Persuading Through Personality Segmentation

'A part of me really wants to buy your product.' What does 'a part of me' mean? When someone says, 'well, part of me wants this, but another part wants that', what is that person talking about? Well, for one, this is a way for us to talk about our experiences. It's also a way to assign blame to a force greater than or at least different than our 'self'.

What you need to consider, however, is that the words we speak are things, actual, tangible things, as real as the computer keyboard I'm typing on and the papers on my desk.

When someone says, 'A part of me. . .', they are fractionalizing themselves into subsections. They are turning over the responsibility of their action to this particular part. If this part of them says 'no' to your product or service, it's as if this isn't actually them saying no, but a part of them.

Fear not, however, because this fractionalization can most definitely work to your advantage. I love it when I hear a person say they have a 'part'. When I know they are fractionalized inside, I can seize control of one or more of those parts and maneuver them with ease.

Some alternate names for 'part' are 'the unconscious', 'my psyche', 'my ego', 'a deeper part of who I am'. . .All of these indicate 'part' and in my mind I know I am going to make contact with that part specifically, because obviously it speaks to this person.

For purposes of persuasion, parts are, for the most part, outside of people's awareness. When they surface, you can add on to it, and expand that part, you can add or subtract power from it, maybe even giving more power to that part, power your prospect never intended it to have.

In the process of this, and in life in general, take care that you don't split yourself up into lots of parts.

A part is a frame, a frame that lives autonomously for the individual who calls it. You can create a part within someone else by naming it and identifying it. Naming and identifying is key here. If we name a part, we give that part power. And if we frame that part through the way in which we talk about it, we're in control of that part to a large extent.

We can gain tremendous leverage from parts by assigning an objection to that part and then assigning another part to overcome the objection creating an internal conflict which we can then blend and water down to balance out the objection.

When we pit their parts against each other, there are parts that can be superior, inferior, all knowing, or directly related to God. We can have problem resolving parts, negation parts, pessimistic parts and persuasive parts.

I have a part of me that really kicks butt in persuasion. I hope you will too soon if you don't already.