Entries by Mark Rodgers

What Is Enlightened Self-Interest — And Why Should You Care?

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Although technology, society, demographics, and economies have changed greatly, some persuasive patterns remain remarkably unaltered by time. The oldest method of getting someone to do something is to reward or punish, typically known as a “carrot” or a “stick.” Common business incentives include an increase in compensation, recognition or responsibility.  That’s the “carrot” side of […]

Do You Possess These Five Essential Persuasion Behaviors?

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A behavior is how you conduct yourself in a given situation. In professional settings, wildly persuasive people are: Assertive: Inclined to be bold and self-assured Empathetic: Possessing the ability to see the world from another person’s perspective Communicative: Adept at applying verbal and nonverbal communication Tenacious: Extremely persistent in adhering to or accomplishing something Resilient: […]

How a Little ‘Yes’ Leads to a Bigger ‘Yes’

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The scientific psychological evidence is clear: People are more willing to take you up on larger requests later if they’ve said “yes” to smaller ones first. Consider how many times your buyer has said “yes” in one form or another, even in the earliest stages of your sales process: “Yes, I’ll tell you my name.” […]

Five Ways to Influence Your Peers at Work

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Now that we’ve addressed persuading superiors and subordinates, there remains one last group of targets to address: your peers. This is known as “influencing sideways.” Peer pressure is among the strongest of all propulsions in the workplace (and elsewhere). How can you leverage it? Here are five ideas: 1. Cultivate favors by doing favors. You can […]

Influencing Down: 7 Ways to Convince People Who Answer to You

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Your ability to influence multiple people can take many different forms, requiring you to “influence up” (your boss, shareholders, a client’s president) and “influence down” (your department colleagues, a new hire, a contracted employee). In a previous post, I presented seven ways to influence up. Now, let’s look at the opposite of influencing up, which is influencing […]

Moving Up: 7 Ways to Influence Important People

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Your ability to influence multiple people can take many different forms, requiring you to “influence up” (your boss, shareholders, a client’s president) and “influence down” (your department colleagues, a new hire, a contracted employee). In this post, I present to you seven ways to influence up — which, incidentally, work well in individual persuasion situations, too: […]

What Is Your Influence Quotient?

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Horsepower. Pull. Sway. These should be words used to describe your organizational influence. Readers of my book, Persuasion Equation, know that I consider “persuasion” to be an action and “influence” to be a state or a condition. Influence reflects the ability to create an effect without exerting an effort. The ability to persuade depends significantly […]

How to Win an Argument

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The next time you find yourself bracing for an argument, let it go. Why? Because persuasion ends the moment arguing begins. All of a sudden, the objective becomes focused on “winning,” and that’s when you’ve already lost. To prove this point, a group of researchers led by Emory University psychology and psychiatry professor Drew Westen […]

How to Tell Better Stories and Convince More People

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Now that you know what works and what doesn’t work when crafting situational persuasion success stories, consider ways to enhance and customize them. In business, you typically apply the powers of persuasion to accomplish one or more of the following: You want someone to buy your product, agree to your new idea or take you […]