Being More Persuasive

January 1, 2010

Interview with Alan Axelrod, author of the book Getting Your Way Every Day: Mastering the Lost Art of Pure Persuasion

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Mike Carruthers:
Tall people are perceived to be more authoritative and persuasive than short people, but also…

Alan Axelrod:
People with deep voices are perceived generally as more authoritative than people with high voices.

Alan Axelrod, author of the book Getting Your Way Every Day: Mastering the Lost Art of Pure Persuasion …

If you've got a kind of high-pitched voice, you actually should try to practice to get your voice a bit lower. When you're on the telephone, if you want to be authoritative it's a good idea to get off your chair and actually stand while speaking on the phone.

Your clothes and appearance have a lot to do with how persuasive you are.

You think of the judge up on his bench in his robe - if you saw somebody walking on the street dressed like that you'd think that the person was out of his mind. But in that particular context those trappings, that appearance confers a certain authority on that person.

So Alan says the most effective way to dress and act to be authoritative is to go just a notch above your perceived level. A good example of someone who does this is…

Matt Lauer on the Today Show - I think he has tuned himself a notch above what he perceives as the general level of his audience in terms of sort of intellectual interest. But he certainly still has the common touch and he dresses impeccably without trying too hard.

To hear the complete unedited interview, click here