Persuasion & Influence

Recently, I’ve been spending some time on Facebook to connect with other social media aficionados, internet marketers, and social entrepreneurs. One of the groups that I belong to is called “Persuasion and Influence”, hosted by author and internet marketer, Dave Lakhani. This group is made up of people interested in persuasion, persuasive marketing, public relations, influence, and other forms of persuasive communication.

One of the discussion topics that came up a while back was: If you could only give three pointers to someone seeking to become more persuasive, what would they be? There were some interesting answers like, learn and love the art of storytelling, fit your communication to the other persons state, reaction, wants and needs, and create intense curiosity so that they want to know more.

I thought these were pretty good, but it kinda seemed to not get down to the CORE, or the heart of the matter. Here’s what I wrote:

“I’ll share what I’ve written and spoken about elsewhere on this topic. This is what I seek to live by whether at home with my wife and children, at work with co-workers and customers, or in my community or the world at large.

1. Impart Vision – What do you SEE that others need to see? What insight, solution to a problem, or vantage point do you have that others could benefit from? Vision creates unity, unity creates synergy, synergy creates results. If you can’t see, you can’t lead, so why should people follow?
2. Ignite Passion – How do you FEEL about your topic, or subject matter? What is it that really gets you going with contagious
   excitement and enthusiasm? If you’re not passionate, why should anyone
   care?
3. Inspire Strategy – What do you DO that gets massive results? What action have you taken that practically demonstrates your ability to accomplish great things? If what you do doesn’t work, why should anyone listen to you?

The result? Impact Society. Ultimately the altruistic goal of persuasion is to compel people to get engaged in making a positive difference in their lives and the lives of others, not just buy my stuff. If buying my stuff will help them accomplish that, then I haven’t merely sold them a product, I’ve changed their life. And maybe even made a little contribution to changing the world.”

It seems to me that this is not only what persuasion should be about, it is also what business should be all about. It takes persuasive sales, marketing & PR to be successful. But it’s got to go beyond the bottom line. In back of it all, there’s got to be a heart burning with passion for something bigger. What do you think? I’d love to hear from you.

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