The ability to persuade, influence and build consensus is – I believe – one of the most important skills that you can have anywhere – the workplace, in business and life. So how does one make yourself more persuasive, more influential and more impactful? It’s not easy – as with anything worthwhile – it requires constant attention, preparation, practise and training. However, fundamentally, persuasive communication has some very basic characteristics: clarity, brevity, context, impact and value. Isn’t this what we do in Network Marketing on a daily basis when prospecting? I certainly hope so. Now let’s investigate these five points in further detail.
- Clarity. If you are not clear in your message, then you will never be able to be persuasive.
- Brevity. If your prospect is waiting for you to get to the point, you’ve lost them and being persuasive will be impossible.
- Context. If what you are communicating to your prospect if not relevant to them, then they will quickly lose interest in your message and persuading them will not happen.
- Impact. If your prospect cannot remember your message, then how could you possibly persuade them?
- Value. If you are only communicating what is important to you and what is valuable to you, how could you possibly attempt to keep your prospect interested? They will only be persuaded if your message is valuable to THEM!
If you are starting to consider how you can better persuade those you are communicating to – and this doesn’t just relate to prospects, but those in your team as well – then remember the 5 words: clarity, brevity, context, impact and value. If you are able to achieve all five of these in all of your conversations when you are requiring some action to be taken by the person you are communicating with, then you will be successful in being more persuasive and effective and effectual. Give it a go!