Tuesday, 26 June 2012

Connect Emotionally


In business world, we like to think that business professionals use reason to make their decisions, yet if scratch below the surface, we will find the emotion at play. Good persuaders should be aware of the primacy of emotions and are responsible to those emotions. You, a persuader, need to show that your commitment to a goal is not only just in your mind but in your heart. Without this demonstration of feeling, people might wonder if you are passionate about what you are saying. 

More importantly, you may need to have a strong and precise of the audience’s emotions, and adjust the tone of your argument accordingly. You come up with strong and forceful point, however, you should whisper with the smooth and soft tone. On the other hand, if you act too emotional, it will make your argument lack of credibility. Thus, it is crucial that you are able to match your emotional eagerness to the audiences’ abilities to receive the messages (Conger, 1998).  


Leave me a comment of what you guys think toward this topic, I would love to hear from you guys

This clip will give you more information about the persuasion and the emotion.





References

Conger, J. A (1998). The necessary art of persuasion. Retrieved from http://www.annbadillo.com/leadership/files/necessary_art_persuasion_jay_conger.pdf 
Petertemplelive. (2011, October 8). Persuasive presentation: Why you absolutely have to believe in your message [Video file]. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/tnY8UUaA75E

Reducing Resistance


You can diminish resistance by addressing What if? questions and establishing creditability. Assume that you are writing the letter to the CEO to ask him or her to budget your department. You might need to address the What if? scenarios.  For instance, you might need to ask yourself what if the CEO says that it is not necessary to budget your department. You might need to prepare facts to support you points. You should counter the resistance with finesse, and be focused on your objective. Hence, always ask yourself what if? …

In addition, in order to be persuasive, you need to have creditable and reasonable points. More importantly, you might need to establish your expertise, refer your social work background, or show your talents, to make your points more believable (Guffey, Rhodes, & Rogin, 2011, p. 279).



References
Guffey, M.E., Rhodes, K., & Rogin, P. (2011) Business communication: Process and product (6th Canadian ed.). Toronto, ON: Nelson.

Torriii. (2010).  Put yourself in someone else’s shoes. [Photograph]. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/vickkii/4950827319/in/photostream

Building Interest


Now it comes to the question that what will you use in order to gain audience's interest? Here are the tools that will help to answer the question. 

·         Facts, statistics
·         Expert opinion
·         Specific details
·         Direct benefits
·         Examples
·         Indirect benefits

Presenting both direct and indirect benefits is important. For example, if you were working for the public charity and you asked the audiences for donation, you would need to introduce to the audiences both direct and indirect benefits. Direct benefit would be the promote donor’s names, and indirect benefits would be an appreciated feeling of helping the charity, as well as society (Guffey, Rhodes, & Rogin, 2011, p. 278). 

Let say, if someone told you about the benefits of their product, what supporting point do you expect them to have in order to prove their point? 


References
Guffey, M.E., Rhodes, K., & Rogin, P. (2011) Business communication: Process and product (6th Canadian ed.). Toronto, ON: Nelson.

Persuasion and the Tone


Tone is very important in terms of gaining compliance and attention from audiences. Using the tone that indicates the audience benefits becomes the significant tool that will help you to hold their obedience. Please note that threatening sound does not help you to be a successful persuader. 

Guffey, Rhodes, and Rogin (2011), the authors of book titled Business communication: Process and product, suggested that the following techniques would help the persuaders to improve the tone of requests. 

· Avoid sounding preachy or parental.  People don’t want to be lectured or instructed in demeaning manner. No one likes to be treated lie a child.
· Don’t pull rank. Effective persuasion doesn’t result for the status or authority. People want to be recognized as individuals of worth. Pulling rank may secure compliance but not buy-in.
· Avoid making threats. People may comply when threatened, but their compliance may disappear over time. For example, many drivers follow the speed limit only when a patrol car is near. Threats also may result in retaliation, reduced productivity, and low morale.
· Soften your words when persuading upward. When you must persuade someone who has more clout than you, use words such as suggest and recommend. Craft sentence that begin with it might be a good idea to … make suggestions without threatening authority.
· Be enthusiastic. Convey your passion for an idea through your body language, voice and words. When you enthusiastically request something to be done, people feel more confident that they can do it.
· Be positive and likable. If people feel positively toward you and perceive you as a friend, they are more likely to agree with you. Use sincere compliments and praise. Describe what a positive impact others have had. Offer to reciprocate if you are asking a favor (p. 275).



Reference
Guffey, M.E., Rhodes, K., & Rogin, P. (2011) Business communication: Process and product (6th Canadian ed.). Toronto, ON: Nelson.
Marketingincltd. (2009, April 3). Magic Words of Persuasion [Video file]. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/wfbH3r-A7mw 

    Less is More


    Let’s say if you were a business owner, and you wanted to persuade a bank to finance your business. You would need to be clear about your objective. Evaluate your business assets and capital, and find the creditable reason and argument, which you will present to the bank. Do not ask for a loan worth $200,000, whereas your business capital is worth only $10,000. 

    According to Santos, Leve and Pratkanis1994’s experiment, it was concluded that “the less is more”. Santos, Leve and Pratkanis conducted an experiment by getting a panhandler beggar to ask passersby for money. In the control conditions, when they asked "Can you spare any change?" 44 percent of passersby complied. When they asked "Can you spare a quarter?" the compliance rate increased to 64 percent. When they asked "Can you spare 17 cents?" about 75 percent of people made a contribution” (Jones & Motluk, n.d).



    References
    Jones, D., & Motluk, A. (n.d). The power of persuasion: Eight ways to get exactly what you want. Retrieved form http://www.mindpowernews.com/PersuasionScience.htm  

    Marketing Fitness. (2011). Less is more? [Photograph]. Retrieved from http://fitnesswebsitedesigning.com/less-is-more/


    Effective Persuasion Techniques


    Before writing or presenting persuasive message, you may need to spend some time to think about receivers’ perspectives. Receivers will tend to ignore what you are offering them, if you only focus on the important strategies.  According to the book titled Business communication: Process and product, these techniques will help you to be more persuasive. 

    ·         Establish credibility.

    In terms of receiver perspectives, it is important that you are creditable enough to hold their attention. You may need to support your point by research and expert opinion.

    ·         Make a reasonable and precise request.

    An effective persuasion needs to be trustful and reasonable. Ask yourself, would you lend someone a loan worth $200,000, while their business assets were worth only $10,000, if you were a manger of the bank? Please keep in mind that be focused on the reasonable objective.  

    ·         Tie fact to the benefits.

    Using the statistics, facts, printed resources, and examples to support and help audiences to understand you points. However, facts, number or graphs do not change their attitudes, it is important to summarize and converts those facts into benefits for the audiences.

    ·         Recognize the power of loss.

    Presenting the advantages of your suggestion is important. Though, pointing consequences, which will occur if he or she does not agree, is also a good tool to motivate their actions. The threat of losing something that one has, such as money, time, and reputation, seems important to them, and thus they will likely to do what you suggest in order to prevent the loss.  

    ·         Expect and overcome resistance.

    You, a persuader, need to overcome the conflicts that will occur. The conflict might be contrasting beliefs, opinions, and perception. Recognize the weaknesses of your points and encounter those weaknesses by facts and statistics.

    ·         Share solution and compromise.

     Persuasion’s procedure may require flexible and acceptable solution.  You might ask for audiences’ points of view in order to make the solution clear and avoid mistakes. Furthermore, asking the audiences to share their thoughts is a significant tool to make them appreciated that they are parts of the solution, and therefore they “buy in” and become more eager to implement the solution (Guffey, Rhodes, & Rogin, 2011, p. 274)

    Try this clip!!!


    References

    Guffey, M.E., Rhodes, K., & Rogin, P. (2011) Business communication: Process and product (6th Canadian ed.). Toronto, ON: Nelson.
    Anti1347. (2010, December 4). Persuasion techniques to get anyone’s attention fast [Video file]. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/w-6MPbTLnbY 

    Monday, 25 June 2012

    What is Persuasion?



    Persuasion is inducing one or more people to willingly and knowingly do something for you that they had not initially planned or even wanted to do for your purpose. Persuasion is getting people interested in doing as you suggest when they are originally not particularly interested in that.
    Persuasion works by influencing the other person to change. They are going to do something that they did not initially want to do, and they are going to do it because of you. You, as the persuader, are an agent of change (Ciccarelli, Harrigan, & Fritzley, 2010, p. 390).
    In business perspective, persuasion is the art of convicting customers about your products or services for the purpose of selling through marketing communication.


    References
    Ciccarelli, S.K., Harrigan, T. & Fritzley, V.H. (2010). Psychology. Toronto: Pearson.

    Brian Tracy, (2012).  How to Persuade and Influence People to Achieve Personal Power[Photograph]. Retrieved from http://www.briantracy.com/blog/personal-success/how-to-persuade-and-influence-people-to-achieve-personal-power/