Persuade People – The Right Way

Most of the executives are in a way or other responsible for persuading people, to either see or do things in one particular way – their way. Whether you are a HR executive leading the organisation towards change, or a sales head trying to encourage your CEO to use a new sales strategy, or a marketing VP trying to sell your products to customers or getting a specific call-to-action finished, all of you need to figure out how to persuade people to do something.

The concepts of framing and loss aversion in behavioural economics can help you do this. Let us begin this discussion with definitions:

Framing – this is a way in which you frame up a situation, dilemma or an opportunity.
Loss aversion – humans have an aversion to loss by nature, the desire to not fail is more powerful than the desire to win.

You need to combine framing and loss aversion if you want people to believe in you and take action on what you are saying. Simply put, Framing + Loss Aversion = Persuasion.

Isn’t it simple? But wait, here’s the main point – While trying to persuade people, ensure to frame the problem in a way that reveals to them what they will LOSE, in addition to what they will win.

• If you are a HR executive who is guiding the company towards change, discuss with your CEO and shed some light upon the items that will be negatively impacted if the change isn’t implemented, apart from just talking about the many benefits from the change. Link it to lost productivity or any other business metric.

• If you are the sales manager, tell your boss what the company will lose by not adopting the new sales strategy, such as lost sales and lost revenue to the competition. That will gain the attention of your superiors.

• If you are the marketing VP, decipher how to frame your product message or offers in a way where consumers will feel like they are missing out if they don’t complete the call-to-action. Make your offer so persuasive, they simply cannot afford to avoid it.

Contact BI WORLDWIDE™ to know more about how to persuade people.