Effective Techniques 6: Share solutions and compromise

One way of dealing with resistance would be to work out a compromise. With many situations, some sort of compromise needs to come into affect in order to make things fair for both parties. Being flexible with your request will allow for greater chance of acceptance, as it will come off less like a demand. Adjusting your request to fit the ideas and point of view of the person being persuaded will show respect, and that you are accommodating to others views. Also allowing the sense of “ownership” of the idea will increase the chance of acceptance of the proposal, as many people are more willing to accept an idea if they have some input in it. 

Be sure the compromise is fair, and not misleading.

Effective Technique 5: Expect and overcome resistance

There will inevitably be some form of resistance when approaching someone with a request. Whether they have different beliefs, a negative attitude or are sceptical on the subject, there will always be a need to get around those barriers. The problem comes in knowing how to properly work around them. Simply throwing arguments back and forth would not work in your favour, a plan has to be thought of that pin points certain weaknesses, and figuring out exactly where the problem lies. As stated before in the case of booking a client on an adventure tour, suggesting ziplining and then that being turned down would be a resistance. Although a simple fix, it is still necessary to work out the problem – which being heights and then adjusting to something centred on the ground. 

He Who Must Not Be Named

I have been rereading Harry Potter lately, and with the thought of persuasion in the back of my mind, I have come to realize that bad tactics of persuasion is apparent with regard to Lord Voldemort. One thing you must never do in order to persuade someone is to instil fear in order to get your way.  Take the situation with Wormtail, he wasn’t necessarily a “bad guy” but he was easily persuaded to join forces with Voldemort because of the fear of going against him. It is the same as getting ones way by means of a threat (“do this or….” And “do this if you don’t want such and such to happen”), which is not the same as pointing out a potential loss to a client

– for example, a proposal for a merger between two companies, where the one company is quite near bankruptcy and the potential loss would be the company’s clients, share holders, respect etc. In order to persuade them to join forces, it would be helpful to point out those certain things that they could lose which would hinder their company (or rather point out what can be saved by a merger).

Effective Technique 4: Recognize the power of loss

To motivate someone to accept your proposal, it could be helpful to point out some things that they could potentially lose out on. People do not like the idea of losing something that belongs to them, so they will be more inclined to accept a proposal. But be careful on how it is presented, as it could be taken as a threat to take it away, instead of a means of helping sustain such thing. 

Effective Technique 3: Tie facts to benefits

The information you are presenting should be solid facts. No guesswork and no opinions should be passed as such. Make sure the fact is exactly that, factual. Use reliable sources, especially when researching on the internet. If you want to persuade someone then be sure you are going to them with reliable information to support your opinion/argument. Using statistics, examples and analogies are important in doing just that. The key here though is not only to get the facts out there, but to explain how these facts are useful. In the case of infomercials, they always go over the facts – the knife is razor sharp, the blanked is made of fleece, the toothpaste dispenser is easy to use. But these alone will not sell the product. The use/benefit of each fact must be explained – how will a razor sharp knife be beneficial?