Persuasion -- The Art of Getting What You Want
Attendance at today's LSSO conference perked up to 135, including exhibitors and staff. Small yes, but the attendees were the creme de la creme of sales and business development.
Dave Lakhani, author of Persuasion -- The Art of Getting What You Want -- explained how to be persuasive, which is a good thing, but not manipulative, which is a bad thing.Manipulation:
- Focuses only on the needs of the manipulator. It is focused on one outcome no matter what the cost to the other person
- Is dishonest and unethical
- Always hurts someone
- Is always discovered.
Persuasion, on the other hand, is:
- Focused on achieving a positive outcome for both people
- Relationship enhancing
- Transparent
- Engaging Compelling
- Always honest and ethical
- Is never discovered
The President of Bold Approach sales, marketing and public relations in Boise, ID, Lakhani said, "If your intent is to help someone become a better person, overcome a problem and provide a solution - that's a good thing. That's persuasion," and it applies to business development. He listed 5 tactics to become persuasive:Tactic 1: Tell a persuasive story.
Stories are oldest form of communication since the birth of our civilization. Myths are stories that are easy to repeat. If you meet someone and start with a pitch and bullet points - your prospect will have no interest. "But if you start with a story about someone in a similar situation, and how you helped them, they'll listen," he said. With stories, everything doesn't have to add up. Stories go in under our radar and causes people to be attentive and curious. Give a story about why you're here, how you got into business - its very powerful.Tactic 2: Develop a Persuasive Persona. Your appearance is the first thing people will judge you by. If you're in business development, you only want people to look at your face. Do everything so that people will look at your face - wear a dark suit, white shirt, red tie - which pushes attention to your face. Your face is where all your information comes from and is where people connect. Your voice and communication skills are also important. If you're not a good public speaker, you need to focus on that, spend time at toastmasters, and get a speaking coach.
Tactic 3: Ask Powerful Questions. Rudyard Kipling wrote, "I keep six honest serving-men (They taught me all I knew); their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who." It is more important than listening to ask powerful questions, so you have something important to listen to. Ask: What's your deadline? What is your budget for this? Who is going to be responsible?
Tactic 4: Be An Expert
Experts have opinions and they share them. If you want to be recognized as an expert, you need to develop an opinion and share it. Everyone can be an expert at something - takes about 1000 hours of practice. You should speak, write articles or a write book.
Tactic 5: Social Proof. You can persuade people because human behavior is "Monkey see, monkey do." "If everybody else is doing it, you can assert that your prospect should be doing it too," he said. Also, give to receive: if you give the prospect a white paper or a copy of your book, they are much more likely to do something with you. Give someone a compliment, they will feel obligated to give you a compliment in return.
Experts have opinions and they share them. If you want to be recognized as an expert, you need to develop an opinion and share it. Everyone can be an expert at something - takes about 1000 hours of practice. You should speak, write articles or a write book.
Tactic 5: Social Proof. You can persuade people because human behavior is "Monkey see, monkey do." "If everybody else is doing it, you can assert that your prospect should be doing it too," he said. Also, give to receive: if you give the prospect a white paper or a copy of your book, they are much more likely to do something with you. Give someone a compliment, they will feel obligated to give you a compliment in return.
After listening to Lakhani, I was persuaded.
