The Art of Persuation

By: Mike Kamo

Persuasion is one of the basic tools of communication. Whether you’re trying to sell a product or win an argument or get someone to love you, you’re using persuasive tactics. Believe it or not, you’re probably pretty good at it. Even as a young human, you were efficient at persuading your parents to buy you ice cream or let you stay up a little later.

The ways you persuaded them varied–maybe you pouted, maybe you asked sweetly, or maybe you knew which buttons to push to get your parents subconsciously to realize that they needed to buy you ice cream. You see! You already have the ability to persuade people to do what you’d like, but now it’s time to use your powers for sales, and not just a double scoop of vanilla with sprinkles on top.

So, why is persuasion so important to sales? Actually, it’s impossible to separate one from the other. Just try. I’ll wait. Think about it: How can someone purchase your product without being persuaded to do so–if not directly by you, then by the product itself.

You may be thinking, but I hate forcing people to do something against their will.

But, that’s not what persuasion is at all. Let’s take a second to understand what persuasion is and is not.

Persuasion is getting someone to agree with you.

Persuasion is not using deception to get someone to agree with you.

If you’re obfuscating, using slight of hand, smoke and mirrors, or playing on someone’s weakness to sell a product, you’re using manipulation and not persuasion. Persuasion relies heavily on getting someone to like and trust you enough to agree with what you’re saying or selling. Manipulation is very much about controlling people into doing something they wouldn’t normally do.

If you’re ready to start a cult, you may want to take a course on manipulation; on the other hand, if you’re ready to sell pies, there’s no need for manipulation. The customer simply needs to like you or your message enough to buy a pie. This is also known as persuasion–the art of getting someone to like you and agree with you.

You may have heard the term, “this product sells itself.” It’s true–products can sell themselves, but they certainly can’t market themselves. If selling is difficult for you, consider yourself a marketer, or a product evangelist. You’re not necessarily selling a product, you’re sharing your opinion of a product that you’re selling–there’s a clear distinction.

Recently, I rented a car for a weekend road trip. I was determined to get the cheapest option available, but the saleswoman–clearly schooled in the art of persuasion–upsold me to a higher class of vehicle with the promise of better gas mileage. I struggled internally between frugality and her authority, but eventually, her authority won. Even though I knew she was upselling me, I was persuaded by her confidence, experience, and genuine concern.

II. Find Your Inner Car Salesman

Car salesmen, particularly the used car variety, get a bum wrap for being pushy, deceptive, and making one too many trips to “okay the price” with their supervisors. But, they get a lot of things right: a good car salesman creates a win-win relationship where both of you have smiles on your faces at the end of the deal.

How exactly do they do this? Well, here are some tricks employed by successful car salesmen everywhere. To be most effective, these tactics can’t be glaringly obvious, but you may recognize some of them.

1. Get a yes early on

Get your customer to agree with you on something–anything. It can be weather, it can be politics, it can be the color blue. As I mentioned earlier, persuasion is about getting someone to like you– and what better way than with agreement?

If you’re starting from scratch, get your customer to see the value of your product and the deficiency in their life by not having it. Use leading questions like, “would you like to…” or “have you ever wanted to…” Make those questions impossible to say “no” to, such as, “would you like to never vacuum again?” Pardon the infomercial voice-over effect, but you get the point. You’ll tailor to suit your own conversational style.

2. Confidence

Confidence is not just in what you say but how you say it. It’s about presentation. Would you rather buy a product from someone’s who’s unsure and shifting from one foot to the other, and avoiding eye contact? Or, are you drawn to a shoulder-back, authoritative personality who seems to know what the product is and does?

Even in Best Buy, I seek out the advice of a kid who seems to know his way around a particular technology.

In sales, seeming is more important than being. You may be competent, but if you don’t seem confident, you lose the battle.

Develop confidence by understanding that you are facilitating a need. People are coming to you for help and you have the answers to help them– it doesn’t matter if you’re in real estate or web design. Your product is necessary to someone. When you believe you’re providing a value to someone, your confidence will skyrocket.

3. Use of a person’s name

Dale Carnegie famously said that a person’s name is the sweetest sound in any language to that person. It’s so important to simply use a person’s name in your pitch.

Of course, there’s no mathematical formula to it. Just use it organically.

I’ve cringed before when someone used my name in every other sentence. It was clear to me that they were trying to either remember my name or employ this tactic. You don’t want it to become cloyingly obvious that you’re repeating someone’s name.

The obvious benefit of using this tactic is that you’re endearing yourself to that customer. They feel like you care about them and you’re speaking directly to them, not simply regurgitating a sales pitch.

4. Don’t argue

The customer may not always be right, but it’s not your job to prove them wrong. So often, companies try to prove their superiority by arguing against the customer. I see this so often in review sites, such as TripAdvisor. Say a customer has a negative experience and feels compelled to write a scathing review about a hotel stay. In response, the hotel says something like, “this customer can’t be pleased. We tried this and that, and they just weren’t happy.” Who comes out smelling like a rose?

Certainly not the hotel! In trying to prove how great their service was, they actually proved the opposite, and potential customers–like you and I– would keep on scrolling to another hotel, because the potential of getting bad customer service is evidently high.

The best thing to do in a potentially volatile situation where you and the customer don’t see eye to eye is to de-escalate. Being polite and trying to rectify the situation will be more persuasive than proving your righteousness.

5. Benjamin Franklin Effect/ get a favor

It’s a curious effect but seemingly true: if someone does a favor for you initially, they’re more likely to do another favor for you in the future.

Of course, this is the basis for most abuses, but stay with me for a second.

If you ask someone to buy a product, and they do so, they’re more likely to buy another product from you as well.

Benjamin Franklin tried this technique on someone who hated him. He got that person to lend him a book, and afterwards, a second book. In the process of book lending, his adversary turned into a great friend.

Hopefully, you won’t have an adversarial relationship with your customers, but you may have those who are unwilling to buy. If you can just get a tiny sell from them, or even just a business card (i.e., getting your foot in the door), you’re almost guaranteed to get future business from them, if you follow up.

6. 60 x 60 upsell rule

About that Benjamin Franklin Effect–here’s how to put it into action.

If you can get someone to say yes to one product, it’s awesome! The book Marketing Metrics reveals that businesses have between a 60 to 70% chance of selling a new product to a current customer. This means that as long as you can get someone to say “yes” to one product, they’re likely to buy another. Invest time in selling to those who’ve already bought from you.

So, approximately 60% of customers will buy an upsold product that is within 60% of the amount they originally budgeted to spend. That’s a mouthful! In other words, if you’re selling a product for $100, you can upsell them additional features for up to $60 more, making your total sale $160.

7. Mirror body language

Over 80% of communication is through body language. One of the most powerful ways to persuade others is to mirror their body language– it subconsciously gives off the message that you’re similar and oriented toward the same goals.

To be successful, it must be subtle. Observe their body language– are their arms crossed, hands in their pockets, shoulders hunched, shoulders back, maintaining eye contact, looking away when they talk? Slowly change your posture to meet that of the customer’s. It sounds silly, but you’ll be surprised how we subconsciously gravitate toward those who mimic us.

8. Ask for more, settle for less

You can persuade people to buy your product for what you want by asking for more. It’s a common haggling technique that far too few people use outside of the farmer’s market. It’s not just for yard sales, either, folks!

By upselling a product with more features, you can persuade a customer to buy a base product, too. The necessary component is persuading the customer that he or she has a need. Once they recognize that need, you can tell them about the base product but try to sell the base product with additional features instead. Even though it would be nice to sell at a higher price, your ultimate goal is to sell the base product, anyway.

Oftentimes, as we’ve seen earlier, a customer will bite and buy the upsold product, but as long as you can get that initial yes, you’re golden.

9. Smile

Victor Borge once said, “a smile is the shortest distance between two people.” A smile is the most persuasive technique ever. It immediately unarms people. There are very few people who don’t respond favorably to a smile.

Even if you completely stink at sales, employing a smile into your sales pitch could completely reverse your fortunes.

Of course, there’s a right and a wrong way to smile. No creepy smiles, please. You know, the smiles that look painted on, with eyes that are clearly not smiling. That’s why clowns seem so scary–their smiles are painted on, but their eyes are filled with sadness and terror and–let’s just not talk about clowns.

Keep your smiles genuine. Find something to truly be happy about. If it’s not the product, it can be the fact that you’re alive, and not murdered by a clown.

In fact, even when you’re talking on the phone, have a smile on your face– it can really be felt through the phone.

10. Speak in positives not negatives

Never say never. Don’t say don’t. (And don’t go through the article trying to calculate how many times I’ve said don’t.)

When you’re pitching, frame your sentences in positives, not negatives. Everything surrounding your product should be extremely positive and upbeat.

No one wants to buy from a negative nancy. People are much more likely to buy from those with a happy presentation.

11. Reflective listening

A big part of selling is listening. You should listen carefully to what your customers say, and then reflect what they say in your pitch. This tactic will greatly improve your pitch personalization.

Not all customers are alike, and not all customers come to your company for the same reason. Of course, you’re selling the same product, but people may need it for different reasons. In our example, we sell a simple CRM, but it’s not just one type of customer who needs it. We sell to a plethora of small businesses, from marketers to photographers and everyone in between.

To be most effective in your persuasion, you should listen to what the customer wants, and find something in your product that will appeal to them.

12. Do a favor/ Reciprocity

Sometimes, nothing’s better than calling in a favor. If you’re in a position to do something favorable for someone else, that person is highly likely to do something for you in return. This is known as reciprocity, and it can be utilized in the art of persuasion to your benefit.

Always be on the lookout to do something for someone who you want to do business with in the future. It may be another business or it may be an individual consumer. A lot of businesses accomplish this subtly by providing a free, or “freemium”, service that will eventually max out. Once that product is maxed out, the customer has the option to pay for full service, and is much more likely to pay for full service.

13. The tactic of scarcity

An oldie but goodie. Nothing sells faster than the last one. If you’re trying to persuade a sell, put an expiration date on the special pricing. Another popular option is to enforce a quantity limitation. Think of it as the velvet rope of sales–only a certain amount of people are allowed to buy, and the rest are shut out. It works.

Why does it work? Pretty much anything in limited supply seems much more attractive.

14. Use their language

If your average customer likes to watch ESPN on the weekends with beer in hand, why are you talking to them about luxury champagnes like Veuve Clicquot? You should find the demographic for your product and then speak naturally to them, because the product was made for them. You shouldn’t try to convince those who are not naturally inclined.

Along this thought, use words that your average customer would use. If you customers are laid back, use a conversational tone in your pitch, and in explaining your products. If you’re customers are more scholarly, use words and phrases that would appeal to their sensibilities.

Avoid profanity, which can potentially alienate customers in most demographics.

15. Explain what’s in it for them

Everyone needs to know what’s in it for them. They know what’s in it for you–you’re getting paid. But, how will they benefit from paying you? That’s the number one question you must answer and you must answer it as soon as possible–before the tune out.

Of course, some people come to you knowing that they have a need. In the example of a car salesman, a customer comes knowing they need a car. The burden is on you now, to explain why they should choose this car, and subconsciously why they should choose to work with you.

That’s where persuasion comes in. In fact, all of these tactics work together to persuade your customer into buying what you’re selling. If you use them correctly, as described here, a customer is more likely to believe you when you explain to them the benefits.

 III. Conclusion

Now that you’re introduced to these 15 techniques, it’s time to start using them immediately. I mean, within the next 5 minutes immediately. Find someone to test your skills on. It can be the mailman, the cashier at the restaurant, a child. Have you ever tried to take candy from a baby? It’s not as easy as it looks, but it can be done with persuasion.

It’s important to get out there and start practicing your persuasion until you become a master. Once you can persuade someone, you can persuade anyone.