Persuasive Advertising - J. Scott Armstrong [215]
After the talk
45. Send a summary of action steps. Send a summary of the key issues and of the action steps agreed on as a result of the talk. Describe who will do what by when.
46. Inform the client about progress. Follow up with the results of your action steps. If you made changes as a result of the meeting, tell the client about them.
Acknowledgement: Andrew Abela (author of Advanced Presentations by Design) and Lisa Warshaw (director of the Wharton Communication Program) helped in the development of this oral presentation checklist.
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Appendix H
Written management reports: An evidence-based checklist
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The following guidelines refer to a management report written to gain acceptance for a recommended course of action. They are provided under the assumption that there are strong arguments to support your recommendations. Some of these suggestions are based on received wisdom and some on the principles (and empirical evidence) in Persuasive Advertising. [The relevant principles are listed in brackets.] This list is provided in a checklist format on AdPrin.com.
Target market
1. Be sure to understand who you are writing for and what are their expectations. An effective way to do this is to ask people to stand in the role of the target market as they write comments on the report.
2. Add a cover letter where needed.
Source
3. Identify who wrote the report, when they wrote it, and how to reach them.
4 Establish your expertise, if not done previously. Put this at the end of the report unless you are well known for your expertise. [6.7.1.]
Recommendations
5. Make the recommendations operational. For example, “Raise the advertising budget by 5 percent over the next year.” [6.17.1., 6.17.2., 6.17.3.]
6. Build the report around the recommendations. [7.9.1.]
7. Offer choices among options and guidance on how to select the best option. [1.3.2., 1.3.3.]
8. Describe specific benefits: for example, “Profits from this campaign will exceed $185,000 over the next five years.” [1.1.1.]
Arguments
9. Describe the process used to reach your recommendations. [2.1.2.]
10. Focus on strong arguments. Weak arguments would distract. [7.1.1.]
11. Use only positive arguments. Instead of showing what is wrong, show how you would improve upon the situation. [7.1.2.]
12. Use indirect conclusions for “new” conclusions. Build the case so that the readers can infer the conclusions on their own when a conclusion is new or challenging. Do not force conclusions on readers. But if the conclusion is not obvious, or the audience already agrees, provide explicit conclusions. [5.9.2.]
13. Use two-sided arguments. [5.8.1.] Describe risks and limitations and explain how they can be handled. Put the favorable arguments first or alternate favorable and unfavorable ones. [5.8.2.]
14. Use a single theme – or two – to tie the report together. [7.9.1.]
15. Provide enough detail on data and methods (in an appendix or on a website) to allow for replication. [6.3.2.]
16. Provide sources (e.g., Smith 1995) in the text and provide access to full text. [6.3.]
17. Show that you analyzed alternatives. [6.3.1.]
18. Provide objective support. (Do not say “I think,” “I believe,” “We are confident,” etc.) Present evidence, not emotion or opinions. [3.1.1.] Use independent third-party support; describe results from prior research studies even if based on small samples. [6.3.1., 6.3.2.]
19. Provide examples, stories, and pictures when needed to explain your points. [7.10.1.] These can also be helpful when the audience has strong beliefs that are not consistent with your proposals.
Reader guides
20. Executive summary. The first page should provide recommendations on what to do, why to do it, and how this was determined. Assume that the client will only read the first page. [9.1.1.]
21. Provide an introduction on how the report is organized. [9.4.2.]
22. Provide roadmaps such as a Table