11-23-2015, 05:44 AM
(This post was last modified: 11-23-2015, 05:47 AM by Lunamancer.)
An Example of Persuasion in Real Life
I recently relayed the following personal experience to a room full of sales managers during a meeting.
When I was 13 I began taking guitar lessons. Prior to that, my God father had taught me a couple of songs, but this was the first time I was making a real commitment to learning the instrument. Because of a combination of teachers moving on in their careers, my own family moving to a different state, and changes in my schedule as I grew up, I went through a number of different teachers. I had 4 teachers in total. All of them graduates from the Berkeley School of Music.
Each teacher I had, it was the same thing. I just wanted to play. I didn't want to bother with reading music. My thinking was guys like Slash didn't read music. I wanted to be great like Slash. I never said this. I was never asked. I just said I didn't want to bother with reading music. The teacher's response was always the same. If you're serious about your guitar playing, you have to learn to read music. In the end, I didn't learn to read music.
Until the 4th teacher. There was nothing essentially different about the 4th teacher. She was another Berkeley grad who felt learning to read music was important. What she did different was instead of saying, "If you want to be a serious musician, you have to learn to read music," she said, "So few musicians know how to read music, this would really set you apart."
All the teachers had identical credentials, went to the same schools, had the same professional standards, and the same opinions on the importance of reading music. They were all offering the exact same service. But in retrospect, it's easy to see why her approach worked. What the first three teachers were essentially telling me is they can't teach me to be Slash. He's just a different kind of guitar player from what they teach. The forth teacher, however, was essentially telling me, "Not only can I teach you to be Slash, I can teach you to be better than Slash."
That's what persuasion is all about. Not brainwashing or mind control or verbal jujitsu. It's not about motivating anyone or convincing them to value something. It's about framing the offer in a way that appeals to what the prospect already wants. You'd be surprised by how few professionals know this. Fewer still practice it.
I recently relayed the following personal experience to a room full of sales managers during a meeting.
When I was 13 I began taking guitar lessons. Prior to that, my God father had taught me a couple of songs, but this was the first time I was making a real commitment to learning the instrument. Because of a combination of teachers moving on in their careers, my own family moving to a different state, and changes in my schedule as I grew up, I went through a number of different teachers. I had 4 teachers in total. All of them graduates from the Berkeley School of Music.
Each teacher I had, it was the same thing. I just wanted to play. I didn't want to bother with reading music. My thinking was guys like Slash didn't read music. I wanted to be great like Slash. I never said this. I was never asked. I just said I didn't want to bother with reading music. The teacher's response was always the same. If you're serious about your guitar playing, you have to learn to read music. In the end, I didn't learn to read music.
Until the 4th teacher. There was nothing essentially different about the 4th teacher. She was another Berkeley grad who felt learning to read music was important. What she did different was instead of saying, "If you want to be a serious musician, you have to learn to read music," she said, "So few musicians know how to read music, this would really set you apart."
All the teachers had identical credentials, went to the same schools, had the same professional standards, and the same opinions on the importance of reading music. They were all offering the exact same service. But in retrospect, it's easy to see why her approach worked. What the first three teachers were essentially telling me is they can't teach me to be Slash. He's just a different kind of guitar player from what they teach. The forth teacher, however, was essentially telling me, "Not only can I teach you to be Slash, I can teach you to be better than Slash."
That's what persuasion is all about. Not brainwashing or mind control or verbal jujitsu. It's not about motivating anyone or convincing them to value something. It's about framing the offer in a way that appeals to what the prospect already wants. You'd be surprised by how few professionals know this. Fewer still practice it.