Posts Tagged ‘Communication’
The Art of Persuasion
Communication is a fundamental part of business and personal life. We now have many different ways of communicating from face to face to phones, social media, print media and broadcast media.
With all of these communication channels we are trying to inform, persuade, motivate, coach and manage relationships.
I would like to review a very important element of commuication: the art of persuasion. And I will limit my focus to B2B communication (mainly).
Win:Win Framework
Communication is always within a context or framework which may be implicit or explicit.
For some the word persuasion has ominous undertones and a worry about being manipulated.
I am assuming, in this discussion, that persuasion is used within a framework that assumes a (win: win) or positive outcome for both parties.
I assume that what I am persuading the customer to do will add value to the customer’s business and result in a (win: win) transaction.
Basic Persuasion Model
A basic persuasion model was constructed by Aristotle and consists of three elements:-
- Credibility – relates to the character and reputation of the persuader.
- Emotion or Empathy – the persuader must have the the ability to identify and understand the other person’s feelings, ideas and situation.
- Logic – relates directly to the logic of the argument.
Appealing to Credibility
In appealing to credibility, both the individual and the company he represents must be credible in the eyes of the audience. He must emit true sincerity.
Genuine sincerity means that you actually care about someone’s problems or concerns. It creates a certain amount of trust. And trust is the foundation of relationships.
The company builds its credibility on its successes and on its third party references. (In the B2B mainstream market (Early & Late Majority) positive references are key to credibility.)
The individual builds his individual credibility with integrity, historical success (supported by knowledge), skills and experience (as required by the audience). Initially the company brand will lend credibility to the individual but the individual must build and maintain his own over time.
In launching new products the phrase “Credibility before Visibility” is very apt. A lot of marketing and sales expense may be wasted in persuading the market to buy products that are not yet credible in the eyes of the target audience.
Appealing to Emotion
This using your heart as well as your head. It’s the ability to read emotions in others. It’s being able to experience from another person’s perspective. It is empathy.
It appeals to the emotions, imagination and self interest in the audience. In some cases to feel what the presenter feels.
The message evoking an emotional response may be delivered by words, messages but also by non verbal communication. The words may well be in the form of a story, a vision that transports the audience to understand the presenter’s point of view or to join him in envisioning the a particular part of the world as improved or as a better place. Music, colours, films, graphics etc. may be used to emphasize and communicate the required message.
Non verbal communication can give wither a positive or negative response. Such communication is delivered via facial expression, eye contact, gestures, posture and body orientation, humour, proximity, paralinguistics (tone, pitch, rhythm, timbre, loudness and inflection of voice), dress sense, attitude & confidence.
Emotion also includes building a relationship and a rapport that can reduce barriers to communication and engender trust which is a foundation of all human intercourse.
Appealing to Logic
Persuasion Techniques
Whilst techniques can be used to persuade they are most effective when supported by the persuasion model above. These techniques include structure, body language, speech, maintaining attention and the darker arts of weapons of influence.
Structure
- Introduction – Frame the topic. Prepare audience to be receptive.
- Narrative – a story in a form that is relevant to the audience that tells what you want them to do.
- Argument – proofs and supporting logic.
- Refutation – anticipate objections to the argument.
- Conclusion – appeal to the audience for understanding, its action and its approval.
Body Language
- Facial expressions
- Gestures
- Open or Closed Body Signals
- Spatial relationships – how close we are to our audience.
Speech
- Volume
- Rate of Speaking
- Tone, pitch and inflection.
Maintain Attention
If the audience is not paying attention you are not communicating, there is no communication and no persuasion can occur. Attention is best if it rises over time.
Most people have short attention spans.
Make the message memorable and understood.
- Say what you’re going to say. Say it.Say what you said.
- Keep it short 15 mins is optimal.
- Avoid distractions, interruptions and breaks
- Avoid large disagreements to what you say by ensuring that key members of the audience have been persuaded before the presentation.
Weapons of Influence
We have automatic behavior patterns that we use to simplify the modern world and enable action and void being frozen by too much analysis. These behaviour patterns make us vulnerable to persuasion by those who know how they work. These weapons of persuasion are part of thee dark arts of persuasion in that they do not always result in a win:win situation if used unscrupulously. In B2B selling , professional buying processes are designed to minimize or remove the impact of these weapons but they are used often in B2C selling.
We live in an extraordinarily complex and stimulated environment, easily the most rapidly moving and complex that has ever existed. To deal with it we need shortcuts. We can’t be expected to recognize and analyze all the aspects in each person, event and situation we encounter in even one day. We haven’t the time, energy or capacity for it. Instead, we must often use our stereotypes, our rules of thumb to classify things according to a few key features and then to respond mindlessly when one or another of these trigger features is present. Sometimes the behaviour will not be appropriate for the situation. But we expect the imperfection since the alternative is that we would be left frozen, analyzing and miss the time for action.
According to Alfred North Whitehead “civilization advances by extending the number of operations we can perform without thinking about them”. These are the key weapons.
- Reciprocity – “One good turn deserves another…”
- People are more likely to give to you if you have already given to them
- Commitment & Consistency – “Stay on course!”
- We have a nearly obsessive desire to be consistent with what we have already done.
- If I can get you to make a commitment (that is to take a stand, go on record), I will have set the stage for your automatic and ill-considered with that commitment. Once a stand is taken, there is a natural tendency to behave in ways that are stubbornly consistent with the stand.
- People are more likely to behave the way you want them to behave if they believe that this behaviour is consistent with an existing commitment
- Social proof – “Monkey see, monkey do”
- People are more likely to follow a particular course of action if they see other people doing the same thing
- Authority –
- People are more willing to follow instructions if the perceive the instructor to have authority or expertise
- Likeability – “Jobs for the boys”
- People give preferential treatment to those that they know and like
- Scarcity
- Rare items and opportunities are much more attractive than commonplace equivalents.
