The other day I got a lesson in how to motivate people and sell ideas from my former tennis coach.  I had brought my 14-year-old son Elliott to meet my old coach at his home in North Georgia.

Elliott badly wants to be the next Andy Roddick.  And my tennis coach was talking with him about what it takes to get good at tennis.

At one point, my old coach got an intense look in his eye, smiled and with a great deal of passion in his voice said, “Elliott, I’m going to tell you exactly how you can have a great serve.”

Elliott got very quiet.  He really wanted to hear this.

“If you hit 100,000 practice serves, you will have a great serve,” he said. “Now I know that sounds like a lot. But it’s really not. If you hit 150 balls a day, you’ll hit about 1,000 serves a week. In two years, you’ll have a great serve.”

The next day, Elliott was out practicing his serve.

What motivated Elliott is a one-two-three formula that motivates all listeners. First, identify your listener’s highly-desired goal. Second, give a clear plan to help your listener achieve that goal. Three, deliver the message passionately. Think about that formula next time you want to motivate your colleagues, persuade a client, or win a piece of business.

Identify your listener’s highly desired goal

My tennis coach had my son’s rapt attention because the topic was something that Elliott badly wanted: a great tennis serve.  If you want to motivate your listeners, appeal to their deepest desires.

If you’re pitching for a chance to help a Fortune 500 company with their sales efforts, identify your decision-makers’ key goal.  Let’s say that their goal is to increase market share by 10 percent over five years.  If you want to motivate the prospect to select you, a great way to grab their attention is to clearly state, “We’re going to give you a plan for increasing your market share by 10 percent over the next five years.”

Give Your Listener a Simple Plan

A simple plan is one where the listener can reasonably say, “I can do that.”  Of course, that’s not the same as an “easy plan.”   Elliott can say, “I can definitely hit 100,000 practice serves.” Of course, it’s not easy. But he can do it. It’s simple.

In laying out a simple plan, give your listener three steps.  Let’s say that you’re trying to show your client how to avoid trouble with anti-trust regulators. Your three steps might be:

1. Be careful what you say to your competitors

2. Be careful what you do to your competitors.

3. Be careful what you say in writing about your competitors.

Of course, there is much complexity behind those three steps. But those three steps are simple enough for a listener to say, “I can do that.” 

Deliver the message with passion.

When Elliott saw how excited my tennis coach was about how to get a great serve, Elliott got excited too. Passion is contagious. And it sells.  To see the power of voice energy, turn your television to any of the home shopping networks. Those channels are monuments to the power of vocal energy. 

I own a home fryer because the excited guy on TV got me fired up about the onion rings that I could make in my own kitchen. The same kind of passion that sells the Fry Daddy also can sell ideas to your clients.

Motivating your clients and colleagues is no different than getting a 14-year-old to practice his serve.  Show your listener a simple approach to getting what he dearly wants. And deliver the message with passion.

Joey Asher is an attorney and President of Speechworks, a selling and communication skills coaching company in Atlanta. He has worked with hundreds of lawyers and with dozens of firms helping them grow their business and connect with clients. He is the author of “Selling and Communication Skills for Lawyers” and “Even A Geek Can Speak.” He can be reached at 404-266-0888 or by . His website is www.speechworks.net.