Components of a Motivated Sequence Speech

Attention: To focus audience members on message and give them a reason for listening.

    Example: To convince audience members to begin to make financial investments for their old age. An audience of college-age people may not find this a very compelling topic. A startling statistic might gain attention. Speaker might say something such as, "In 2038, the year most of you will reach retirement, a dollar will be worth only X percent of its value today, a week's groceries will cost Y dollars, and rent will cost Z dollars per month." If the numbers used are extreme, the audience will probably take note of them. Of course, a reliable source is a requirement here.

Need: Show audience members that a present state of affairs is undesirable.

    Example: Use the need step to establish that Soicial Security benefits alone will not be enough to allow audience members to live comfortably. The speaker's goal is to get audience members to think, "These things could happen to me if I don't take action."

Satisfaction: Offer a plan to meet the need.

    Example: Speaker has used the need step to induce fear of the future. Now he or she must show the audience that there is a simple and effective way to reduce the fear. Without this step, audience members may simply refuse to think about the issue. With a successful satisfaction step, however, they will see how their fear can be alleviated. At this point, then, the speaker shows how a reasonably modest amount of money can, over time, create a substantial retirement fund. The investment plan should be simple and easy to understand, and the use of complicated computations should be kept to a minimum, especially if the audience is not comfortable with numbers.

Visualization: Describe concretely what will happen if the solution is adopted.

    Example: Paint a picture of a retirement free from worry, a time when audience members can travel, pursue special interests and hobbies, and generally live comfortably.

Action: Ask the audience to implement the proposal outlined in the satisfaction step.

    Example: "So pick up one of our brochures, and open an IRA today."

from Thinking Through Communication: an introduction to the study of human communication, Sarah Trenholm (second edition)