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You’re trying to persuade. There’s a big difference between understanding persuasive words and phrases that increase the effectiveness of your statements, and trying to persuade someone to your way of thinking. Leave persuasion to the politicians. It doesn’t necessarily work all that well for them either, but that’s not your problem.
But isn’t selling all about persuasion? Nope, persuasion is a very risky proposition. Persuasion is about trying to talk someone into doing something. Carnival hawkers try to persuade passers by to allow them to guess their weight and win a prize. Insurance sales professionals don’t talk people into doing something. When you try to persuade someone you run the very high risk of making them defensive because no one wants to be talked into anything.
There are particular words and phrases that are naturally persuasive, and it never hurts to use them when it makes sense in a conversation. The word “because” is a very persuasive word. You’ve been conditioned to accept because all by itself as an acceptable response that explains everything. Think about when you were a little kid and you asked your Mom if you could have a piece of candy right before dinner. Her response was probably, “no”. And then you came back with, “but why Mom”. To which she responded, “because I said so”. End of story. And because of this early conditioning we all respond to the word because as preceding a perfectly acceptable and logical explanation. The phrase, for example, is a powerfully persuasive phrase. When you here that phrase you expect it to be followed with an explanation that will make whatever preceded it make perfect sense.
Persuasive words and phrases do not put the prospect on the defensive. When your prospect hears these persuasive words they’re receptive to the message that goes with them. Persuasive words and phrases help the prospect to better understand in a way that feels more natural. A comfortable and natural conversation always has a higher likelihood of a sale than one that’s manipulative.
Persuasion feels manipulative and it lowers trust. When you try to persuade someone their defenses go up and their senses are on red alert for the catch. They don’t trust you or what you’re selling, and even if they buy they’re thinking there must be a catch somewhere and they just haven’t figured it out yet. Guilt is one particular persuasion tactic that’s really risky because now not only is their level of trust low, but they resent being made to feel guilty. Low trust sales lead to high customer turn-over and zero referrals. Don’t try to build your business around people you’ve persuaded to do business with you.
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