Persuasive Communication - How to Inspire Your Audience to Action?

Eetu Tauriainen • March 12, 2019
We all use persuasion in our everyday lives, even if we don't always recognize it. We are constantly ”selling” our thoughts to others and trying to convince people to take heed of them. The messages that we are giving out could be structured spontaneously or they can be prepared with certain techniques.

Persuasion is a widely used term of influence. It can be seen as an attempt to influence a person's beliefs, attitudes, intentions, motivations or behaviors. Persuasion is a process that aims to change audience attitude or behaviour toward something new. In business for example, it is often used when you are giving a sales pitch for your clients or investors. Persuasion is also a common tool used in political campaigns and in trial advocacy.

It Is Not About What You Do - It Is About Why You Are Doing It

The most important steps in persuasion are to know your audience and be able to raise their interest level. At first people are often not interested to hear how you do something before they know why you are doing it. For example, if you work in Sales Department, your clients may be first interested in hearing the benefits of the solution that you are selling them to see how those will resonate with their problems. Only after that, they become more open to also hear the approach of how you will do it for them.

There are lots of books written about persuasion and here I have wrapped up some of the main points, I have found, in seven steps:

1. Create a goal you want to achieve
2. Know your audience
3. Create interest
4. Be the first to give free help
5. Create trust
6. Create a common ground with your audience
7. Use a structured message that is easy to follow
 
Using these techniques, you can immediately start sharing your ideas more effectively with others and become a better performer in your daily business meetings.