Persuasion and Its Importance
The dictionary defines the word “persuasion” as causing someone to act through reasoning or argument. Ironically, emotion often takes center stage when companies strategize how to market and sell to their target audience members. There is no shortage of material about the customer as the hero, the buyer’s problem representing the villainous dragon, and a company’s product appearing to save the day by slaying the figurative beast. It’s a classic three act story structure, designed to trigger a primal emotional response. Research aplenty shows that humans are wired to react to impactful stories. Successful organizations and individual thought leaders include brand storytelling in their box of marketing and selling tools.
Emotion-driven decision making is a reality. Zig Ziglar, one of my favorite authors and legendary sales coach, quipped, “People don’t buy for logical reasons. They buy for emotional reasons.”
How do marketers and sellers reconcile these two seemingly incongruent concepts of reason and emotion when they seek to persuade? What is the role of trust in predicting whether a particular persuasion technique is likely to work? How do marketers and sellers effectively adopt persuasive techniques to convince unemotional buyers known to take a “just the facts” approach? How do you use persuasion to sell to a regulated industry? When does persuasion creep into manipulation? How do high-integrity professionals differentiate themselves as providers of reliable information versus those who throw caution to the wind when it comes to fact checking and candor? Who bears the responsibility of bad decisions – the persuader or the persuaded?
As a trained financial economist who studied asset pricing models and investor behavioral patterns, I am fascinated by the science that explains the power of persuasion, notwithstanding the long-held beliefs in rationality and precision. As a former Certified Fraud Examiner, expert witness, and financial risk management consultant, I remain horrified and saddened by how easy it has always been for seemingly smart people to over rely on persuasive rascals. As a past Wall Street bond and foreign currency derivatives trader, I’ve seen firsthand how persuasion can occur in the blink of an eye, leaving logical debate in the dust. As a former university finance professor and corporate trainer, I’ve sought to persuade others to accept core concepts while teaching them to be flexible enough to adjust to changed circumstances. Persuasion is part of our lives.
My goal with this blog, The Power of Persuasion®, is to explore and explain the science of persuasion. I intend to emphasize the upside of persuasion, citing concrete examples. While my particular focus will be the application of persuasion power tools for those who work in the business, financial, and investment industries, I plan to add insights from my experience and knowledge of the higher education and litigation worlds, respectively.
Thank you in advance if you decide to subscribe to my content creation blog (and I hope you will). Don’t hesitate to contact me with comments, questions, and topic suggestions.
Tags: Emotional Buying, Rationality, Zig Ziglar
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Susan Mangiero
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