About
Before he began showing sales professionals how to use the power of storytelling to capture sales and influence, transformational speaking coach and bestselling author Michael Barris was soaking up the secrets of connection from the world's top entrepreneurs as an editor and writer for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
This award-winning speaking champion also refined his sense of how to get conversions through storytelling as a New York communications professional, musician and entertainer working the crowd at local clubs and Rutgers University professor of public speaking.
He blended his experiences in the well-received speaker training book, “How to Become a Super Speaker: The 7 Principles for Speaking with Confidence and Connecting with Audiences," arguing that the audience is everything and you ignore it at your peril.
PUT LISTENER'S NEEDS FIRST
It's the storyteller's duty, Michael contends, to put the listener's needs first.
That makes it easier to inspire them to share a story back and disclose they have a problem that your business could fix for them.
That disclosure will pave the way for meaningful sales conversations and conversions.
But unless you warm up the prospect first with small talk, you won't be able to take them to the next level, Michael says.
To that end, his book provides seven principles for creating effective spoken-word communication through an informed understanding of audience behavior.
Writer's Digest praised the book as “exemplary” while US business consultant and author Price Pritchett lauded its abundance of solid, “actionable” advice.
“(Michael) engages with diverse audiences on a human level with authentic experiences ... He has given me the nudge I needed to finish my manuscript on overcoming fear after a few life changing challenges. He has helped me tremendously.” - Ionie Liburd Willett, Chair, St. Christopher and Nevis Accreditation Board, Basseterre, St. Kitts