Persuasion Skills Black Book

Lesson 02
By

Rintu Basu
The NLP Company

http://www.theNLPcompany.com
 Persuasion Skills Black Book Training Programme

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 Persuasion Skills Black Book Training Programme

Foreword
This is a short but very important lesson. As you go through the book you will see
that I stress the importance of process. In this lesson you will learn a simple but
very effective persuasion process.

Introduction
One problem that many persuasion engineers face is having lots of tools and
techniques but not being able to fit them together into a seamless process without
having to take time out to think their way through.

What would it be like if you had a process that was so quick and simple you could
use it automatically in any situation you came across?

If you have already realised how powerful this could be then it is easy to learn. All
you have to do is read on and learn the process.

Leading People in Small Steps

Let me take an example where I want to persuade someone to buy a copy of my
book. Running at them waving a copy screaming “I have a great book for you to
buy!” might work, but is unlikely to get great results.

If I were to entice them in and catch their attention somehow I could start a
conversation. From there I could ask them questions about the problems they are
experiencing in their life. Perhaps then I could link their problems to a solution
that involved persuasion skills and then from there give them a call to action to
buy my book.

I am hoping that you can see a significant difference in the likely result from the
two approaches and not just in terms of whether they buy the book or not. The
second approach is likely to create better and longer term relations. This is the
difference between leaping in all guns blazing and gently steering people in a
direction.

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 Persuasion Skills Black Book Training Programme

AIDA
AIDA is an old sales and marketing acronym that stands for

• Attention
• Interest
• Desire
• Action

I love this because it is short, simple and easy to use. So let’s take this section by
section and explore how you can use this.

Attention

Get their attention first. If they are not paying attention you will not be able to
persuade them of anything. It might be just part of my personality but I tend to
think of attention grabbers as tabloid headlines.

I am often thinking of the one thing I can say or do that will get the person to
focus. I prefer something positive although technically away from drivers are
supposed to be more powerful consider the following two statements:

• Two simple steps to increase your life span by over five years
• Act now to stop your killer disease before it is too late

I suspect the second is likely to work more effectively but I prefer the first
because it is a more positive note.

Attention grabbing does not have to be this sensational though. It could be as

simple as building rapport and asking a couple of questions. In a social context
one of my favourite openers is finding something I like about the person or what
they are wearing. I then compliment them and ask questions about it…here are a
few examples:

• You are looking in great shape tell me about how you work out
• I love that broach it really suits you, where do you shop for things like that?
• I was reading your blog the other day I loved what you said about xyz, how
do you manage to do that level of research?

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 Persuasion Skills Black Book Training Programme

In a business situation I can be a little more focused on the outcomes I am

looking for. Here is one I have used in the past when I was selling training
consultancy in a corporate market:

I’ve read some research that says companies are losing 30% of their best
people through lack of proper development have you checked you exit
interviews to find out why people leave your company?

This sets up a frame for the discussion on training and development that I am
hoping to steer the conversation towards.

Interest

Once you have their attention start asking questions and listening to them. Read
the chapters on questioning and conversation management to get a really good
handle on this area. All I am going to add here is that you are moving the
conversation towards the topic you want them to explore.

Desire

Here you are linking their problem to your solution. For example:

If I want to sell books on persuasion skills I will have asked questions

before hand about things they want to achieve and then linked that to
learning more persuasion skills

If I am after a date I will have asked them about the things they like doing
and linked that to a one time offer to go and do something I know they
would really enjoy

In simple terms I am looking to link massive benefits to them for doing the thing
that I want them to do.

Action

Finally ask them to do whatever you want them to do.

Here is a parenting example showing you how you can put the whole thing
together.

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 Persuasion Skills Black Book Training Programme

You could just tell little Johnny to go to bed, have and argument and win by using
authority. You could look at an approach like this:

• Attention –You are playing football tomorrow aren’t you?

• Interest – I assume you want to be on the winning side?
• Desire – How will you feel when you win the match? But that won’t happen
unless you are awake, lively and full of energy…that means you need to be
fully rested and ready to go for it.
• Action – If you go to bed now you will be really ready to win tomorrow

The Assignments
Do as many of these as are appropriate to you and just focus on the ones that will
get you the biggest results. Remember just ten minutes daily.

Run through some recent conversations you have had and look for how you could
implement an AIDA approach to the conversation.

Think about some conversations you know are going to come up in the future and
run through the typical flow of the conversation using AIDA.

See you next time.

Cheers

Rintu
Coming Up

In the next session we will look at unconscious hellos and how we can use
them to build rapport.

We will also look at some redefine and agreement frame exercises so you
can go out in the world and flex those persuasion muscles.

© 2008 The NLP Company - All Rights Reserved. http://www.theNLPCompany.com

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