Daniel Pink, the author of Drive and When is known for his work on influence and persuasion. In his Masterclass he describes simple techniques that can be adopted to become more persuasive.
There are three meta points to keep in mind here. First, context is very important. The what, where, how of a sales interaction determines which tools and frames (discussed later) you can use. Second, shoot for autonomy. People are more likely to do something if they decided to do it themselves and finally, do the right thing. When in doubt, do what’s right by the person you’re trying to sell to. Now let’s jump in to these tips.
When you’re trying to persuade someone, taking a position of power makes your job harder. There is an inverse relationship between power and your ability to persuade. Instead of badgering someone with what they need or want, it makes sense to give them a position of power. In the real world this translates to asking more questions and letting people respond. This also forces you to listen more and react and increases your likelihood of success. Instead of saying ‘doing X will improve your..’, ask ‘what do you think will happen when you do X?’.
Personalisation is an important influencing technique. In a study done in Israel, radiologists were divided into two groups. One group was given scans to study and the other group was given scans along with the photo of the person they belonged to. It turned out that the radiologists who were given a photo of the person along with their scans, spent a lot more time studying them and were more meticulous. Making work personal, elevated the performance of the radiologists. This is a very powerful notion. When we consider our work a service to real people, we go the extra mile. When you’re trying to persuade people, don’t talk in abstract terms. Make it about them.
This one is an interesting real world exercise that you can do in a meeting. When you’re in a group setting or a meeting, your job is to identify the person with the power. Discussion map is a quick visual table you can draw that marks who talks to whom in a meeting. The person speaking the most is not always the person with the most power. You have to keenly observe the number of people to whom people look towards or address when they talk. The person with the most power to influence a decision is the one who most people address.
Make your message purposeful. Explain how using what you’re selling helps them achieve their purpose. Explain how you make the world a better place. It sounds cheesy but talking in ‘purpose’ terms makes them more open to listening and getting involved in the communication.
Walk into a sales pitch with the purpose of identifying problems and not offering solutions. This requires a some change in your mindset. We generally find ourselves talking two or three steps ahead, preempting the problems being discussed by our counterparts. The simplest ways to adopt this is to curate information to identify hidden problems. Use the 5 whys framework (may be stop at 4 why’s if you think you have enough information).
Your job as a salesperson is to help people summon their own motivation for buying/doing what you want. Intrinsic motivation is the only true motivation and if you can do this right, your job will become a whole lot easier. You can follow this simple technique of asking two irrational questions. Your first question is on a scale of 0 to 10 how likely are you to do X? If they say 4, ask them the second question. Why did you not choose a lower number? This will help them rationalise and come up with their own reasons as to why they are leaning in to do that thing. You can then build over their reasons to accentuate the benefits and help reinforce their motivation.
This one is quite straightforward. Make it as easy to do something you want people to as is possible. Sounds simple but we all tend to drop the ball on this. If you’re looking for people to make a donation, set up a website that is mobile friendly with a simple one click payment feature. Set up donation amount buttons like $15, $10, $5 so nobody needs to think and type in the amount they want to donate. Take people straight away to this donation page. Building an off ramp is about removing any and every possible friction point that you can foresee.
Mirroring is an old an effective influence technique. The idea sounds too simple to be true but several studies have indicated that it works. Your goal is to watch your audience is saying or doing and do the same. When you mirror people, they feel like they are being heard. Research suggests people don’t find it manipulative. A study in restaurants where waiters were asked to mimic and repeat the orders placed by the guests, showed a significant increase in tips. I’ve written about mirroring in my other post on negotiation tips.
Dan talks about the different kinds of persuasion frames that can be used in different contexts. Here are the 5 frames, I feel are very useful during sales.
No other profession requires one to handle rejection on a day to day basis than sales. Those who can brush off rejections and get their head back in the game end up winning more often those who can’t. Martin Seligman, the father of positive psychology, did a study that involved insurance agents. The study found out that the agents who handled rejection better, performed better in the long run.
The key to brushing yourself up is giving yourself a good pep talk but instead. People say you must keep telling yourself that you can do something. A better alternative is to ask yourself Can you do this. The nature of the question makes you think of how. This inspires you to answer the question and rehearse in your head.
Dan also talks about the 3 Ps framework that usually pushes us into the depths of despair whenever we fail.
I run a startup called Harmonize. We are hiring and if you’re looking for an exciting startup journey, please write to jobs@harmonizehq.com. Apart from this blog, I tweet about startup life and practical wisdom in books.