Psychology of Persuasion

The master persuader is able to instill his values in his followers and is capable of altering the beliefds of his followers.More import is that their ability to influence others to belief in their vision. He has this character of unstoppable in his belief in his ambitions and his goals. The power of influence is certainly the most important communication skill one can have, with practice it is easy to learn them. It is an unfortunate truth that the skills of persuasion can be acquired by people with both good and evil motivations. The sword of influence can be wielded for the benefit or the destruction of society and for all purposes in between. Today, the power to influence other people and persuade them tp your way of thinking is the most often the missing ingredient in the success recipe.The reason is that they have not developed their ability to sell their products, services, and/or ideas to others. There are many keys to success, but the ability to persuade others is the master key to wealth, love and happiness. With good communication skills, people will like you, respect you, and do things for you that they would not do for others. The power of influence is the skill that allows individuals to make quantum leaps on the ladder of life. You can make these leaps as thousand of others have. Mastering persuasion skills is much like walking and riding a bike. It is easy. It takes time, effort, and a great deal of practice. Once you acquire the skills,they will become a part of you.

Zig Ziglar often says, "You can get everything you want in life if you'll just help enough others people get what they want" The psychology here is WIN/WIN or No Deal.

Robert Louis Stevenson - "Everyone lives by selling something".

Henry Ford- "If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person's point of view and see things from the angle as well as from your own".

John D.Rockefeller- "The ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee. And I will pay more for that ability, than for any other under the sun".

Dale Carnegie-"The only way on earth to influence the other fellow is to talk about what he wants and show him how to get it".
"You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years trying to get other people interested in you".

Francis Bacon-" Knowledge itself is power".

"People don't buy products;they buy states"

It mean that a person's desired state of mind is very important to consider in the persuasion process. If you can determine what is the person's desired state of mind, you can persuade them by showing him how to get there.
Most people operate in a stimulus/responsemode. Something happens;they respond. Something else happens;they respond.
Knowledge is only potential power. True personal power is the ability to take action and implement the knowledge.
Outcome -Based Thinking is the ability to visualize the precise outcome of a process before beginning that process.
Example: Vacation, when you go on vacation, you decide where you are going and how you are going to get there. You also prepare for things that might go wrong.
Golf; The best golfer visualize a short before they approach the ball, similiarly, the world's greatest salespeople and negotiators visualize closing the deal before they meet the prospect.
You cannot persuade others to your way of thinking if you don't know what you are thinking and what direction you are going.Outcome-Based Thinking provides you with purpose and goals. By giving your life purpose and goals you become a more powerful person. You have reasons to be alive and feel fulfilled.

OBT Exercise, always have this question in mind:

1. What precisely do I want out of the process?
2. What does the other person want? If I don't know, what is he likely to want?
3.What is the least I will accept out of the process?
4.What problem could come up in the process?
5.How will I deal with each one and, if possible, use the problem as a benefit for the other person?
6.How will I bring the process to a conclusion?

Included below are the nine principles that come into play in daily life as well as in persuasion settings, whether you're a salesperson, public speaker, consumer, husband, wife, father or friend. These are the Laws of Persuasion.

1.Law og Reciprocity-When someone gives you something of perceived values, you immediatelly respond with the desire to give something back

(Notice the law does NOT say that someone will automatically reciprocate when given something. It says they will DESIRE TO GIVE SOMETHING BACK.)

To some degree, reciprocity has control over all of us.

Each Christmas, millions of people buy gifts and cards for people they probably would never buy for, except that the other person will be giving them something and they DON'T WANT TO LOOK BAD OR FEEL BAD! From early childhood we were all taught to give something back when something is given to us. Generally it was taught to us to be something of equal value.
How often have you been given a gift at Christmas that was more expansive than what you spent on the other person and felt OBLIGATED to buy something else to MAKE UP THE DIFFERENCE to the other person. This is a powerful example of the law of reciprocity.

We feel obligated to tip in a restaurant because someone brought us our food. Our culture trains us to "tip" individuals in some professions. (Hair stylists, taxi cab drivers, waitresses etc.) Why? There is no LOGICAL reason to do this. It is simply that our culture has taught us to do so and that to do otherwise would be considered as rude or unkind.

2.Law of Contrast-When two items are relativelydifferent from each other, we will see them as more different if placed closed together in time or space.

Salespeople frequently use the contrast principle because it is so effective.

"Before we look at the $120,000 home we should look at the $90,000 home." If the two homes are in similar neighborhoods, the more expensive home will have more features the salesperson can use as "hot buttons" and it is the LAST home they will see. People tend to remember the last thing they saw or were told much better than something they were shown or told earlier. If the last home, in this case, is a great deal nicer than the first, then the colorful memory of the nicer home will make the less expensive home seem drab and dull.

Fund raisers, on the other hand, will use "reciprocal concessions" to meet their goals. For example, if someone wants you to donate $50 to a cause, he will mention that "some people in the community are donating $200, others $100 and those on a tighter budget $50. Which would be best for you?" In other words, if you are told the neighbors are all giving $100, you will feel lucky to get off cheap at $50, won't you?

Another technique in the category of "reciprocal concessions" is the "money for time" concession. Someone may not have six hours per week to donate to your cause, but coming up with a check for $25 won't be too tough to deal with. If you are asked to donate three hours per week to a worthy cause and you clearly don't have the time (and possibly not the desire), then if you can write a small check, YOU will feel as if YOU got away with a bargain!
You can think of many more cases where, "for just a little extra, you can have all these great additional benefits." You can also think of cases where two products remarkably similar in appeal are priced radically different to get you to buy the less expensive one.

Recall the last time several times that you purchased a product or service and what items you were asked to buy in addition to your original purchase. Consider the last time that you bought something where you new there were extras that could have been purchased but were not offered. Why didn't the salesperson offer them to you?

The Law of Contrast is also used to get you to buy the more expensive product. After all, "The house you really want is only $10,000 more than this one, which is OK, but isn't it worth $3 per day to have what you really want?" (By the way, with interest, that $3 per day will end up costing you about $30,000!)

3.Law of Friends-When someone asks you to do something and you perceive that person to have your best interestes in mind, and/or you would like him to have your best interest in mind, you are strongly motivated to fulfill the request.

People will do almost anything that is asked of them by a friend. Clearly, as a persuader, you MUST BE PERCEIVED AS A FRIEND if you are to be successful in the persuasion process.

Friends are people who we like and we often like them because they like us. The more we let people perceive we are like them in ideology, philosophy, background, beliefs, attitudes, etc., the more likely it is we will persuade them.

4.Law of Expectancy-When someone whom you believe in or respect expects you to perform a task or produce a certain result, you will tend to fulfill his expectation whether positive or negative.

In early January of 1991, Israeli citizens were issued gas masks so that any chemical weapons launched from Iraq would not kill them. When SCUD missiles were fired by Iraq on January 16, 1991, dozens of Israeli citizens checked themselves into hospitals complaining of symptoms that they were told they would feel after a chemical weapon attack. Interestingly, no chemical weapons were actually used. The Law of Expectancy is very powerful indeed. This incident is, of course, the opposite of the well known placebo effect.

The placebo effect is best described in the following example. The Korean war brought thousands of casualties. Many of these casualties were given placebos (sugar pills and the like) instead of morphine when morphine supplies had run out. In some reports, 25% of the soldiers given placebos experienced a significant decrease in pain although no medical reason could be given.

5.Law of Association- We tend to like products, services or ideas that are endorsed by other people we like or respect.

If we like the people connected with a product, we tend to have positive associations in our minds of the products they endorse. Regardless of product quality, because of the endorsement, we often will buy a product the first time based on celebrity endorsement. (The second time around is another story and will be dealt with later.)

Bill Cosby probably helped you decide to buy Jell-O pudding, Kodak film and other products. Bo Jackson has sold a world on the idea that Nike tennis shoes are the only way to go. Ray Charles, Michael Jackson, Cindy Crawford and Michael J. Fox have got a nation drinking Diet Pepsi. Michael Jordan endorses just about everything and has singlehandedly improved the future of minor league baseball in America!

6.Law of Consistency-When an individual announces in writing or verbally that he is taking a position on any issue or point of view, he will strongly tend to defend that belief regardless of its accuracy even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
When President George Bush announced, "Read my lips, there will be no new tax increases", he couldn't have guessed how much popularity he would lose when he signed a major bill increasing taxes in 1990. When people are perceived as inconsistent, our trust and respect for them decreases markedly.

Conversely, when President George Bush stated his views on the aggression against Kuwait and that military action

7.Law of Scarcity-When a perosn perceive that something they might want is limited in quantity,the person perceive that the value of what thet might want is greater than if it were available in abundance.

Television advertisers use the Law of Scarcity with redundancy. "While supplies last", "Limit 2 per customer", "Offer good only Sunday", "Supplies are limited", "Only 10,000 have been minted", are all statements implying scarcity.

8.Law of conformity-Most people tend to agree to proposals, products, or services that will be perceived as acceptable by the majority of other people or a majority of individual's peer group.

9. Law of power-People have power over other people to the degree that they are perceived as having greater authority, strenght or expertise.

When one person starts applauding at a concert, the natural urge to applaud with him is nearly unstoppable.

When a doctor says something, it is normally perceived to have great deal of credibility. When they call a hospital to dispense a drug, even an incorrect one, 95 percent of nurse gave the drug anyway, against hospital policy. That is power!

The laws are neither good nor bad, it is how we manipulate using the persuasive techniques.It also involve manipulating other current circumstances, which can include the masterful use of questions, sharing secrets, using power words and phrases, applying time pressure, and others.

A). Masterful use of questions-Question (Clarify of Viewpoint) are valuable tools for th Master persuader. They are used in the persuasion process to clarify statements, determines values, draw out objections, and direct the converstion.
It is to determine a hierarchy of values for yourself and others. It is important to determine bith because we tend to assume that everyone has the same values as we do. If we don't clearly know what other's values are, we will tend to assign our own values to the people we communicate with. This makes for poor and even confusing communication, and provides very little chance for successfull persuasion.
There are two types of Values;

1.Means Values are objects or action-houses,cars,investments,computers, traveling, marriage, children, sex , sports, boats, fishing and the like.
2.End Values(Attraction Values) are feeling assiciated with those means values- love, fun,excitement, ecstacy, happiness, security, freedom, action, adventure, peace of mind, success, health and power.
End Values(Avoidance values)-depression, sadness,anger,frustration,humiliation,boredom,anxiety and feeling confined.

Your hierarchy of your end values this year may change slowly over the year.

Inorder to persuade others we must make sure that they will have their highest values met if they buy our products or accept our offer.

How do we find out peoples's values? You Ask Them!

"What is the most important to you in.....? what is nest important..?" Once you know their values, you can easily persuade them to whatever resultyou choose.
Learning people's value should practiced in all relationships, both personal and professional. Salepeople need to learn the values of their clients before attempting to meet their needs with specific products.
We should not persuade people to our idea, product, service, or belief umless it is in their best interest.
Remember this: Prescription before diagnosis is grounds for malpractice.
The most effective persuaders are those who ask
powerful questions that draw people out and get
them to keep talking and revealing more about
themselves.

Have you ever had an experience where you were
talking to someone and at some point in the
conversation you realize that you've done all the
talking and haven't really asked a thing about
the other person?

Some words have powerful impact on those you are attempting to persuade.

B).Power Words-The most powerful word on the face of earth is our own name.For most people, it is the first name that carries impact. For sale people, when doing presentation,calling prospect with the MR in front, the persuasive impact is negligible and indeed hurts their presentation.
On the other hand, research has shown that if you use a person's first name, at the very beginning or the very end of a sentence, the likelihood of pesuading that person is dramatically increased.

Please and thank you are the next in line to a person's name in giving the Master Persuader the persuasive edge.When please and thank you are used in communication, they carry a great deal of impact.

The fourth most powerful which carry authoritative weight is "because"

Beside the above powerful words above, they are thirdty-two others Power Words that sell as below:-

Advantage
Benefit
Comfort
Deserve, Discovery
Exciting, Easy
Fun, Free
Guarantee
Happy, Health
Improved,Investment
Joy
Love
Money
Powerful,Proud, Proven, Profit
Results,Right
Safety, Save, Security
Trust, Truth
Value, Vital
You

In Time-Pressure Techniques, the law of scarcity come in place-when a person perceive that something he might want is limited in quantity, he believe that the value of what he might want is greater than if it were available in abundance.

Time is Money, time can be either an asset or liability. The person who need something the fastest will normally pay more than the person who can wait.when time is something that we don't have a lot of , we will pay for it.
In negotiations of all kinds,if you are under no time pressure, you probably have little to lose. When this is the case, all the pressure will be on the other party.

Credibility is in the eye of the perceiver. We will not be perceived as credible if we don't meet our perceiver standards.As such in the above instant the law of friend come into picture.

The first rule of credibility is that never to tell another person more than he can believe. If you can point out a negative aspect about your product, services or ideas, you will disarm the perceiver from trying to find it, leaving him to focus on the benefits. You gain great credibility when you appear objective looking at your own product, services, ideas and opinions.

The second rule is that,to appear credible , you must be precise. If your computer software will save a company 28 percent, say it will save them 28 percent. Don't say 30 percent. Products or services that sell for $500 give the appearance of a negotiable price, but those that sell for $497 appear to have a less negotiable price.

The third rule on credibilty is to get some one with nothing to gain from the transaction to say something incredible about you or your product.

Finally, if you are selling a product or service, to achieve better credibility you can say something like this to the buyer "Whether you buy my product or not is OK with me. It's either going to make a big difference for you, or isn't, If it's not, you shouldn't buy it. It's completely up to you." After you've said that, all defenses come down and you will generally be perceived as a professional, competent, and credible salesperson.

Most peoples love secret. When you share secrets with people, you gain a great deal of trust from your listeners.

Ways to tell a secret:-
1." I shouldn't be telling you this, but ....."
2."Can you promise me you won't say anything to anyone about what I'm going to tell you"
3." Off the record. I think you shoulf know...."
4."I'm not supposed to tell anyone about that, but here's how it works..."

When you confide in people, you tend to get reciprocal behavior.

Go to each of the statement below and delete the words "don't" "mihht" and "maybe'. You will see the statement become a command statement.

Examples as below:-

1."Don't decide now. You can do it later if you're uncomfortable"
2. "You might want to consider adding to your portfolio...."
3. Maybe you haven't purchase more life insurance yet"

We can use this to persuade people once we understand the human behavior.

1. "You probably already know that you'll feel better when you quit smoking"
2."Sooner or later you will be happy with your decision"
3."Eventually, you will know that this is right for you"
4."People can, you know lose weight with this plan"
5."You will realize how smart you have been for having purchased this book"

People do not like to be told what to do.

1.'I wouldn't tell you to leave your religion to join mine, beacuse I always want your respect and I know you will make the right decision"
2."I could tell you that you are making a mistake but I won't. You want to figure it out for yourself"

The way someone know you are telling the truth is if you believe the same thing he does. If you agree with him, then you also are right and are telling the truth. It is use for therapy and also powerful tool for getting people to agree with you on just about anything.
The key to this pattern is to get someone to either say or think "Yes, yes,yes " then request what you desire

1."You deserve the best thing in life"
(Therefore"
"Invest in this program to give you not only what you have earned, but what you deserved"
2."The deficit is skyrocketing"
(Therefore)
"Vote for me and we will make a change together"
3. "I have worked every day without complaint"
(Therefore)
"Don't you feel I deserve thos one-week vacation?"

The nonverbal communication is two to seven times more significant in the persuasion process than the words we say.

When someone says, "That's it, I'm not talking to uou anymore!" he is communicating. The message is one of anger or some other negative emotion. He may think he has stopped communicating when in reality he is communicating very loudly!.

The stress of particular word can change the entire focus of the communication process.

1. HE'S giving this money to John
(He is the one giving the money, no one else)

2. He's GIVING his money to John
(He is giving not lending, the money)

3. He's giving THIS money to John
(This money, not any other)

4.He's giving this MONEY to John
(Not his credit cards or checks but money)

5.He's giving this money to JOHN
(John is getting the money, not Kevin or Fred)

If our vocal message contradicts our verbal statement we are probably being sarcastic.

You; Are you having fun?
Me: Won-der-ful(stated slowly and clearly)

If we are perceived as being sarcastic at an inappropriate time, not only do we stifle communication, but we destroy our ability to influence.

Our nonverbal behavior makes up about 60-90 percent of our message.

Proximics;-

1.FIxed space, hoem field advantage
Semifixed Space-arrangement of table , chair seating position.

2.Informal space classified into 4 categories:-
a.intimate 0-18 inches
b.casual-personal 1.5feet-4 feet
c.social consultative 4 feet-12 feet
d.public 12 feet-limit

Physical appearance- An attractive appearance is likely to enhance your persuasion capabilities greatly.

Understand of Nonverbal Cues- Placing of hand, finger, feet, arm , eye etc pay important part in persuasion process.

Congruency-Once you know that your nonverbal cues are congruent with what you are saying, and you are in rapport, you can begin to get verbal agreement from your prospect with undeniably true statement.

Examples:
"You own the store?" Yes
"You'd like to have greater cash flow?"Yes
"Bigger profits are always nice, aren't they?"Yes
Once in rapport, you need to inch closer to your prospect physically.

Becoming an expert is easy, but takes
some effort on your part. You may be
pleasantly surprised how close you
already are to being an established expert.
Let me share five of the simplest steps
you can take today to begin to establish
your expertise.

Anyone can become an expert in five simple steps.

1. Determine the area you want to demonstrate your expertise in
- Clearly define an area specifically that you are already knowledgeable in
- Decide what subject you want to become an expert on

2. Thoroughly study the subject matter. Studies done by Harvard have shown that it takes about 1000 hours of practice to become an expert at something, language, and instrument or any other activity to want to perform expertly.
- Make a spreadsheet with 1000 blocks in it. Write down each time you spend one hour on developing your expertise. And, write down what you studied, learned, proved or applied.

3. Begin to develop opinions
- Experts have opinions and share them
- Begin writing essays, articles and papers
- Spend time sharing your opinions with reporters and other influence professionals who can spread your word

4. Begin speaking publicly in appropriate forums about your expertise
- Talks at organizations or even groups like Toastmasters gives you the opportunity to begin documenting your expertise.
- Get testimonials from those groups about your expertise and your ability to succinctly share the expertise.

5. Write a book
- A book gives you instant credibility
- The book doesn't have to be long
- It is living document that demonstrates to everyone your expert status
- It maintains your status when you've gone on to different things . . .like a self funded retirement or rest of your life sabbatical.

Have you ever noticed how powerful people are able
to more easily persuade? How people want to do
what they suggest? And, have you ever noticed
that people close to them or endorsed by them
share in their ability to persuade?

Well, you should too.

In whatever situation you are persuading in, you
should find the most powerful, respected or
influential person in the group and meet them.
Get to know them if you can, be seen with them.

By associating with the most powerful person you
can in the situation you are trying to influence,
you are seen as being more of an insider.

The best situation is to get that person to
endorse you in some way. Either directly by
introducing you to the person you want to
persuade or even better by giving you an outright
endorsement.

In Military, pertinent information is called "Intelligence".

The Master Persuader needs to gather, analyze, and utilize intelligence for a successful encounter with a Win/Win result as well in relationships, business and all other situations.
It will be extremely difficult to produce Win/Win situation in the persuasion process if you have not done proper intelligence work.

The following usually seek by Master Persuader before make any decision:-

1.My Values.
2.My specific needs and desires.
3.My counterpart's values.-
4.My Counterpart's specific and desires.
5.My Counterpart's lifestyle.

To find out a person's values, needs, and desires, we must ask him.

Value Determination questions:-

1."What is most important to you about X?.(e.g, buying a book, owning a house, marriage, a job,etc)
2."How do you know when you have X?"
3."What's next most important to you about X?"
4."What else is important to you about X?"

We need to use Outcome-Based Thinking to determine what intelligence will be neccessary for each encounter.