How to Persuade Someone to Do Something For You With 6 Powerful Principles of Persuasion
December 4th, 2009 |
In this article, you’ll get the chance to get information on what’s persuasion and the 6 powerful principles to guide you to learn how to persuade someone. Without wasting any time, let’s get started
What’s Persuasion?
Persuasion is the act of persuading (or attempting to persuade) to induce belief or action. It is the process of guiding someone towards the adoption of an idea, attitude, or action by rational and symbolic means.
The 6 Powerful Principles Of Persuasion
1. Reciprocation:People will feel obligated to respond to positive behavior received with positive behavior in return. In another word, people will return the positive favors that they received to that same person.
Example: This could be the easiest principle to learn how to persuade someone to do something for us. Just help the people with a lot of good favors in needy or desperate situations and once your opportunity comes, ask for a favor. They’ll be grateful to return the favor if they can really afford to do it. Just because you know that this principle works, it doesn’t mean that you should have any hidden intentions to help someone. What I’m trying to say here is that you should help someone sincerely without expecting anything in return from him or her and earn yourself good karma.
2. Commitment and Consistency: The principle of commitment is linked to the desire to be, or at least appear to be, consistent. Once a freely chosen position has been taken by an individual, a tendency to act in line with that commitment will guide further actions.
Example: This principle is a bit tricky but quite powerful to use it effectively. Here’s how to do it. Trap someone with a series of questions that require “YES” as the answers. Here’s an example.
Question 1: Mr.XYZ, do you have a family?
Question 2: Mr.XYZ, do you care for your family members?
Question 3: Mr.XYZ, are you AWARE of the recent SWINE flu outbreak?
Question 4: Mr.XYZ, would you like to know how to protect your family members from SWINE flu with our FREE health tips?
Now, I want you to analyze the questions that I’ve written above. If you asked those questions to a family man, I bet that all the answers are “YES” and consistent. The last question leads us to an opportunity to share our expertise to the customer and if done right, we can recommend a particular product of ours. Now do you see how we can apply the consistency principle to learn how to persuade someone to do something for us?
3. Social Proof: The principle of social proof states that beliefs, attitudes and actions of similar others are used as standards for one’s own beliefs, attitudes and behavior (Festinger 1954). In another word, we use other people’s actions and notions to model it for our self. According to many research and studies, the willingness to comply with a request is increased when supported by the belief or evidence that similar peers comply with it as well.
Example: If you want to know how to persuade someone to stop smoking with this principle, presenting pictures, advertisements and videos showing hundreds of people who have stopped smoking may prove effective to persuade that person to quit smoking. This will make the person to think,” if other smokers just like me can do it, of course I can do it too”.
4. Liking: The principle of liking states that people are increasingly inclined to follow a request asked by someone they like. Factors that will improve liking are similarity of attitude (Byrne 1979), background (Stotland 1961), physical attractiveness (Benson 1976), dress code (Suedfeld 1971), the use of praise (Drachman 1978) and team work (Aronson 1987).
Example: If you want to know how to ask someone a big favor, the real secret is to make that person like your first. As one of the factors to make someone to like us is “similarity of attitude”, emulating behaviors of that person or they way he or she dress will likely improve our chance to be liked. If you’re still blank with what I’ve explained here, let me give you one more hint to understand. Think of your best friend and I bet that you really like him or her. Now try to think of the similarities that both of you share and that could be the factors that made you people to get close in the first place.
5. Authority: The principle of authority states that when making a decision, it is common to seek expert advice from a reliable source such as medical, legal, financial or any other professional expertise (Bushman 1984)
Example: This is the hardest part of persuasion. Certainly it’s not easy to establish yourself as an authority person. All you’ve to do is to earn some good reputations as a person who’ll usually give reliable and good tips or advices to those who’re seeking for it. Once you’ve helped enough people with needy information or help, you’ll be regarded as someone that can be trusted and as an authority person.
6. Scarcity: The principle of scarcity reflects the fact that as opportunities become more scarce, they are perceived as more valuable (Mazis 1975). This perception is based on the experience that valuable things are normally rare or limited and that under these conditions declining to make a choice may result in a loss of future opportunities.
Example: This is the most commonly used principle and if done right, may prove fruitful. All you’ve to do is mention how limited or scarce is a particular opportunity. Phrases such as “today only”, “limited time offer” and “first 10 people only” are a few examples of scarcity principle in action. Use it in your communication well to make someone to act instantly.
I’ve explained to you with good researched information taken from various education journals as reference that are almost accurate with tips on how to persuade someone. I hope that you’ve benefited from it greatly. Now I suggest you to invest yourself on some quality education on persuasion techniques available online.
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