When you are in the audience at a presentation or meeting do you sometimes become aware there’s a great atmosphere in the room, there’s a buzz?

The chances are you could hear a pin drop because everybody in the room is focused on the speaker. That presenter has got the audience spellbound.

And if you ask anyone afterwards what was their opinion of the presentation, people may answer “The speaker was charismatic.” or “I felt a rapport with him.” or “She spoke my language.” or “I could see exactly what she was getting at.”

So, how does a speaker connect so dramatically with the whole audience?

Well, he does it using a charisma formula. It may be instinctive, a natural skill, or it may be a technique the speaker has developed. The good news is you can use that formula in your sales messages to create a strong connection with all your readers.

Understanding Your Readers

Before I reveal the charisma formula I need to give you a bit of background information because we are talking about people’s perception of the world around them and how we interact with that.

People are different. (Yeah, really – no surprise there!)

We all see things from our own point of view and have our own preconceived ideas. We all have our own beliefs and our own experiences that influence us every day.

Now when we write – whether it is for ourselves or a client – we want to create a relationship with the people reading our message. And, in order to do that, we need to know how to get rapport with the people we are writing to.

How do we do that?

The key is to talk their language.

Let me explain, have you come across neuro-linguistic programming?

Neuro-linguistic programming has many aspects, but the particular area I’m interested in, as a writer, is known as the representational system.

We have five main sensory modalities, or representation systems.

When we think, or process information internally, we ‘re-present’ the information in ways that match our own sensory systems””they are how we interact with the ‘outside world’.

The five sensory systems are visual (see), auditory (hear), kinaesthetic (feel), olfactory (smell) and gustatory (taste).

The words and phrases people use: adverbs, verbs, and adjectives, when talking give a clear indication which of these representational systems they are more likely to favour.

Using words and phrases that match your reader’s sensory preference creates rapport with them. But, like the speaker, you don’t know what sensory modality your audience favours. That’s where the charisma formula comes in.

The Charisma Formula

The charisma formula focuses on the main sensory modalities; visual, auditory and kinaesthetic””people rarely say something smells or tastes good unless they are talking about food! But visual, auditory and kinaesthetic words are regularly used in every day phrases.

This slideshow takes you through the Charisma Formula and demonstrates how it was used to generate good results in B2B and B2C mailing campaigns:

Using the charismatic formula when writing your messages (or giving a presentation) boosts your chances of connecting with your audience and persuading them to take the action you want.