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Personal Persuasion
In business, we have rules of decorum, obviously, but I am of the opinion that some rules were meant to be bent. Not broken entirely, but molded and bent to suit your persuasive needs.
In business, we have rules of decorum, obviously, but I am of the opinion that some rules were meant to be bent. Not broken entirely, but molded and bent to suit your persuasive needs.
Part of “professional decorum” is not getting “too personal”. But I contend that personal is exactly what people crave.
By adding the art of storytelling to your business interactions, you begin to create a context in which your clients will feel very tied to you and invested in the relationship becoming a lifelong endeavor.
One of my favorite ways to create fast and powerful rapport is to start with the following statement: “Let me share a secret with you. . .” A secret? I like secrets. They’re exciting. And doesn’t the word ‘secret’ sort of compel you to want to know more? Sharing a secret with someone makes them feel special.
When you work ‘secrets’ and personal anecdotes into your rapport building, you increase the amount of and the speed with which your prospects begin to trust you. Of course, keep it within reason. You want these stories to be pointed and geared toward the matter at hand (i.e. what you’re selling).
In seminars I often share personal stories from my youth. I have even been known to really open up about some mistakes I’ve made in the past as they relate to persuasion in terms of not really completely understanding that honesty and integrity have always got to be the highest things on the list. These are very difficult stories for me to recount because I’m not particularly proud of tactics I used as a young man. It’s not pleasant to relate things that I feel are real blotches on my personal inventory. And yet, because I have learned from my past, overcome incongruencies in my way of existing in the world, a little discomfort can be endured because I’m making a point, teaching a lesson on what to do and what *not* to do.
Not only do I tell my stories to my students, but I also step outside of my personal narrative to show why storytelling is such an important aspect of persuasion. We can be artists at anything. We can attain a level of expertise at anything we really set our minds on. Our natural strengths may be a level of artistry in business or finance and we may have to work at being artists in the kitchen or with a musical instrument. But these things happen as a result of our consistent practice and intention to learn. I wasn’t born the persuader I am today. I have put years into learning this skill and have gained my level of expertise through constant study and desire to be the best.
My suggestion. . . find a personal story that relates to your business and start relating it to your prospects and clients. Watch how this quickens rapport and trust by magnitudes. We all crave a good story.