Persuasion: Convincing Others When Facts Don't Seem to Matter

Don’t chase the water drinkers if you’re a beer company. Be the best beer brand you can be.

The fact is, the biggest decisions about you are going to be made when you’re not in the room. You won’t be there when customers make the final call on which product goes in their cart or who the new hire is or whether your email gets read or which name is circled in the voting booth. Which is why you must have a powerful master narrative, the thin

According to the 2018 Cone/Porter Novelli Purpose Study, 78 percent of Americans will buy a brand for the first time based solely on the brand’s position on a controversial topic. Half of people make purchases based on companies’ beliefs or values. Fifty-one percent will be more loyal buyers of a brand that speaks up compared with those that remain

This is critical because people often confuse persuasion and manipulation. I get it. Both are trying to have an impact on and modify the behavior of another human being.

Then I am going to walk you through what I have termed active empathy, a practice that you can use to reach and persuade in a way that’s incredibly effective, because no matter what you are trying to accomplish, everything begins and ends with the audience.

And he found the most effective way to appeal to them: he built a simple, clear master narrative that his audience could remember and repeat.

If you passed with flying colors, go out there and get started. If you haven’t, it’s okay. This is a key part of the process. If this was easy, everyone would effortlessly be persuading each other of things all the time. Go back and edit your Persuasion Plan. Update your stories. Find the right proof points and gut check it again.

What do I love? What do I want more of in my life? What am I passionate about?

persuasion is all about—it’s having the tools you need to be heard.

Own the truth of who you are. Because when you acknowledge a truth your client can plainly see, you are instantly engaging in a dialogue with them. You’re saying, “I validate and respect your perspective of me. Now let’s talk.”