The art of persuasion, what is persuasion?

Knowing how to express yourself and when to express yourself are two very useful elements. Nowadays, knowing how to use words in a way that suits you can bring you great benefits, not only at work, but also personally and socially.

Influencing the thoughts and behaviour of certain people can nowadays be understood as an art. The art of convincing. Of persuading.

It is not a simple technique. It involves mastering verbal and non-verbal communication skills, making our objective clear from the outset. It seeks to bring about a change in the interlocutor.

The fields where this art is most practised are politics and sales, although it can be useful in all aspects of our lives. We are going to focus on persuasion from the field of marketing and the relationship with our clients.

what is persuasion?

According to the Royal Spanish Academy, persuade is:

"To induce, move, force someone with reasons to believe or do something".

Therefore, we can define persuasion as the ability of an individual to convince someone to do or think something thanks to his or her word.

The main objective of persuasion is to influence a person's opinion, so that they do what we want them to do. The speaker will achieve this thanks to good argumentation and a good command of words.

In the field of marketing and sales, the figure of the speaker, or in our case, the "salesperson", is very important. It is important to find professionals who have a very good command of the word, who are sociable, who are self-confident and, above all, confident in what they are saying.

It is called an art, because convincing someone to change their mind, or to act in a certain way, is not an easy job.

For persuasion to work, the figure of the receiver or user is very important. It is useless to have all the necessary skills to persuade if we do not have people or users that we can influence. This process depends mainly on the existence of the probability of receiving the message.

Therefore, it is very important to know our client, so that we know how to talk to them and how we can use this tool to our advantage.

With a clear image of our buyer persona, we mark the key elements that we are going to use in persuasion. This gives the company the power to know how the user or lead is going to process that message, and the level of involvement and familiarity with which we should approach the subject.

Persuade vs. deceive

The debate over whether persuasion can bring with it other elements such as deception or manipulation continues to rage today. We must be clear that the intention we have when we persuade is to convince someone of something through words.

We do not distort reality to show it to our liking. We want to stimulate an action or a change in the client or receiver.

Persuasion is often seen with a negative connotation. It is confused with deception or manipulation. The main difference is intentionality and mode.

The art of persuasion is achieved through argumentation, the art of negotiation and the use of words with a defined objective. It is intended to influence the receiver, but through clear and clean means.

Manipulation or deception carries a negative connotation. Manipulating is the ability to influence someone's behaviour or thinking, but without the other person realising it. You manipulate by thinking only of yourself and your own interests, and your actions may harm the person.

Deceiving introduces the concept of lying. When you deceive someone you make them believe something they are not.

To see this in a more practical way, let's give an example of what persuasion is and what it is not.

The role of parents is to induce their children to behave well, with the aim of making them better people.

This is persuasion.

I sell a beauty product that promises that in two weeks all your wrinkles will disappear, and in two weeks they don't disappear.

This is cheating.

3 key elements of persuasion

1. Know my client.

As we have already mentioned, knowing my client's profile is very important in the persuasion process. If you know your client well, you can define the tone you will use to talk to him/her.

We must make a study of our buyer persona, define what my ideal customer is going to be like and study what could be an objection point or a conversion point. Thanks to this, we can develop speeches that can attract their attention and convince them that our product is what they need.

2. Personalise communication.

Nowadays, there are many automation tools that can be used to personalise communication with the customer. A good e-mail marketing campaign is essential for sending messages to our customers.

You can go further and, depending on the buyer's journey, send interesting messages to users.

Thanks to this element you can develop your persuasive capacity, and show the customer that you are interested in their problems. You foster the relationship between customer / company.

3. A clear CTA.

When we are going to make a CTA or call to action, it must be clear and evident. The user can access it without having to navigate a lot, as well as being easy to execute.

They should be quick calls to action that do not make the user think too much about what they are doing. They should not require too much effort from the customer.

It is imperative to clearly indicate what to do, with a clear "Buy", "Download" or "Read" button.

4. Attracting new customers.

Persuasion will be a key element in attracting new customers or leads. Including persuasive content on your website will make users want to access it and buy the products you offer. The more eye-catching and persuasive our content is, the more it will attract customers.

Persuasion is a skill that derives from the art of convincing. It is essential in marketing and sales strategies. It can lead to the arrival of new customers and an increase in purchases from our loyal customers. Using persuasive techniques in your content will only bring you advantages, so what are you waiting for?

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