This is the first of eight articles on what we’re calling the nature of persuasion. The structure of this series will be based on the acronym persuade.

 

P stands for planning and preparation.

 

E is for expand your understanding.

 

R is rationalise.

 

S is to summarise.

 

U reminds you to understand the person.

 

A is to address / answer the issues.

 

D means that you’ll deliver benefits.

 

E is to evaluate (the) outcome.

 

And we’ll look at some of the challenges that leaders, managers, and salespeople face as they try to persuade others. Before we consider the first one, we need to answer a couple of questions.

 

The first is this: What is persuasion?

 

What is persuasion?

Sometimes it’s easier to define a concept by first eliminating what it isn’t. In this case, it’s because there are so many shades of meaning. For some, persuasion is a licence to use whatever means are necessary in order to get the desired results.

Options range from asking politely to applying force: physical, mental, emotional or all three. You will know that coercion doesn’t work with staff or customers.

Notwithstanding the acute shortage of skilled labour, threats have no place in leadership or management; and where such tactics are used, morale will rapidly descend and those who can will leave.

If you want to attract and maintain a highly skilled workforce, then you have to treat them with respect; not as though they were expendable.

High pressure selling techniques worked to a certain extent a few generations ago, but people are a lot more savvy now and, in most cases, there’s more choice available to them than time to consider them.

And so while taking a genuine interest in your prospects or clients may not guarantee you a sale, treating them badly will certainly eliminate you from among the list of potential suppliers.

 

So, what is persuasion?

Simply put, it’s the ability to get others to do what you want them to do. Leaders persuade people to follow them by giving them a good reason for wanting to.

Managers persuade people to do the best work that they can by, among other things, treating everyone fairly. And salespeople persuade others to buy from them by convincing them that their product or service meets their needs better than anyone else.

Persuasion always starts with the other person. Unless you lack conviction in your position, you already believe your message. It’s the other person who you want to bring around to your views.

 

Why is it needed?

The second question is, why is it needed?

Why do you have to persuade people to follow, to produce their best work, or to sell more? It’s because all of us prefer the line of least resistance. You may argue against that. You may be the ultimate super achiever.

The thing is that the majority of people - like it or not - will only do what’s required to achieve their goals. For example, you’d think that Olympic athletes would always do their best. The truth is - and this is borne out in all the heats - that they only do enough to make it to the next round.

All-out only occurs in the final.

 

How often have you seen middle-distance runners “pull-up” at the tape when they know that they’re in the top three for the heat?

Salespeople have an obstacle that leaders and managers don’t face. It’s that consumers have become almost immune to marketing messages. Ten years ago, the average London commuter saw more than 100 adverts during a 45-minute journey. Imagine what it must be now!

Think of the marketing content you see plastered on the walls of the Underground trains, the billboards in the stations themselves, not only where you buy your ticket, but also whilst waiting on the platform, drinking coffee, or using the loo.

If you listen to commercial radio, such as Classic FM, you’ll get it there. If you watch any TV beyond the BBC stations, you’ll get it there, too. And if that wasn’t enough, when you get home you’ll have a mountain of junk mail to sift through as well.

So salespeople have to persuade potential buyers that their solution is the best for their needs and do so at lightning speed, but without pressure.

 

This leads us to ask a third question, the answer to which will be covered in this series of articles. The question is, “Why are some people more persuasive than others?”

And the answer is that it’s because to a greater or lesser extent, they follow the eight steps in the model that we’ll be describing in this post and the seven that follow it.

At the risk of sounding like a Sue Grafton murder mystery, let’s consider the first one.

 

P is for planning and preparation

Whether you work as a leader, manager, or salesperson you have to have some idea of what you want to achieve before you get started.

If you decide to go for a leisurely drive one afternoon, it’s unlikely to be on the M25. If you live near it, however, and don’t think about where you’re going, then you could end up on it regardless and, as you know, it can be a challenge to find an exit so that you can get off.

The same thing is true of the M1. Leisure is not the first word that pops into your mind when you’re on it.

So you have to decide in advance where you’d like to go.

Now your goal is to get the other person to make the same journey that you’ve made: To be persuaded that they should follow you, perform for you, or buy your product.

 

It’s been said that there’s a time and a place for everything, and persuasion is no different. You’ll stand a better chance of doing so when people are in the mood for it than when they’re not.

How many men have planned meticulously for that moment when they “pop the question”?

Why do they bother?

Why not just mumble something whilst standing in a queue at the local newsagent, somewhere between choosing a creme egg or a Kit Kat?

It’s because they want to do all they can to encourage the other person to accept their offer. And let’s face it, for most men, it’s the most terrifying thing he’s likely to have done in his life up until then.

 

What are some of the problems that people face?

There will be people in each of our three groups who will tell you that they don’t have time to plan, or that they’ll figure it out as they go along, or that they’re not sure which of a number of end results they want. As for those who don’t have the time, there’s an old saying.

It goes like this: “I don’t have time to do things right. I just have time to do them all over again.”

 

Does that describe you?

Do you ever find that if you would’ve taken a little time at the beginning to think things through that you wouldn’t have had to backtrack, or that you wouldn’t have had to undo something in order to complete a preliminary step?

This kind of thing can happen when you do something as simple as assembling a flatpack.

 

And that being the case, don’t you think it’s reasonable to set aside some time to assess what you’ll need to do in order to accomplish what you want to do as quickly and cheaply as possible?

Despite the emphasis on strategy, there are leaders who are like this. You can read about them in your history books. In your lifetime, for example, we’ve seen politicians engage in military action in the Middle East without a plan for what to do afterwards.

With managers, you tend to get the opposite problem. Some of them will make a career out of planning, but somehow never get around to implementing it.

 

Salespeople, however, can be the worst.

Their goal is to sell, and in their minds, anything that isn’t selling is a waste of time. And so with little, if any, preparation, they’ll rush in guns blazing, so to speak. At a minimum, you need to decide what the end goal is. What is it that you want to achieve?

It’s worth remembering that if you aim at nothing, then you can be sure that you’ll hit it! You also need to think about context. What will be going on around you when you’re acting as a leader, when you’re managing others, or when you’re making your sales presentation?

 

Ever notice how difficult it can be to have a private conversation with someone?

Just when you think you’re nearly to the punch line or the discussion is coming up to the critical point, the other person has to take a phone call, or a colleague interrupts with something “urgent”.

You have to plan for that, too.

 

How will you cope?

You also need to think about how much the other person knows about what you have to say. Ever had someone come up to you and speak with authority about something that you already knew? It can be embarrassing for both of you, and it’s something that you don’t want to instigate.

There’s nothing worse than for a prospect to tell a salesperson that “I’ve heard it all before”. You have to think about what the best possible outcome would be, and then plan for how you’re going to achieve it. You have to have a plan for answering questions or objections raised by the other person.

If you don’t have good answers - ones that have clearly been thought out - then you’ll lose your authority in that situation, and the chances of persuading the other person will be severely diminished.

“Shooting from the lip” only works in the movies.

Most people have to plan for what they want to have happen, and then prepare to make sure it does. Planning and preparation are the beginning of the persuasion process. You have to do them before you do anything else.

 

In the next article, we’ll think about how to expand our understanding.

 

 

In the meantime – if you want to learn more about persuasion – please reach out to Bob Hayward

 

Want to read more about persuasion? Read this book