Entries by Mark Rodgers

Sweet Emotions: Choose Your Words and Phrases Wisely

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Logic makes you think, emotions make you act. You’ve heard this before, right? But you know what you haven’t heard? Someone telling you how to leverage emotions. Until now. The language you use and the phrases you choose can help you stir emotions of the person you’re trying to persuade. One way to create an […]

Does Your Persuasion Priority Expand Your Networks?

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Few things are as important to a working professional as a network of contacts. But if there is one area of weakness in most people’s persuasion arsenal, it exists in their professional network. We know it’s important to create and cultivate relationships, but we don’t necessarily put in the energy and effort.  Your persuasion priority may […]

Will Your Persuasion Priority Enhance Your Professional Skills?

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In a previous post, I wrote about the importance of determining if your persuasion priority is really a priority. Remember that your persuasion priority must be specific, significant and meaningful to you and your organization, and realistic enough to be attainable. It also must be set with others in mind, because if you can help […]

Why Money Matters in Persuasion Situations

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It’s time to revisit you persuasion priority: Who is the one person you want to say “yes” to what?  In other words: If, in your professional endeavors, you could flick a switch and convince one person to do just one thing, what would that be? Remember that your persuasion priority must be specific, significant and meaningful to […]

Here’s Why (and How) You Should Ask Irrational Questions

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Sales success requires confidence. One surefire way to be more confident in persuasion situations — which, let’s admit it, often involve selling something — is to provide high-quality options, and you can do this through the use of irrational questions. Yes, you read that correctly. I first learned of this approach from the incredibly intelligent […]

How to Better Believe in Yourself

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Do you ever talk to yourself? (Right now, you’re probably thinking: Hmm, talk to myself? Do I do that?) Most people have an ongoing mental conversation with themselves. This is what many psychologists call self-talk. Left unattended, that conversation typically sways negative.  When I was younger, I used to be pretty hard on myself: • “I […]

Sharpen Your Persuasive Edge; Use a Chiasmus

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Hearing “yes” in any type of situation — with colleagues and customers — is largely about appealing to the other person’s enlightened self-interest. One of my favorite ways to effectively do that is through the use of language, specifically a figure of speech called “chiasmus” [kahy-az-muhs]. A chiasmus is a verbal pattern in which the second half […]

7 Ways You Can ‘See’ Trust

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Some people say you can’t see trust. I say you can.  How can you tell if you’re making headway with your persuasion target in such areas as trust and credibility? By consistently observing your target’s actions — or inactions — to determine the degree to which you’re winning over the other person. Here are seven […]

What Will Be Your Legacy?

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What is your persuasion priority? In other words, who is the one person you want to say “yes” to what? Once you know the answer to that question, ask yourself this: Will my persuasion priority impact my legacy either at my company or in the field? If you’re 21 years old, fresh out of college […]