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

Oftentimes we get frustrated with our target audience when they don’t understand. When they don’t listen. I will tell you what we tell all our clients: if they can’t hear you, it’s not their fault. It’s only once you know your audience as much as you know yourself or your product or your company that you can begin to communicate with them. In a wor

For behavior-based empathy, your goal is simple: Learn why your audience does what they do when it comes to your issue, product, or company. In order to do that, find someone in your target group to talk with, then get yourself in the mind-set of a journalist taking down facts without judgment.

The era of subtlety is over.

This is the golden rule of communicating: Talk to your audience as they are, not as you want them to be.

Almost every day, I have to impress upon a client that telling their customers that they believe in something or are committed to something is almost useless without a clear visual to back it up. Because it’s visuals that stick in our minds. We think in pictures. If you can plant a positive picture in the mind of whomever you’re trying to persuade,

Nike’s “Just Do It” tagline was an expression of their master narrative of bringing out the athlete in all of us. GE’s “We Bring Good Things to Life” was an expression of their master narrative that their diverse products make life good for everyone. Smucker’s “Choosy Moms Choose Jif,” is an expression of their master narrative of quality ingredien

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

What symbolic gesture can you make in order to underscore your point? How do you define what your symbolic gesture is or could be?

If we keep meeting anger with anger, the world’s divisions will only escalate. Persuasion is a communication-based process. If we’re all just shouting so loudly that we can’t hear the other person, we can’t communicate.

Before we move into how to tell a story that sells, let’s take stock of your persuasion process thus far. You have a big vision you are excited to persuade people of and you know the person you need to persuade intimately and empathetically. You have crafted three pillars for your argument and a master narrative that makes your audience feel that y