decision they have already made.

That’s how you get people to buy your ideas, buy into your vision, and follow your lead.

Here's a more impactful six-step approach to improve your influence:

1. Create an emotional connection with your audience. Talk about something that is important to them or to you or, better yet, to both of you.

2. Then dive into your audience's pain points or their goals—not your goals.

3. Then show your audience how your vision, product, service, or company can alleviate their pain or achieve their goals.

4. Use as much data, research, case studies, facts, and numbers as needed to support your point.

5. Call to Action. What do you want the audience to do with the information you have given them?

5. Close by reinforcing an emotional connection.

Not convinced this approach works?

Not sold yet that this will make you leader with improving communication skills?

Think about how I started this communication with you. I started with a story about my mom and Sunday dinner in the fall. There’s a pretty good chance that got you thinking about your mom and your Sunday dinners.

Then I gave you some facts about how we choose and the secondary role logic plays in sales. Because of the initial emotional connection over things that seemingly have nothing to do with sales, things like mom, pot roast, potatoes, and carrots, you are far more likely to follow my ideas because we have already made an emotional connection that resonates with you.

When that happens, we use the data, facts, and logic to convince ourselves that our initial, emotional connection, was leading us in the right direction the entire time!

In other words, I had you at mom, pot roast, and Sunday dinner.

As a leader you can do the same thing. As an organization you can do the same thing. And when you do, you stand out, become unique, become personal, become a leader no one can compete with because you come across as authentic and connected.

A brand, a leader, that stands apart does so not merely because it has an unbeatable product, vision or price. It stands apart and builds loyal following because it grows an emotional connection with its audience and builds trust in that emotional connection.

When that happens, no one can compete with you because no one else can be you.

To this day, no one else has ever made a Sunday crockpot dinner quite like my mom. And by bringing that up I can wrap up because I have you thinking about your mom, your traditions, your great family time. Bam. Emotional connection.

Here's to growing your influence.

Want to learn how to become a more influential leader? Check out our resources at www.presentationtransformation.com.