Mastering the Podium: Perfecting the heart of your appeal

Following up on our last blog post on opening and welcoming visitors to your podium, we’re going to continue the series today by discussing building out the body of your appeal on why the visitor should become a member or owner in your club.

To help guide the construct of this appeal, we will apply Aristotle’s three modes of persuasion as a lens to understand what can help move the visitors to take action on a purchase. When combined, these three modes construct a time-tested, compelling formula that strengthen an appeal in most any conversation.

The three modes are:

• Ethos – This mode uses the credibility and qualifications of the presenter as a means to earn the right, as determined by their audience, to appeal to said audience’s morals and values. In the instance of vacation clubs: these values would include the many personal and family benefits that come along with vacationing and being an owner/member of a club.
• Pathos – This mode uses emotion to appeal to the audience. This mode can appeal to things like dreams, aspirations, and even fears. Sympathy is strong, though if the speaker has true empathy it can come across stronger. In the instance of vacation clubs: find out what makes your customer tick, use that information to reach them and show them how ownership/membership in your club can help them fulfill their aims and enrich their lives.
• Logos – This mode use logic, facts, and figures to appeal to the audience. These are claims used to substantiate your position of credibility (ie ethos) and can be derived from your own research or, even better, that of a well-known third party. In the instance of vacation clubs: examples of this might include anything from the awards you have received to the true financial benefits of joining a club vs. taking random vacations each year.

Now that we’ve covered on the modes of conversation, let’s get into the tactics in light of the framework:

• Ethos tactics
  • It always helps when the presenter or their family is a club owner / member themselves as they can provide a firsthand account of their experience–supporting photo evidence of their experiences as a member would further strengthen and validate the claim.
  • Be upfront about typical objections to joining your club. Show your visitors or tell them about typical objections you hear and provide testimonials on how current owners/members believe those objections were overcome once they joined your club. Today’s consumer requires transparency and showing them both sides of the coin will help cement your credibility as you work to overcome any initial objections.
• Pathos tactics
  • Brainstorm with the visitors on why they vacation and where their dream vacation would be. Bring them into the process of outlining their personal aspirations, instead of outlining what you assume they might be. As you do this, a skilled presenter will be able to acknowledge those aspirations and share how your club can help them achieve their vacation aims.
  • That said, it sometimes takes a concerted effort to get your visitors comfortable to share their aspirations in a public forum. To facilitate or fuel the brainstorm process, you could start by volunteering a few ideas among the following: spend more time with family, create memories with loved ones, travel to see the world, make time to relax, using vacation as a time to disconnect from the digital world.
• Logos tactics
  • Work together with your visitors to calculate the costs of what it would cost to rent a hotel room for their family vacation each year v. the cost of joining your club. Try to get them to a total cost that they can see and then compare to show potential savings.
  • Compare the size and amenities of your resort style rooms to that of a regular hotel room.
  • Share statistics on why vacation is important to health, wellness, and relationships. This article from Inc. provides a few solid primer stats.
  • Use positive awards, accolades, and online reviews in your favor. Make sure that it comes from a legitimate source that reflects your brand experience accurately.
  • Celebrity endorsements/partnerships? Do you have any? If so, use them if the endorsement might appeal to your current set of visitors.
  • Share both new locations and any exotic locations to appeal to the travel hungry visitor.
  • If you are a points based club: how else can members use their points if they decide not to vacation one year? Show them where and how they have flexibility in-case their plans to vacation fall through.

That’s it for today. In our next post on podiums: we’ll quickly outline some of the best practices we’ve uncovered for closing the podium and motivating visitors to become owners/members. Please feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions or feedback.

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