Engagement: Sell It!

Purpose: 

We are all familiar with commercials, sales, and marketing as a result of living in our highly competitive and capitalistic society.  From being bombarded with everything from billboards, to clothing, TV commercials, and product placement, we have an innate sense of effective persuasion techniques.  For this speech, you are going to give a persuasive speech somewhere in between impromptu and extemporaneous.  Choose a household item to bring to class.  Using Monroe’s Motivated Sequence you will be selling the item for a purpose that is not it’s original intent.  For example, if you bring in a broom, you could sell it as a mode of transportation.  Covering each step of Monroe’s Motivated Sequence with one sentence will be enough to receive credit for the assignment, as long as you speak to the time limit of a minute and a half.

Requirements:

• Bring one household item to class to sell 
• You must sell the item for a purpose other than its original intent
• Your speech should cover the five steps of Monroe’s Motivated Sequence
• You will turn in an outline showing how you will follow each of the five steps of Monroe’s Motivated Sequence
• In reference to time, you will speak no more than a minute and a half
• Be creative!

Criteria for Evaluation:

This assignment is to be a fun exercise in Monroe’s Motivated Sequence and effective persuasion.  Each student will be given “five dollars” with which to buy a product.  Each product is worth one dollar.  At the end of the presentations, you will write the names of the sellers you feel are the most effective on your dollars.  Everyone has the ability and possibility of getting up to five dollars (which counts as five points towards your grade on this engagement).  You cannot buy your own product, you must spend all of your money, and you can only buy a product once.

See the example below for help with your outline.

Example: Sell It!

Monroe’s Motivated Sequence

Attention:  Motivate your audience to listen to your topic.

How many of are tired of getting stuck in traffic during your morning and evening commute? Well I am here to tell you about the new mode of transportation that is gripping the nation! This is the “Broom-Zoom”!

Need:  Listeners must become aware of a compelling problem.

The roads are getting to be extremely congested and sometimes your average thirty minute commute to school turns into an hour, which, unfortunately is making you late to class.

Satisfaction:  The course of action advocated must be shown to alleviate the problem.

By investing in the “Broom-Zoom” you will no longer be stuck in traffic or late to class- rather, you will be soaring and speeding high above the freeway.

Visualization:  The audience should be able to visualize the benefits of agreeing with the speaker or evils of alternatives.

Imagine how your daily commute would vastly change--not to mention your parking situation on campus.

Action:  End with a call to action.

Now that you know the benefits of the Broom-Zoom, I urge you to make the purchase that will ease your freeway frustrations for good!