Persuasion Techniques

With persuasion, there are four aids that can help to persuade someone toward your opinion or idea. Not all of these can be used in written persuasion, but the better you understand persuasion, the better you will be at it, both verbally and through the written word. These aids are:

• Body Language. Roughly two-thirds of our communication is based on our body language. For example, when you want to have someone open to your ideas, you should stand with your hands at your side, palms out as a symbolic gesture of peace. If you stand with your arms crossed, you are blocking yourself from the recipient and they will unconsciously not want to deal with you or listen to you.


• Communication Skills. The better you are at speaking and writing out what you want to say, the more open people will be to what you want to say. If you write, "I would like to offer you the chance to 'bye' my product," the person may not be willing to buy because of the poor spelling and wording. However if you say, "I would like to offer you a once-in-a-lifetime chance to experience what it truly means to have free time with this amazing product!" -- here you are appealing to the person on many fronts. Look at various Internet ads to really see how this is done effectively.


• Sales Techniques. This method uses the ingrained sales techniques that people can learn over time. Learning to highlight only good points, appealing to a person's needs, and more, all work in sales techniques.


• Personality Tests. With personality tests you can devise a strategy that is based on an individual's style of interaction. Some people prefer the phone or e-mail to face-to-face speaking. Others prefer to buy items based on what they see on television, while others buy products only when they need them. Knowing how to sell a product or idea to someone comes from that person's personality.

• Deception. If you fool someone into believing your idea is the best option, you can get them to go for it. Many financial gurus have done this to get investors' money by faking how profitable the company or their investments are.


• Hypnosis. Under hypnosis, people can be convinced to do a wide variety of things. However this does not help with written persuasion.


• Subliminal Advertising. Movies use this effectively by putting products in the background to help appeal to someone watching the movie. The movie Cast Away has been described as one long FedEx commercial, because of its use of FedEx products in the background.


• Power. As we discussed in a previous lesson, people respond favorably to those they think are in power. By faking power, or giving the image of power, it is much easier to get someone to follow what you want. A mail clerk sending out a memo to the building asking people to stop taking coffee without paying for it will be meaningless. However, the CEO doing it will have an immediate impact.