What makes someone an effective persuader

Business Know-How Powered by. Ready to get started? Get the expert support you need. Log In. Support F. Great persuaders do three things:. If you want to persuade, you need to be understood. Great persuaders are effective communicators. Navy in , this design principle recognizes that systems work best when they are not complicated. Successful marketers and politicians translate the complex and communicate with clarity. Messages that are clear and understood are the ones that stick.

If you are applying for a job or want to be considered for a promotion, make a clear case. Clearly communicate your accomplishments on your resume and in interviews. They will give up or lose interest. The clearer and simpler you are with your language, the more likely you will persuade them. They show. They show with pictures or with visual language. They carefully support their arguments and check in with questions that will help to close the conversation. Then they step back.

The great sales trainer Tom Hopkins still today teaches these decades-old techniques of his mentor J. Douglas Edwards. His most important lesson is "Whenever you ask a closing question, shut up. The first person who speaks, loses. Urgency and immediacy are often the enemies of real persuasion.

It's possible to close a less significant sale through urgency, but deep ideas require time and thought to take root. Great persuaders bring you along in your own time.

And they give you the space and time to carefully consider their position. They know that nothing is more powerful than your persuading yourself on their behalf. That almost never occurs in the presence of the persuader. The next time you want to persuade someone of something truly important, follow the tips above, make your case, and walk away. If they don't come around, you were probably wasting your effort in the first place. Top Stories. Top Videos. Related Posts. Read More.

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