5 Keys to Persuading Anyone – Even Your Family Members

Wednesday, November 24th, 2010 at 10:30 pm

Candice Lee, Managing Director of True North Asia

I just had a nice coffee chat with the managing director of True North Asia. They provide alternative investment products that are usually reserved for the wealthy.

I am really impressed at how in 6 months they positioned themselves as the local market leaders and get featured prominently on newspapers.

Candice wanted me to listen to her presentation and leverage on what I know about sales pitches.

Heh, I must say I was quite impressed.

In less than 15mins she covered all 5 elements of persuasion as taught by Blair Warren in “1 Sentence Persuasion”.

Here are the 5 elements:

1) Encourage dreams

2) Justify failure

3) Confirm suspicion

4) Allay fears

5) Help throw rocks at enemies

1) Encourage dreams

Let’s face it.

We don’t buy what we need, we buy what we want.

Simply by painting an enticing future for the listener to fully associate it, you would have one foot in the door. By knowing what is important to the listener, you can very deliberately guide him/her to step through the door.

Use as many modalities as you can without sounding cheesy. Visual, auditory, kinesthetic, gustatory, olfactory… Are there more? I am not sure. But at least engage one of the five senses.

Hey you can figure what his/her dominant modality and just focus on that too. Does he always use the phrase “I see the issue here” or “It’s kinda blur to me right now”?

Hah Hah! Then go with visual elements when painting the dream!

Eg: “Hey have you ever thought about standing on the stage and seeing a sea of smiles and standing ovations washing over you? Well, the truth is, the bar is not set very high! All you need to do is learn a few core skills and you will be cream of the crop!”

2) Justify failure

This is to let the listener know why what he tried in the past did not work well.

This one is kinda tricky. You have to make sure that you do not make the listener sound like a fool for not succeeding yet. And not sound like a jerk for being the smarty pants who has the answer.

The trick is to have an emotion of empathy for what the listener went through and share his frustration.

Position your stand as a researcher / explorer who discovered what others who did not spend the same time or lack access to resources could by themselves.

This way, your listener will actually feel good that he is about to be one of the privy ones to know these facts you are about to tell.

Eg: “Hey you know how the rich always seem to get richer? And the common folk are stuck with playing with investments that have poor returns with no guarantee? Truth is that the banks do offer high returns investments with guaranteed gains but you need to qualify as a “sophisticated investor”. I.e. at least 2 million dollar networth. It was never fair game! Finally the gate is crashed. In the information age the common folk can have access to these investment choices if you know where to look and who to consult.”

3) Confirm suspicion

Yup.

You need to confess that this deal is not as perfect as it sounds. Guess what? Without you saying it, your listener is probably already thinking that!

Here is what Kevin Hogan teaches:

Give them something to focus their objections on, then destroy it!

Eg: “But there is a catch… There always is isn’t there? Well, unlike stocks or unit trusts, the typical investment vehicles, there is a high minimum sum to invest in our product. Why do you think they were reserved for the rich in the past?

“Anyway, the amount may be not small (never say high), but if you can get creative to raise the money, then you will be in the big boy’s league”

[This way they are expecting a crazy hefty amount. But when you reveal the real amount, it would seem well within reach]

4) Allay fear

Simple. Buyers want to look like they are making a SMART decision. Remember, after making a decision, they have to tell their family and friends why they did it!

Give him an irrefutable guarantee. Whatever way you can. If you can’t, then give him information that blows his socks away.

So that he can say this to his friends, “Hey, you can think I made a bad move, but did you know that according to <insert credible source here>… Well, I know what I am doing.”

5) Help throw rocks at enemies

Need I say more?

The fastest way to build rapport is to find a common enemy. That’s how Apple rally their troops. That’s how I made friends with an otherwise out of my league super pretty girl when I was in uni. Works every time.

More subtly, let your listener know that you are on their side. You are offering him a chance to prove to his naysayers wrong. Naysayers can even be the status quo! Some just loves to be different! Offering him a chance to stand out may be just the thing he needs to hear.

Read up on “Barnum Effect”. Google it. It’ll give you a good clue on what unites us all as human beings.

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That’s how it’s done! Simple huh?

Go test these out in your conversations. In your persuasion attempts.