How Do You Convince an Audience to Accept Your Point? Here Are Three Fundamentals for Persuading People Without Tricking Them.
By Ron Sathoff
A lot has been written on how to convince an audience to accept your point. Much of the advice that has been offered has been tremendously specific--which colors are the most persuasive, what particular phrases sell, and even how to shake hands when you greet a potential customer.
With all this specific information being tossed around, I think the basics of persuasion have become lost in the shuffle. To me, you have to understand the fundamentals before you can start thinking about any specific persuasive techniques you want to use.
The first thing to remember about REAL persuasion is that it's not coercion--you are NOT trying to force your audience into accepting something they don't believe or into doing something they don't want to do. Instead, you're trying to offer your audience the information they need to figure out that they should WANT to do what you're asking. In other words, YOU are not really persuading anyone--all you're doing is providing the tools that let your customers persuade THEMSELVES.
Ever since the times of the ancient Greeks, people have been discussing the different ways that you go about accomplishing this Herculean task. For the most part, these discussions have focused on THREE general ways that you can show your point is correct:
1. Show the Logic of Your Point--Logical arguments are the most basic type of persuasion. If you can use facts, figures, or basic logic to help show that your point is correct, it's hard for your audience to ignore. For instance, discussing the benefits of a product or service would fit into this category, as would showing how your company is superior to the competition.2. Focus on your audience's FEELINGS--A message will always be more persuasive if you can include things that your audience has strong attitudes about. One way that you can do this is to tie your message to the EMOTIONS of the audience. For instance, if you know that your audience is afraid of losing their savings, show how your product will help protect their financial security.
3. Use Your CHARACTER to Make Your Point Stronger--It may seem unfair to some, but WHO you are will affect how an audience receives a message. Therefore, you should do everything you can to show that you know what you're talking about, that you're trustworthy, that you care about your customers, and that you believe in what you're doing (by the way, if these AREN'T true for you, you probably need to reassess what you're doing).
Realize that any good, persuasive message incorporates all three of these techniques. You want a good, informative, logical foundation for your argument, but you should also make sure it's tailored to the specific audience--and remember that how your customers see YOU can either strengthen or hamstring your entire point.
Using these techniques to build a persuasive message has two advantages over using trickery. First, trickery will usually only work on the people you actually contact yourself. On the other hand, if you provide your customers with good solid information and a strong argument, they can carry that information to the people THEY come in contact with, giving your message a much longer reach. A second reason to use persuasion over trickery is that you won't get those little stabbing pains of conscience in your stomach during the middle of the night.
Instead, you'll have something much better--the satisfied feeling that you've done something genuinely good for your customers.
Ron Sathoff is a noted speaker and manager of DrNunley's
http://InternetWriters.com
Ron works with business speakers and writers, helping them with their copywriting, marketing, and Internet promotion. You may reach him at 801-328-9006 or via email: ron@drnunley.com
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