How To Persuade Others

How To Persuade Others

The art of persuasion involves excellent communication skills and understanding human dynamics.  To persuade someone to buy into your idea, you have to clearly communicate the idea to them, and make them believe it is in their best interest to participate in your idea.  

Persuasion is part of your job, whether you realize it or not.  There are several instances during your career where your ability to persuade someone else is critical:

• Asking for a raise
• Recruiting a new hire
• Gathering a team to work towards a common goal
• Showcasing yourself for a promotion
• Getting executives to invest in your company

Persuasion is a communications art form.  Below are three strategies you can implement to help you improve your persuasion skills.

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1.  Get People To Listen

If you want to learn how to persuade others, you first need to get people to listen to you.  This means your message must be clear, concise, and connect with your audience. 

• Clear - When trying to persuade others, you want to make sure your message is clear.  In other words, the point you are trying to make should be easily understandable.  For example, if you need your team to work overtime to make a deadline, you can say, Option #1, "It looks like things are taking longer, I'm not sure, but I think we will need to work later than we thought.  If everyone could stay a little longer, it would really help." Or you could say, Option #2, "To meet our deadline, we will need to work three hours of overtime." In the first option, your team may be unsure how long they need to stay and why.  In the second option, you are being clear about the amount of time necessary and giving the reason why the team needs to stay late.
• Concise - Some folks may feel the need to overexplain when trying to persuade others.  The truth is, you may lose your audience if you are too lengthy.  When you are concise, your point is made more quickly, and you can keep your audience's attention.  For example, it is best to stick to the facts when asking for a raise.  Instead of going on and on about how you feel you performed, you can point to the numbers showing your productivity. 
• Connect - Connecting to your audience will keep them engaged and listening.  Remember, it is your job to persuade, so you are responsible for ensuring your audiences stay interested.  Consider your audience when crafting your message of persuasion.  Are you speaking to your team, or are you talking to superiors?  For example, if you are speaking to your peers, you can use technical language you are all familiar with.  However, if you are talking to a group of superiors who aren't familiar with the intricacies of your job, consider using more general language and layman's terms.  If your audience doesn't connect with you, they will stop listening.

Keeping your message clear will help your audience stay engaged.  The more your audience listens, the more significant influence you will have, which can help you persuade them.

 

2.  Make Your Idea Beneficial To Everyone

Your idea is most likely very beneficial to you.  However, if you want to persuade others to take action, you have to show them why it is beneficial to them.  This is because most people won't act unless they can see some benefit for themselves.

There are a few ways you can show how your idea is beneficial to more than just you.

• Turn I Into We - When speaking to your audience, think about how turning I into we can make a difference in what you are saying.  For example, instead of saying, "I really want a new copy machine for the office, it would help me a lot.", you could say, "We really need a new copy machine for the office.  It would help us all, wouldn't it?" By changing your I into we, you allow your audience to see how your idea is beneficial to them and the collective. 

• Listen To Your Audience - Listening to your audience means understanding and appreciating their needs and interests.  If you don't consider what they want, you won't be able to persuade them.  For example, let's say you want your team to try a new way of submitting timesheets.  It may seem like a trivial and straightforward change to you, but have you thought about how it will impact your team?  Before you present the idea, it is best to acknowledge them and how they have done things in the past.  You could start by saying, "I understand we have always submitted timesheets the XYZ way.  I know this is how you expect to do it, and after speaking to many of you, I understand how the change may impact your day-to-day duties.  However, I believe this new way will be easier for you, and we will see fewer payroll headaches for you in the future.  Before this new way is implemented, I want to address any questions or concerns so we can make sure this is the best for us all." It is important to acknowledge your audience and show them you care and are listening to their needs.
• Gather Your Group - Gathering your group will help you show a collective benefit.  This is because there is power in numbers.  For example, let's say you want to speak to your superior about going after a new sales territory.  Talk to your colleagues before you bring it up at your next sales meeting.  If any of them agree this is a good idea you can count on them to coordinate during the sales meeting.  In this way, when you bring it up to your superior at the meeting, it will be more than just you who thinks it is a good idea.  Gathering your group will help sell the idea to your superior.

When you show how your idea is beneficial to everyone, your audience will be more inclined to act on your behalf.  The key is to show your audience you care.

 

3.  Make Your Case

When you want to persuade others, you will have to make your case as to why your idea is so great and how you want your audience to respond.  This means explaining the pros and cons, giving vivid examples, and providing actionable steps. 

• Pros And Cons - Your pros and cons list will help you explain your idea and show why it is important your audience takes action.  For example, let's say you want to get an assistant.  You will have to persuade your boss to make room in the department budget and contact HR about getting a new hire.  Write down the pros and cons of their decision.  Your pros could be making more time to meet with big clients, secure more sales, etc.  The cons of not hiring an assistant for you could be, you would be stuck doing data entry, wouldn't have time for outside sales assistance, etc.  If the pros outweigh the cons, you are well on your way to persuading your audience.
• Vivid Examples - Sometimes, your audience will need to hear and see vivid examples to understand exactly what you mean.  This is especially true if you are dealing with technical terms or speaking to a group of investors about your innovative startup.  You can create vivid examples with PowerPoint presentations, videos, the use of storytelling, handouts, renderings, etc.  The more vividly you can explain your examples, the more your audience will be able to understand your idea.
• Actionable Steps - You will want to provide your audience with actionable steps.  This means telling them exactly what you want them to do next.  For example, if you have persuaded your co-workers into getting a new copier, ask them to sign your petition.  Give them details on how they can follow up with the office manager at the next budget meeting.  Keep them updated on the progress and any other ways to get involved.  If you don't provide the action steps, your audience won't know what to do next.  

The key to making your case is ensuring your audience understands your idea and why acting on your idea is essential.  Giving examples and providing pros and cons list will help make your case.

In the end, knowing how to persuade others comes down to clearly communicating your ideas and connecting with your audience.  If your audience feels your idea is beneficial, they will be much more likely to act upon it.

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