How To Be More Persuasive

September 8, 2010

Interview with Chris St. Hilaire, author of the book 27 Powers of Persuasion: Simple Strategies to Seduce Audiences & Win Allies

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Mike Carruthers:
Being persuasive is a skill, which you can get better at by employing some interesting and effective techniques.

Chris St. Hilaire:
You know one thing I counsel people on is removing the “buts” from their sentences. When someone says I don’t disagree with you what’s the next word out of their mouth? But.
 

Chris St. Hilaire, author of the book 27 Powers of Persuasion: Simple Strategies to Seduce Audiences & Win Allies

You set them up to be wrong and people just don’t like to be wrong. And so taking that “but” out of the sentence and saying I agree with you “and” is the same way of saying I don’t disagree with you “but”. But if I say, “ I agree with you and” it sets them up to be right it opens the door for me to persuade.

Using statistics to make your point can be very persuasive.

88% of people believe just about any made up statistic. And the fact is I just made that up. If you use 1 or 2 numbers in your argument you don’t over statistic people but using 1 or 2 numbers, gives some quantitative measure to a qualitative idea.

And when appropriate touch can be very effective.

When you’re speaking and you’re trying to finish a point and people are sort of competing for the floor – try one time putting your hand on the other persons arm, just gently. And what you’ll see is people will go silent, they’ll give you the opportunity they’ll hear you. Touch is an amazing tool because it allows people to bond.

To hear the complete unedited interview, click here