7 Tips to Convince Anybody: The Art of Persuasion

8 min readOct 20, 2021

Persuade Anyone like a Pro!

Guess the commonality in Political campaigns, civil society movements, a sales pitch, or you ask your crush for their number? All of these require excellent persuasion skills! The Cambridge Dictionary defines persuasion as ‘to make someone do or believe something by giving them a good reason to do it or by talking to that person and making them believe it.’

This pursuit of influencing people by words and ideas is not new. About 2000 years ago, Aristotle, the father of persuasion, in his work Rhetoric, outlined formulas on mastering the art of persuasion. During the Middle Ages, in Europe, persuasion was one of the most basic liberal arts to be learned by any educated person. From the days of imperial Rome through days of Reformation, persuasion was raised to a fine art by preachers.

Words, ideas and people who are good with words and ideas create and shape the world. You can be an icon in your field for as long as you can get people to agree with your viewpoint and influence them. The ability to persuade, especially in today’s time where knowledge and information is a social currency, is perhaps a skill that will give you an edge over others. However, it is as much an art as it is science. While there is a method to it, like following a specific set of rules always helps, a lot still depends on your creative skills and your ability to build a narrative to hold the target captive.

Here we are with some practical tips in the Art of Persuasion. Read till the end for some fantastic tips from the Father of Persuasion.

#1 Power of Words

Explaining something in a manner that gets your audience/target hooked is known as ‘Framing’. It involves crafting your arguments/pitch in a way that gets the recipients to agree with you. This framing is usually the first phase of persuasion, where you try and influence the audience to agree with your point of view. Words are a critical variable in this process. Your impact depends on how you use words to frame sentences, which sets the tone for the entire conversation.

➔ For example, phrases ‘glass half full’ and ‘glass half empty’ describe the same situation. The former sounds more positive and hints at a problem-solving attitude while the other doesn’t.

★ The Ultimate Terms Theory (Psychology) prescribes that some words have “greater potency” than others.

This theory breaks words into three categories:

➔ God terms: those words that carry blessings or demand obedience/sacrifice. e.g., progress, value

➔ Devil terms: those terms that are despised and evoke disgust. e.g., fascist, pedophile

➔ Charismatic terms: those terms that are intangible, less observable than either God or Devil terms. e.g., freedom, contribution

Further, research classified the following words as The Most Persuasive words in English:

Because

╺ Free

╺ You

╺ Instantly

╺ New

It is highly recommended to factor in the value and the power of words and language as an effective tool of persuasion.

#2 The Anchor Effect

Ever tried to guess someone’s age? Now suppose you bought a bar of chocolate for Rs.50 just before you were trying to guess someone’s age. You buying the chocolate for Rs. 50 will have a measurable impact on your guess, even though these two things are entirely unrelated.

The Anchor Effect is a cognitive bias that tends to pull us to a particular reference point or a piece of information. In his book Win Bigly, Scott Adams defined an Anchor as “An anchor is a thought that influences people toward a persuader’s preferred outcome.”

Source: www.premlarshop.com

➔ How to use Anchor Effect for Persuasion: We will explain this with an example. When you decide to buy a microwave, you read online that the average price of a microwave you are interested in is Rs.7,500. When you go to a shop to purchase the same, a deal of Rs.7000 is offered on the microwave of your choice, and you will readily take it. Afterall it is 500 less than your anchor information.

Imagine a situation where you want to price your services at Rs.3000. You can begin by quoting a higher price, say Rs.5,000 and negotiate it back down to Rs.3000.

You can use this principle of Psychology while persuading your boss to give you a raise, arguing in a courtroom, or even trying to convince your children to watch less television.

#3 Establish Credibility

People are more likely to be persuaded by somebody they trust.

Establishing credibility has two factors:

➔ People Skills: If you feel that you do not have a strong relationship with folks you are trying to convince, get other people who have strong relationships with the stakeholders. You can try meeting the stakeholders one-on-one before a meeting to cement your relationship with them.

➔ Your Knowledge on the Subject Matter: Your knowledge and preparation are among the most critical factors in deciding the outcome of your pitch. If you back your proposal with evidence and data from academic studies, surveys, and examples of industry practices, it will automatically carry more weight.

#4 Principle of Repetition

Wonder why you know the lyrics to a song like ‘Watermelon Sugar’ even when you have never actively listened to the song? But you often break into… ‘tastes like strawberries on a summer evenin’… and it sounds just like a song…’ okay coming back, so why does this happen? Could it be because it is a viral ‘trend’ on Instagram and whether you want to end up listening to the song each time you open Instagram? Looks probable.

J.T. Cacioppo and Richard Petty, two psychologists, studied the effect of repetition on human psychology. They found that a message’s low to moderate repetition creates more significant agreement and has a massive recall value. The human brain adapts to patterns quite quickly, so when exposed to an idea repeatedly, it is likely to accept that idea soon.

So while pitching your idea, it helps to repeat the vital information to get the audience’s attention. It is also important to repeat your idea through different techniques and spread that repetition throughout the conversation.

This way, even if the same information is repeated multiple times, the audience will get persuaded and will likely accept your perspective.

#5 Have Clarity and Conviction

When shouldering the task of swaying people’s opinions, you cannot be unsure of your goal. Conviction and clarity are the keys here. Be very, very sure of what you want and approach any situation with full conviction. A well-laid-out modus operandi comes in handy in such cases. Planning can be a great help.

Tired of doing something that doesn’t resonate with you? Do you do your work only for the paycheck? Check these tips to start following your passion and living a fulfilled life from today.

#6 Develop Curiosity (Principle of Scarcity)

The marketing strategy of creating scarcity (or the illusion of the same) of a product is used by marketers to influence the behaviour of consumers. This trick appeals to the Psychology of the consumer, thus generating interest in the product.

➔ Take, for example, Facebook — At the initial stages, Facebook was exclusively available for the students of Harvard, which was later rolled out for the students of other Ivy Leagues. This limited access to a small exclusive group piqued the interest in the product, and Facebook’s popularity grew like wildfire.

Now, in your case, when you are persuading someone, do not forget that you are the product! You don’t want to come across as too eager or too persistent to become a point of annoyance. While being persistent pays, creating scarcity now and then only adds to your value.

#7 Don’t be a Manipulator

Treading the thin line of difference between persuasion and manipulation is of utmost importance. At its core, persuasion is an ethical practice that has formed the foundation of modern-day counselling, legal systems, democratic nations. It is through persuasion that positive and tangible social change occurs.

When your intentions get maligned, and you begin without holding the truth and acting in selfish interests, you have crossed the line. It is always important to reflect on yourself and keep a check on your motives.

10 best time of the day to persuade someone

Congratulations! You have read some valuable tips to convince anybody. And as some of you know, for sticking with us till the end, you deserve a bonus tip!

#Bonus Tip (from the Father of Persuasion)

The Ethos, Pathos and the Logos: The Father of Persuasion, Aristotle coined Ethos, Pathos and Logos. Let us break it down for you:

➔ Ethos: It broadly means to be “Trustworthy”. To gain mass appeal, one has to be relatable and establish commonality with the community. This is to say that when in Rome do as Romans Do.

➔ Pathos: It has got to do with the emotional appeal. Emotions and feelings are excellent social adhesive. For example, sharing an anecdote and telling a story often trigger a response from the target and establish trust immediately.

➔ Logos: This means all things logical. Once you have established trust and caught the attention of your audience/target, you will need facts, figures and statistics to back your claim. You cannot be shoddy with your reasoning or logically inconsistent. Follow your heart? Sure. Just take your brain along.

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