How we change what others think, feel, believe and do

Training every day for changing minds and persuasion

Guest articles > Training every day for changing minds and persuasion

by: Vinh Ly

If you’re reading this, it means that you’re interested in how you can change what others think, feel, believe and do.

That’s exactly the same for me. And if you are like me, you might be spending a lot of time learning all the techniques, but you might not be feeling that you can put those into practice in real life.

It’s a common behavior for anyone starting in the field.

Let’s face it… without concrete application, persuasion theories are just useless. They’re interesting, but useless.

You would be collecting techniques like philatelists are collecting stamps and let them go unused and worthless on their shelves.

But really, why don’t we apply persuasion techniques?

• We don’t think about it. We get caught in the moment and in old bad habits.
• There are so many techniques to apply. Changingminds.org How can you know whether you should use the “And there’s more!” close or the” 1-2-3” close?
• We’re afraid of getting caught. We think that people will uncover our persuasion technique and will hang us up for it. And how about some tar and feathers?

So what should you do?

Create a persuasion sandbox.

It’s a specific situation where you can experiment your persuasion technique without the fear of failure.

Choose a genuine action that you would want somebody to perform. It is better if there is nothing important at stakes.

Personally, I try to convince a colleague to have a cup of coffee with me during the office hours.

Most people will be very busy, so getting a bit of their time is difficult and sometimes quite challenging.

Then, because the stakes are so low, none of your colleagues will think that you are trying to manipulate them. So you can get creative.

• “If you spend too much time working, you’ll just realize your life went through and you were a mere spectator. Let’s a grab a quick coffee.”
• “Give me 20 reasons not to have a coffee with me?”
• “I have a huge rumour for you. I’ll tell you at the coffee machine.”

Not so long ago, I realized I was doing this for years. But always using the same 2 or 3 techniques.

I started having fun with them, tried some combos with different people… Finally, I really improved my skills without having taken any real risks.

For the persuasion sandbox, it does not have to be coffee, it can be anything.

• Asking somebody for a linkedin recommendation
• Getting somebody to write you a good feedback on your work (when initially no feedback is requested)
• Having a nice smile appear on somebody’s face

If you keep on training, one day, you’ll realize that you’ll have developed your skills and that they were like dormant superpowers.

Be creative, be nice and be persistent.

Vinh Ly is a Marketing and Persuasion expert.

He is a passionate aircraft salesman and marketer, and he writes for www.vinh.ly, where he teaches persuasion and marketing through comics.

Contributor: Vinh LY

Published here on: 03-Feb-13

Classification: Persuasion

Website: www.vinh.ly