Persuasion
should show mutual benefit for both parties.
The other side should still feel as though they have
the right to
choose. Persuasion is swaying others to
adopt a mindset or action that they are considering. Here
are just a few effective techniques for
written or verbal persuasion,
Verbal Techniques
-Using
Analogies
-Emotional
Appeal
-Being
honest (don’t get caught in a lie)
-Intellectual
Appeal
-Logical
Appeal
Written Techniques
-Rhetorical Question
-Repetition
-Authority
-Comparisons
-Storytelling
There
are many more persuasion techniques and tactics out there.
I decided to attempt a few of the more common
techniques to see if they would be effective in everyday situations.
The Persuasion Techniques Experiment
Test 1-Get better service at a restaurant
Strategy #1: Reciprocal
Persuasion (The Golden Rule)
A person is more likely to treat
you better if they
like you. Most people are reciprocal in
the way they are treated. If you’ve ever
worked as a server or in retail, you understand the expectation that
customers
have about getting quick, error free, service with a smile. While this is good for business, it is easy
for the servers and associates to feel like robots instead of people.
I have felt this way in past jobs.
To test the
first strategy, I decided to treat the server, exactly the way I would
like to
be treated if I were a server. In other
words, more like a human being instead of a robot.
Challenge:
Better Service
A friend and I went to a Chinese
Bistro. I was wary about going to this particular
restaurant because the last time I was there the waiter took a very long
time
to bring the check after we had finished eating. That
was not the first time that we had to
wait for our check. On a previous visit,
a waitress took about 15 minutes to bring our check after we asked for
it. I thought this visit would be a great time to
practice the reciprocal technique to get better service.
During the meal, I thought of ways
to make the
server’s job as easy as possible. We had
our orders ready and that avoided him having to come back and forth. When we were done with the appetizer plates,
I neatly stacked them and placed all of the silverware and napkins on
top. I did the same thing with the main course
plates.
After our meal, my friend went to
use the
restroom. The waiter came by and asked
if we were ready for the checks. Instead
of just replying ‘yes’, I struck up a conversation with him. By the time my friend returned from the
restroom, the waiter had already told me about his childhood growing up
in
Indiana, the band he currently plays in, and all of the drama between
his past
girlfriend and current girlfriend.
Result: Quick response and made a new friend
When I finally asked him to bring
the check, it
took less than five minutes for him to return.
He not only seemed eager to come back to the table
and wrap-up the
conversation, he told us his working schedule and would try to get us a
good
table if we came back when he was working.
Test 2- Get People to Participate or Volunteer
Strategies:
#2 Incentive and #3 Social Proof
The Incentive
strategy is a
strategy of reminding the other party of the incentives of
participating. Whether it is for a fundraiser or
party,
stating the incentive is a good way to sway everyone to participate.
The use of the
social proof technique
was an accident. Social proof is the phenomenon
that happens when a person looks at the actions of others around them to
determine their own actions. The
idea is to promote participation by
displaying how many other people are also participating. You’ve
probably heard advertisers plant
phrases like “largest selling” and “15,000 people have switched to” in
commercials to entice buyers to participate.
Challenge:
Get Participation
I was in charge
of getting
volunteers to participate in a department event at work.
The purpose of the event was to raise morale
by getting the associates together to enjoy each other’s company. At our last staff meeting, I made sure to
mention the event and posted a sign-up sheet.
With 3 days until the event, I still had about 12
open spots.
I realized that I
had to become
proactive and use some persuasion techniques to fill the rest of the
spots. I took
the list of names and went around my department with the goal of filling
all of
the empty spots. Instead of going up to
each individual and asking for participation, I would approach people in
rooms
or small groups. I did this in order to
not put pressure on those people who had no interest in participating.
When I mentioned
the event to
everyone in their groups, I reminded everyone of the purpose of the
event. We were going to have a variety of
delicious
food so I decided to emphasis the different dishes that were going to be
served.
“We’ve got
rotisserie chicken,
mashed potato, pasta, and for dessert, cake, flan and banana pudding.”
Before
I could go down the entire list of
food, I would be interrupted by people voicing their commitment and
adding
their name to list.
The
social proof technique worked with almost
no effort on my part. I decided to stop
approaching people and post the sign-up sheet back on the wall. The next day I found that more people signed up
and filled the list. There were so many names that people were writing
their
names vertically on side of the sheet.
Results:
Exceeded Participation Quota
The strategy worked
very well. This event went much better than in
previous
years. This was due to the overwhelming
number of participants. Everybody had a
marvelous time and the flan was great!
Test 3-Making the sale
Strategies: #4 The Puppy Dog
Close and #5 Framing
While
I was in the mall trying to think of a way to test the last techniques, I came across someone who used them on me.
There were two different techniques used in
this particular scenario, the Puppy Dog Close and Framing.
The
Puppy Dog Close got its name from the pet store industry.
The sales people would let potential
customers take a puppy home, and if they were unhappy with the dog, they
could
return it. After a few days of having a
cute, loving, playful puppy running around, most people couldn’t imagine
returning it to the pet store. The idea
is to let the customer try the product before they buy.
The
next technique that was used was the framing technique. Framing
is way conjure images in the minds of
other people. Have you ever been out
somewhere and someone says “look over there”?
Most likely, you will look to see what the person is
talking about.
But what if that person said “don’t look
over
there”? Chances
are you would still want
to look. By using the word ‘look’, they
are invoking you to look no matter the context.
Challenge: Sell
It
was a Thursday afternoon and I was walking toward the exit of my local
mall
when I passed a kiosk. I’m sure that
you’ve passed by the many kiosks in your local mall on the way to your
favorite
store. They sometimes sell cell phone
accessories, jewelry, and t-shirts. This
particular kiosk sold Mediterranean beauty products.
I
had no need for Mediterranean beauty products, or so I thought. The sales woman tried to get my attention by asking
for a moment of my time. I declined but
she persisted and promised that it would only take a few minutes. I finally agreed and she began massaging the
scrub into my hand as she told me about the product and its uniqueness.
After
she finished her demonstration, she proceeded with her pitch.
She
told me to compare the hand that she applied the scrub to with my other
hand. She asked if I noticed how much
softer and smoother the treated hand was.
I had to admit, my hand was smoother.
Shaving
is one of my least favorite things to do.
I am always interested in anything that can make that
process more
comfortable. She described how much the
scrub would help me before shaving. In
her description, she used words like ‘rough’, ‘dry’ and ‘itchy’. I felt the urge to scratch my face.
Results: Purchased
By
testing the scrub on my hand, she used the Puppy Dog Close to convince
me that
the product worked. She told me if I
didn’t like the scrub, I could return it. Then, by using words like soft
and
smooth, she conjured positive images about the results of the scrub. She contrasted that by using negative framing
words like rough, dry, and itchy to show the negative effects of shaving
without the scrub.
Conclusion
In
every challenge, both parties benefited.
At the restaurant, I told the manager of the great
job that our server
did. At work, the event that I organized
went very well. We all enjoyed each
other’s company and many wished that we could hold similar events more
often. And with the scrub, I was very satisfied
and
have since returned to buy a few more tubes.
Being able to persuade
your readers, audience,
customers or coworkers is a valuable skill to have. It
may very well be one of the most useful
communication skills a person can possess.
Have you ever used any of these techniques? How do you persuade others to your way of
thinking?
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