The Top Blogger

As a Business student, you will most likely have already realized how important it is to possess excellent persuasion skills to be successful in business. After you graduate, you will be needing your persuasion techniques every single day if you want your career or business to flourish.

So how do you go about nurturing and enhancing the crucial skill of persuading people?

Step 1: Walk in their shoes

If you want to be persuasive, you must eliminate the “you” and focus on “them”. Put yourself in the other person’s situation and set aside your personal beliefs for a second. What would you do if you were in their situation? How would you go about solving the matter? By learning to empathize you will acquire a most valuable and rare skill. When the other party sees that you are genuinely trying to come up with the best solution for him or her, you’ll be well on your way to success.  You must build rapport first before you try to talk people into accepting your views.

Step 2: Give them proof

In order to be an excellent persuader, you must invariably be an exceptional communicator. Communicate and explain clearly your opinion about the task at hand. Show them with concrete evidence and examples that you are convinced that your suggestion, idea, etc is the best way to go. Caution: Be zealous of your reputation and make sure that your evidence is in fact true and easily verifiable.

Step 3: Answer their most important question

People are selfish. They’re primarily concerned about their own well-being. Concentrate on their needs and explain plainly how your proposal will satisfy their expectations.  No matter how credible all the evidence that you’ve gathered is, it will all be irrelevant to the other party if you do not answer and satisfy their “What’s in it for me?” question. People want to hear how they will benefit, before they will even ponder whether they are in agreement or not.

Step 4: Be enthusiastic

If you yourself are not passionate about your proposal or idea, then how do you expect others to be?  You must know your stuff inside out and literally ooze confidence and enthusiasm, if you want to persuade people.  This may be hard to do, especially if for example you have been presenting the same proposal all day.  But then again, if you really want to convince people that your idea is the best, shouldn’t you at least put a little bit of effort in showing them that you really believe this?

Step 5: Listen carefully

Communication must be two way in order to be effective . Don’t get carried away with your ideas. Give the other party adequate time to voice his or her opinion, even if you’re not liking what you’re hearing.  By listening carefully, you have the opportunity to address the other party’s concerns and worries.  Try to be prepared for and anticipate any skeptical/difficult questions that the other party might have.  

If you follow these 5 basic steps, you will improve your persuasion techniques immensely and you will also become more confident to face any situation that you might come across.