 In this video, I'd like to take a look at some of the different elements involved in becoming an effective persuader. So for this video, we're going to be looking at things pretty much exclusively from the perspective of the person doing the persuading, not the audience themselves, but the person doing the persuading and what things we need to consider from that perspective. So when we're becoming a persuader, there are a variety of different elements we need to look at. As you can see here, we need to think about audience analysis, organization, credibility, language, delivery, and persuasive strategies. These are all things that we're going to break down just a bit in this video and take a look at each of these individually. Starting with audience analysis, because audience analysis is really where we ought to start with every persuasive effort. We need to understand who our audience is. We need to gather information about that audience so that we can adapt our persuasive efforts accordingly. So from the very beginning, we have to have the audience in mind know who they are so that we can adapt our efforts accordingly and match up what's going to be effective with this particular audience. So we can start with what we call reflective efforts. This involves really just paying attention to the people that we're going to be persuading. If we have an opportunity to watch them be persuasive, then we can learn a lot about that person and what may be effective for them. So if we know that our audience is going to be speaking, we can listen to them and we can pay attention to, are they using lots of data? Or are they using lots of narrative evidence? So what kind of proofs of persuasion? Are they using? And then we can kind of make some assumptions about if this person is using a lot of data to try and persuade people, then they are likely persuaded by data. And that's probably why they're making those choices. So then we might want to consider incorporating more data into our presentation. Or if they're using more, you know, more pathos, more emotional appeals, more narrative efforts, then we can assume that that may be more effective with them. So we can try and reflect the efforts of the person whom we're trying to persuade by paying attention to what kind of persuasive strategy they use. So we can use those types of reflective efforts. We can also look at demographic analysis, which is just what it sounds like. We're looking at the demographics of the audience, including a variety of different categories, which may involve some of these, age, sex and gender, ethnic and cultural background, religion, political affiliation, socioeconomic status, which is that combination of income, occupation and education, and then group membership. So it would help us to know, is this a group of senior citizens or is this a group of fourth graders? We're going to use different strategies there. We're going to use different language and different references and different types of persuasion for groups that are made up largely of people of a particular age in a particular age range. Or if an audience is heavily male or heavily female, that may affect the way that we approach that audience as well, as well as all these other things. But if nothing else, and a lot of times we don't, we may have a mix of people of different ages, different genders, different religious backgrounds and things, but they may all be there because of a specific reason, because they're part of a specific group. For example, if you're speaking to a group meeting of the National Rifle Association or the local parent teacher organization, you know that those people are all there for a particular reason because they share that particular passion, right? So we can use that knowledge in piecing together some persuasive strategies and some different things that we might want to approach. But that doesn't mean we have to completely cater. If you're opposed to, you know, if you're in favor of gun control and you're speaking to the NRA, that doesn't mean you totally flip-flop and say, oh, I'm speaking to the NRA, so I have to now be pro gun, pro gun ownership and things. I can't be pro gun control anymore, but you adapt your speech, right? You know you're going into kind of the lines and ends, so to speak. You know you're going to be speaking to a somewhat hostile audience, an audience who's opposed to your particular viewpoint, so you adjust your strategies accordingly, right? Based on that group membership, you know, if you're speaking to the local parent teacher organization, then you know that there are people who likely have kids in that school and have children. And so their parents and their people are concerned about the well-being of children and their education and so forth. So we can use that information to kind of shape the way that we persuade, right? We can use these demographic factors of analysis to shape and adjust the way that we persuade. We can also look at the needs of that audience. We can conduct a needs analysis and say, okay, where's the greatest need for this audience that I can pinpoint and that I can try and persuade them in a way that helps them understand that I'm trying to help them meet that need. So we can start just, for example, at a basic level with Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and say, okay, what is the great need that I'm trying to serve here with this audience that I, how can I, what my persuasive goals are, how can I attach that to a particular need that may exist for this audience? You know, what level of Maslow's Hierarchy are they at right now with their particular needs and where can I connect to that? So we can connect the needs analysis as well, but whatever we're doing, we need to consider everything about that audience again from the very beginning. The audience ought to be on our mind from the very beginning of the persuasive process and all the way through to the end, through the completion of our efforts to persuade. And then even after that, as we do kind of the post analysis, we ought to be thinking about, okay, where is my audience at? Was I able to meet them? Was I able to line up my persuasive strategies with their particular needs and with their goals and with where they're at? So audience analysis is going to be important at every stage of the persuasive process. Another way that we can attempt to meet the audience where they're at and find effective persuasive strategies for persuading that audience is through message organization. So we look at how we arrange the material and how we arrange the information that we are using to persuade that audience. So we can start with things like, you know, an organization like Topical Organization, which is really just a way to organize something that we break it out in a way that makes sense. We're not using any other fancy type of pattern. We're just saying, okay, these are three pieces of information that I want to share with you and here we go. So we just jump in with the Topical Organization and sometimes that can be the most convenient way. Spatial Organization is another possible type of organization that we could use in persuasive speeches. So for example, if I wanted to persuade people that Washington DC no longer is the appropriate place for the Capitol of the United States to be located when it was originally there, it was fine because it was in the middle of these 13 original columns or colonies. Sorry. As you can see here, it's in the middle of those 13 colonies. That makes sense geographically, but as the United States has obviously expanded a great deal westward, it should be closer to the middle of the country, not all the way on the far east coast of the country. So we ought to relocate that. Anyway, so I'm using Spatial Organization, which is organization centered around the use of space and where things exist in that space. So Spatial could be geographic like east to west, like I'm talking about here with the United States. It could be top to bottom, inside to outside, so forth, but we could use Spatial Organization and how things are arranged in space to persuade an audience as well. We could look at Chronological Organization, which is how things are arranged in time, how things unfolded in the space of time. So how things, you should be done in a particular order or how things, how things happened over a series of time, you know, starting on throughout the week, starting on Monday and then Tuesday and Wednesday and so forth, Chronological Order. We could persuade people by use of that. And those are, those are organizational patterns that can be used in a lot of different types of, of information sharing, not only persuasive, but sharing information and explaining how to do something or whatever. A few that are really more specific to persuasive efforts though are, for example, need plan, which is very simply where you lay out the need for particular change or particular policy or particular whatever you lay out that need and then you offer the audience a plan for meeting that need. So if I wanted to say, okay, there's, you know, we need a new, the need is for a new animal shelter that we have many animals that are, that are underserved and they're, they're roaming and that's a, it's an issue not only for the animals themselves. So out of the kind of far heart for these animals, we ought to be doing this, but also it's an issue for our, you know, the image of our community and so forth. I could lay out all these, these needs, this reason why we need to have an animal shelter in place and place for these, that we can take these animals in and care for them until we can find them proper homes. And then I like the plan. Here's how we're going to make that happen. Here's the fundraising efforts that we're going to have. Here's how this is going to be funded. Here's how it's going to be built. Here's how it's going to be run and managed and so forth. So I lay out the need and then I meet that need by laying out my plan. We could also, if the need is more established, now you can, you can use what we call comparative advantages or compare, comparative organization. So this is only really practical if you, if you have a topic where the need is well established. So you don't need to spend time talking about the need and you can really get into why your plan is better than somebody else's. So for example, if I were running for office or whatever and I say, I have a plan for fixing social security, social security is obviously broken, need to do something with it. There's not, I mean, and most people are going to be aware of that. So I'm not going to have to spend a lot of time explaining why social security needs to be fixed, why this issue needs to be addressed. I can get right into what my plan is and then why my plan is superior to other plans that are out there, maybe specifically to my opponent's plan or whatever. But I can really, you know, spend more time comparing my plan with these other plans and explaining why my plan is superior and why it would, why it would provide more solutions than problems and so forth. Finally, we can get into what's called motivated sequence or sometimes Monroe's motivated sequence, which is, you know, kind of the psychological process of persuasion where it has these five stages. First, we gain the attention of the audience, then we establish a need, kind of like we did a need plan, we explain what the need is, then we provide some satisfaction or some plan for resolving that need. Then finally, visualization, we offer some, you know, help them see what this plan looks like in action. And then finally, action, what they can do to spur this into action, what they can do to take action here. You see this a lot in commercials and it has been a long time advertising strategy. You see it a little bit less so now, but back, I mean, for about 50 years, this was the standard of advertising. If you think about commercials, especially I was thinking like, oh, like allergy commercials when they, they grab your attention, what's a beautiful scene, right? This family's outside playing, but then you automatically see this this person who's stuck inside, looking at the window, great inside a gray house or whatever, because they can't go outside. And what's their need? Somebody comes over and says, why aren't you outside playing with everybody and enjoying your family and things? Oh, it's these darn allergies, right? So now I'm establishing need. What's the need for this person? They need some way to get out from under these allergies. And then their friend says, well, I used to have that problem and now I take this drug and it has cured me of all my allergy woes, right? And they say, really, does that work? And oh, absolutely. So they're providing some satisfaction there. Then the visualization is that we get to see this person out in the world with their family enjoying life. And and then finally, that's the visualization, right? And finally, the action comes when it says this drug available at all local drug stores, right? And they say, go get yours now or call this number and have some delivered to you or whatever. So the Monroe's motivated sequence walks us through all of these different steps and can be very effective for pushing someone into action right away to pushing someone to immediate action because of that action step really can be very effective in a lot of persuasive efforts. So we can pick the appropriate organization. We can determine, OK, again, thinking about my audience, who's my audience? What's going to be effective with this audience? And then and then thinking about how can I organize my information best here so that it meets the both my needs and the needs of that audience in effectively conveying these persuasive efforts? So we can pick the right organization for our message. We can also focus on credibility. People are not persuaded by people they don't believe in people they don't find trustworthy. So credibility is incredibly important. So three things I want you to think about just real quickly in terms of credibility. First of all, ethos, as we know from Aristotle is made up of really two factors here. And that is competence. And the first is competence. Let's just focus on it. People are not persuaded by people people whom they don't believe knows anything. Right. They want to hear from people that they feel like are knowledgeable on that topic and competent on that topic. And not only that are pulling from other competent sources that are pulling in good resources from other other solid sources. So people look for competence in establishing credibility. They also look for character. They want somebody who's trustworthy. They want somebody who's believable. They want somebody who they can believe in and feels like is in this for them and is really, you know, doing this for out of their best interests out of the best interests of the audience and the receivers and not just their own the persuaders own self interest. So people audiences want people who are are find more believable. People who are high in competence and character. And then also we can't underscore dynamism. People who are dynamic draw an audience in again, fairly or unfairly. Now they can't stand alone. A lot of times not for very long. Anyway, people are persuaded by people who are dynamic. A lot of times and but eventually we'll start to discover that they're not so competent and their characters not so solid. And that will, you know, cause their persuasion persuasion to kind of crumble a little bit. But but if you can combine all three of these things, competence, character and dynamism being a dynamic persuader dynamic speaker, dynamic communicator, then then you will really, really see your credibility skyrocket in these situations. As far as language, let's think about language and the language that we use to persuade effective language is so critical to persuasion in a variety of ways. First of all, vividness. We create a very vivid image, very vivid picture, very vivid sense of need through language and through using the appropriate language for this particular audience in this particular situation. People want that clarity. They want that vividness in the scope of your persuasion and in the proof of your persuasion and everything else. So use language to create that vividness, conciseness, keeping it simple, keeping it simple. People don't necessarily with a long complicated answer. They feel like they're being hoodwinked. They feel like they're being sideswiped there. They want the straight answer. So, you know, you should be as brief as you possibly can when you're trying to persuade. Take it from point A to point B, not point, not from point A to over here and all scrambled up like you see in this image to get to point B, right? Take it from straight from point A to point B in as concise a way as you possibly can. Imagery is critically important in persuasion as well. This is something that brought up in an earlier video as well. So imagery, you know, we could look at this picture and say, well, it's a, you know, it's a path through a cornfield. You know, that's one way we could explain this, right? Accurately say this is a, this is, you know, wagon ruts through a cornfield. Or we could say the worn dirt path packed down from decades of faithful service divides row after row of tall corn stocks, each a part of the lifeblood that will fuel the world's food demands. Which one of those is more compelling, do you think? We can use that imagery to really describe a scene, really pull an audience in. I know this kind of counteract conciseness. We got to pick and choose our spots. Not every part of our persuasion should be this wordy. But when we're trying to create a picture, trying to convey some imagery, it's absolutely crucial. Okay. Next, figures of speech. We can use figures of speech. We can use simile and metaphor and alliteration and hyperbole and so forth. Appropriately use those things to engage an audience and to really pull them into those persuasive efforts. And we can use humor. We're appropriate. And we can use it appropriately to again engage an audience, to increase our dynamism and to just enhance our persuasive efforts. So language can help us do each of these things. And so we need to carefully consider our language in our persuasive efforts. When we think about delivery, there are a couple of different elements of delivery that we need to consider. First, nonverbal. There are a couple of different nonverbal elements here that are really important to persuasive efforts. Posture is really important. We need a confident posture. Not some withering, like we're ashamed to be there or we're trying to hide from the audience. We need to have this confident posture that exudes that we know what we're talking about. I have the competence. I have the character. I have the dynamism. I am confident. I am here. And I'm sure of what I'm saying and you should be sure of it too. That's what posture can do for us. We need to maintain eye contact. Again, cautious not to do so in a creepy way, but we just want to stare at one audience member or whatever, but we need to eye contact appropriately and effectively in these types of situations. And then there's a way that we can use movement and gestures too. You may have noticed if you've ever seen a TED Talk that has red carpets or dots on the stage, that's really so that the speaker knows where they can speak within that range that they can move around though and move from side to side, move a little bit. Now getting pacing is not good. We need to control our movements, but if we have planned movements, we can use that effectively to demonstrate to audience and to enhance our delivery and to demonstrate that confidence in the audience or to the audience. When we think about verbal delivery, again, we need to choose our language carefully. We also need to speak at the appropriate level for that audience. Again, choosing language, using language effectively and appropriately and using language that's appropriate for that topic, making sure that we choose our words carefully. So verbal delivery is also critically important in establishing the confidence of the audience there. And then we need to think about our channel. Our channel for communicating with that audience is what's going to be the most effective way for us to get our message across. Do we need to do so verbally face to face or would an email suffice? Should we create a video? Should we be using a podcast? There are different ways that we can reach audiences and different ways that we're more likely to get our message across. So we need to consider all of these things when we're seeking to consider the best method of delivery as well. Finally, I'd like to look at some different persuasive strategies with you. Just a couple of these. There are lots of different, but I just picked a couple of the major persuasive strategies that people find effective and that we can consider. So the first is what we call the yes-yes technique, which basically says that we want to get the audience started in the right direction by getting them to say yes before they have an opportunity to say no. You don't want to start with a no. You want to get them started all with a series of yeses. So one example of this that I think is very appropriate involves a man that you probably won't recognize from his picture here. This is a man named Henry and Henry is not a household name except that he is. His last name is actually this is Henry Phillips. And you may not know who Henry Phillips was, but Henry Phillips was just this salesman who had a lot of confidence and he ran across this person who had developed this product that he really thought was going to change the world, but was having trouble getting anyone to believe in it and to say that they would manufacture it because it was a very difficult manufacturing process, not something that had ever been done before. So this Henry just happened to run into this person and this person had just come off his latest round of nose and was feeling pretty down about it and was ready to give up and Henry asked him about his product and they got to talking and Henry said, well, you know, I'll take a shot at it. If you want to sell me your patent, the man had a patent on what he had created. The guy said, yeah, and so Henry Phillips bought this patent for a song really. I mean very, very low price considering the impact that it would have on the world. But you see for Henry Phillips one of the things he was fond of saying is that a no is just a yes to a different question. So when Henry went and took this product to the same company that this other man had just gotten a no from, he went in and talked to the president of the company because he wouldn't take no for an answer. He finally got him to see the president of the company and the president of the company said, I don't think this can be done but Henry said, well, let me meet with your engineers. The engineers met with him. He said, look, we just looked this over with this other guy. We told him it's not possible and so they said, no. And Henry said, let me let me ask you this. Do you like having a job? And they said, yes. And he said, do you think that it would be effective for you to keep your job if you can make a product that nobody else is making? And they said, well, yes, obviously. And he got him saying several yeses and then finally he said, so wouldn't this be a good product to do that with? And they said, well, yeah, it would be except you can't, you can't be done. And he said, well, no, you just told me yes a bunch of times. It can be done. So let's do it. So they went back to the drawing board and they came up with a whole new process to create this product, which happened to be an issue that people were having that couldn't get the screw to stay on. It couldn't get this, the screwdriver to strand say Henry Phillips had bought the patent for the Phillips what became the Phillips screw head. And he hadn't developed it, but he bought it and he's the one who sold it and he's the one who got brought it to creation. So we know not only the Phillips screw because of Henry Phillips's efforts and his refusal to take no for an answer and his effective use of the yes, yes technique getting people to say yes, yes, yes until they said yes to the question he wanted them to say yes to which may have previously been a no. So now we have the Phillips head screw and the Phillips screwdriver which you can imagine bears his name and bore him pretty good financial success as a result as well. So we can use the yes, yes technique. We can get people headed in the right direction by asking them some questions to which they say yes to. We can also use the don't ask if ask which sometimes we give people too many options then we get a lot of answers we don't want or they get frozen up and locked up and and can't really decide. So you get to a lot with kids for example when you ask them you know what do you want to have for breakfast and then you'll get every answer from you know pizza to to to cereal to whatever I mean exotic things they can come up with them in their mind green eggs and ham and so forth. So instead of asking what would you like for breakfast sometimes it's a better idea to say would you rather have pancakes or waffles this morning or would you rather have cereal or toast or so forth right so give them some options so we don't ask the audience if they want something we ask them which one they want you know that can be effective as well don't ask if ask which we can seek a partial commitment where people say yes to part of it where where they may say yes to a free trial for example and they've already taken that first step that's a partial commitment right or if they clip out a coupon that's a that's a partial commitment they take a flyer that's already a partial commitment they're already halfway there so once we've got that partial commitment then we've already moved them we got the momentum going to move them toward where we want so we can take them step by step and that can be an effective strategy as well and then finally we can ask for more and settle for less ask for more and settle for less you see this all the time stores will have these big sales right everything's marked down and and you think oh wow it's 40% off oh my goodness so what they don't tell you is that they already raised the price by 50% of the original and then dropped it by 40% so they're still making 10% more than they would have otherwise we can do that too we can kind of anchor and contrast Ronald Reagan was was famous for doing this in his negotiations with the Soviets he would go in and say when they were talking about nuclear missile disarmament right he would say I want 100% of this category gone and that's what he would tell the Soviets you know in advance he would tell his his advisors that he wanted them to cut back at least 25% that would be his goal and I'm going to eliminate at least 25% of this range of nuclear weapon and I'd be satisfied with that so he went in though and said I want them all gone I want 100% gone so when the Soviets came back and said well we can't do that but we'd be willing to look at 50% then he'd say okay I guess so we'll take 50% which is really 25% more than he hoped to get in the first place right so that's a win anchor and contrast you ask for more than you want and then you sort of quote unquote settle for less than that we can use those types of persuasive strategies as well with great effect you know the biggest thing I think to keep in mind as a persuader is this a goal without a plan is just a wish if you have a goal as a persuader you're trying to accomplish something as a persuader you need to have a plan you need to have all of these things thought out not just one of them we need to think about audience analysis we need to think about our delivery about our language about which persuasive strategy is going to be effective here we need to have a plan for all of these things and then we need to have a plan B and maybe even a plan C for these things because you know you never you know Mike Tyson the famous boxer said everybody has a plan until they get hit right once you get hit as a persuader what's your other plan how else can you approach this so we need plan after plan after plan in mind if we're going to reach that goal because without it we're just wishing if you have a question about you know any of these persuasive strategies and what you can do to be a more effective persuader don't hesitate to email me I'd love to hear from you via email and chat about persuasion with you at any time so in the meantime get out there and think about what you can do to be the most effective persuader that you possibly can