Effective Persuasion

© Operational Excellence Consulting. All rights reserved.© Operational Excellence Consulting. All rights reserved.
Effective Persuasion

© Operational Excellence Consulting. All rights reserved. 2
Learning Objectives
Acquire knowledge
on the key concepts
and principles of
persuasion
Understand the
persuasion process
and the barriers to
successful
persuasion
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NOTE: This is a PARTIAL PREVIEW. To
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Contents
2 Cialdini’s 6 Principles of Persuasion
1 Introduction & Key Concepts of Persuasion
4 Barriers to Successful Persuasion
3 McGuire’s 6 Steps of Persuasion

Introduction
§ Your ability to persuade colleagues, peers and senior
leaders plays a significant role in achieving success
§ By convincing or persuading others, you can create
direction, alignment, commitment and make your vision,
goals and objectives or ideas happen
§ In this presentation, you will learn the principles and
process that you can deploy to improve your powers of
persuasion and increase your influence

© Operational Excellence Consulting. All rights reserved. 5© Operational Excellence Consulting. All rights reserved. 5
Fable of the Sun and the Wind
The wind and the sun decided to have a competition to decide once
and for all who was stronger.
They agreed that the winner would be the one who could persuade a
man to take off his coat.
The wind blew and blew, but the man only held on more tightly to his
coat.
Then the sun shone gently down, and within minutes, the man took off
his coat.
Moral of the story: You can’t force someone to do
what they don’t want; instead, the art of persuasion
is to get them to want what you want.

Key Definitions
Influence Persuasion
The capacity to have an
effect on the character,
development, or
behavior of someone or
something, or the effect
itself.
Process aimed at making
someone do or believe
something by giving
them a good reason to
do it or by talking to that
person and making them
believe it.

Persuasion
§ Persuasion attempts to win “the heart and mind” of your
target audience (e.g. customer)
§ In order to persuade one must bring about a change in
attitude, which is basically an emotion-based change
§ The effects of persuasion last longer because the target
audience accepts and internalizes the message
§ Leaders who are effective in persuasion have political
savvy, create visibility, build and maintain personal
trustworthiness, leverage networks, communicate clearly
and motivate others

Effective Use of Persuasion by Apple to Drive Sales
§ Steve Jobs took to the stage
on June 7, 2016 to introduce
iPhone 4
§ The iPhone 4 sold 1.7 million
units in its first weekend

© Operational Excellence Consulting. All rights reserved.
9
“The most important
persuasion tool you
have in your entire
arsenal is integrity.”
Zig Ziglar

What Persuasion Is Not
§ Hard selling
§ Command, force, coercion or threat
§ Manipulating people into doing something
§ Behaving like a cult leader trying to build his flock
§ Using unethical tactics to achieve the desired outcome

Why is Persuasion Important?
§ Persuasion is a powerful vehicle for change
§ People much prefer being persuaded both to believe
and to do things than simply being told what to believe
and what to do
§ A means to help you achieve your goals and objectives
§ The ability to sell your skills and ideas will help you to
become more successful in your career or as an
entrepreneur
§ People who are persuasive are influential

4 Quadrants of Influence
Behavior
Self Everyone
Belief
COERCION INFLUENCE
MANIPULATION PERSUASION

Persuasion vs. Manipulation
1. Positive intentions for
ourselves and others
2. Predicated on open and
respectful relationship
3. Value all teams members as
equals
4. Active listening
5. Convince not impose
6. Build respect, rapport and
relationship
7. Use their “power” to empower
others
8. High emotional intelligence
1. Uses position, power and
coercion
2. Singular self-interest
3. Communication isn’t
respectful, open or
transparent
4. Rigidity and lack of flexibility
5. Impose rather than convince
6. Punish rather than reward
7. Poor to non-existent listening
skills
8. Low to no emotional
intelligence
PERSUASION MANIPULATION

3 Modes of Persuasion
Logos
Ethos
Pathos
3 Modes of
Persuasion
Ethical
appeal
Emotional
appeal
Logical
appeal

To Tailor a Persuasive Message, Understanding the
Target Audience is Key

Communication-based Persuasion Model
Sender ReceiverDecodingChannelEncoding
Feedback
Context
A two-way communication process is used to
convey the persuasive message.

17
“Our best evidence of
what people truly feel
and believe comes less
from their words than
from their deeds.”
Dr. Robert Cialdini

Cialdini’s 6 Principles of Persuasion
Scarcity
We value information and
commodity that are scarce more
than when they are abundant.
Reciprocity
We feel obligated to return
favors to people who have
done favors for us in the past.
Authority
We believe what trustworthy
and credible experts say.
Liking
We say yes to people that we
like. Similarity, compliments and
cooperative effort.
Consistency
We are most likely to do what is
consistent with what we have
done in the past.
Consensus (Social Proof)
We trust the power of the crowd and
like to be associated with popular
things.
Source: Robert Cialdini

‘Reciprocity’ Principle of Persuasion:
As a Japanese tradition, gifts are exchanged to show
gratitude to those who have helped you throughout
the year.

‘Scarcity’ Principle of Persuasion:
COVID-19: Herd mentality drives many people all over the
world into panic buying of toilet paper although
it offers no protection against the coronavirus.
Photo credit: South China Morning Post

Applying the Principles of Persuasion
Forming or
improving
relationships
§ Reciprocity
§ Liking
Dealing with
the unknown
and uncertainty
Motivating for
action
§ Consensus
(Social Proof)
§ Authority
§ Consistency
§ Scarcity

McGuire’s 6 Steps of Persuasion
Source: Adapted from William J. McGuire
Presentation
Presentation of
persuasive message
Comprehension
Understand
arguments conveyed
in the message
Attention
Receiver pays
attention to message
content
Yielding
Receiver agrees with
message argument
Retention
Message is retained
or stored in memory
Behavior
Receiver behaves in
line with the
message argument
31 2 4 5 6

Activity 3: Persuasion process role play
1. Put two people in a circle of approximately
two meters in diameter.
2. In under 4 mins, each person must use the
McGuire’s 6-step Persuasion Process to
convince or persuade the other person to
leave the circle.
3. No physical contact is allowed.
4. Observers from outside the circle may give
encouragement to both people.
Time: 4 mins
ACTION!

END OF PREVIEW
To download this presentation,
please visit:
www.oeconsulting.com.sg

Effective Persuasion

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