How to Persuade People

speaking

Can you persuade people easily? Can you convince people that your side of the argument is right? How do you do it? It really takes just a little bit of psychology and a little grammar knowledge to be able to negotiate more effectively and be more successful in getting what you want.

Being persuasive does not mean being so confident that you scare other people; it means being friendly so that others want to agree with you and even help you. The psychology is just to help you and it’s just a little spoken language and body language that are going to help you be persuasive.

You Agree With People Who Agree With You

Human beings are social animals and we like to mimic other people. Because of this, we like people who mimic our behaviour too. Because of this you need to find agreement very early in your conversation when you are trying to persuade someone to do something.

Sales people are often trained to tell people “I know what you mean”, “I think so, too” and other ways of indicating agreement with customers and potential customers. These phrases can also help ordinary people as well.

It’s Not Only Verbal Agreement

Body language is important as well as spoken language. You need to be open in your body language and make the person you are talking to feel relaxed. Try not to cross your arms but have them by your side. If you have to lift your arms, make sure you show open palms with relaxed (not dead straight) fingers.

You Don’t Always Get What You Want By Being Direct

It’s important to use indirect questions rather than direct ones when you are persuading but they should be used with closed questions, ideally closed questions with ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers.

Poor example

Would you please donate fifty dollars to charity please?

Better example

Don’t you think it’s terrible that some children have problems getting clean drinking water?

Yes, I do.

I do, too. Would you be able to help out in some way to get clean drinking water to a village in Ethiopia?

You can see that the second example is far more effective than the first.

Has this post helped you understand how to be more persuasive? Of course. Would you be able to help me out by sharing it on Twitter, Facebook and other social media, please?