Mastering the Art of Persuasion ???

We all use persuasion in one form or another: whether as leaders trying to drive action within our teams; as fundraisers and salespeople selling our wares; or as parents convincing our children to clean their messy rooms!

At the heart of persuasion is a neurological process, called Long-Term Potentiation.??

When you experience LTP your neurons get so excited that they start firing, sending, and storing information at a much higher rate. And research shows that they can stay in this excited state for weeks or even months.?

Because of this, LTP is the basis for forming long term memories.?

The classic example of LTP is when we get a song stuck in our head. But we get many things stuck in our heads... From advertising jingles to the latest disturbing headline. Ugh.

And from a sales perspective, what is persuasion, if not the ability to facilitate the creation of long term memories in others?

Consider this… if you’re a salesperson and your prospect forgets your pitch the next day, you’re probably not getting that sale…?

However, if you create LTP on your call and share an experience or story that really speaks to them,?your message will be playing in their heads like a broken record for weeks or even?months. Essentially, LTP will be automatically following up for you.?Jackpot.???

So how does LTP work, and how do we become more memorable and persuasive?

Glad you asked...?

EMOTION!?

Emotion is the stimulus that creates LTP in the mind, which formulates long term memory. LTP is typically triggered by an emotional response and it’s the basis for forming long term memories. This is why we say emotion creates memory.

And LTP is like a light switch. It’s a threshold and it’s binary.

You either create enough emotion in your conversation or pitch to drive LTP, or you get STP (short-term potentiation) and your message is forgotten in the next hour or two. :(?

It’s a ruthless process. The brain is incredibly efficient at weeding out information that it doesn’t deem relevant. From a Neuroscience standpoint, we want to make sure we’re in a state of Focus to create LTP.?

So, how do we create more emotion and LTP in our persuasive conversations?

• The first step to creating emotion and LTP is being 100% present and connected with the person you’re communicating with.?If you’re distracted, you’ve got no chance. This is where learning to cultivate elite focus comes in.

To find more focus (which leads to flow state), you’ve got to be able to consistently clear your head. Breath work is one of the most effective ways to do this. My personal go-to technique is taking 30 full, deep?Mental Reset breaths (also known as Wim Hof). Another great breathing technique to get you into focus (particularly if you’re feeling stressed) is Starfish breathing.?My daughter Amelia breaks it down in this video.

• Take a page from the book of politicians.?Make a point, and then back it up with a relevant personal story. Well told stories drive more LTP than facts and figures. You know you’ve found a winning sales pitch when you’ve got memorable facts and figures and drive it home with a memorable personal antidote.
• Lastly, step outside your comfort zone and be a little more vulnerable.When we humble ourselves enough to be vulnerable, it captures attention, which causes synapses in a neural network or memory to start firing faster… and this creates more emotion.

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Make LTP real…

Strengthen your connection with LTP this week and use it to help you cultivate more persuasion using this quick exercise:

1. Spend 3 minutes getting really relaxed, using the deep breathing technique of your choice.?
2. Then, recall your fondest memory in vivid detail… remember where you were, how you felt, how you were holding your body, the sun on your face or wind in your hair, etc.?See if you can recapture the feeling that you had in that moment… the emotions you felt and recreate those into your body.?Feel those tingles…??That’s LTP kicking in.
3. Now, take a few minutes to jot down this memory in a journal, capturing as much of the?emotion?as you can. Feel free to express yourself fully… write in ALL caps, with big handwriting and as many exclamation points as you need to really bring the feeling to life.?

As high performers, we tend to focus on the things that didn’t go the way we wanted and often forget all the treasures that enrich our daily lives.?That habit stops here.

When you learn to recall your fondest memories, you reinforce positive neural networks in your brain… which produces more dopamine, serotonin, and other positive neuromodulators.

And as you get better at creating positive emotions in yourself and others, your persuasion skills will continue to improve… which improves not just your close rates, but also your quality of life.

In closing… I want to hear from YOU!?What’s been your favorite #mindset hack as of late? What are you celebrating? And what are you struggling with? Drop me a note and let me know. ??

Until next week,

Kevin Bailey, Founder & CEO, Dreamfuel

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P.S.?For more ways to supercharge your performance, check out the?First 100 Days podcast?where we break down tips on how to build your mental resilience and increase your team’s performance. Special thanks to Trinity Nguyen and Christian Kletzl of?User Gems?for having us on.