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Discussion on: Hidden persuaders of business speaking and writing

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ShantaMilan

Business is more about persuasion these days. The better persuader a person is, higher the chances of them getting what they want. Kotler and Kellar 2012 says, by catering persuasions through tailored arguments to the person that makes decisions can increase the chances of your proposal being accepted. But persuaders in business either spoken or written are hidden in nature. Robert B. Cialdini best describes these hidden persuaders as people having in born skills to motivate people to do their bidding and what is more amazing is that the people are eager to fulfill what is asked of them as if ‘it were a favour they couldn’t wait to repay. (Congner, 2013, p. 32)’

Cialdini further goes on to explain persuasions as reciprocate, scarcity, liking, authority, consistency and consensus. People reciprocate behaviors shown to them meaning if you do something, they will reply by doing something for you in return. For example medical representative gives free goods to doctors who reciprocates it by prescribing medicines of their company.

People are persuaded to buy thing that they do not even need when there is scarcity. For example if people hear that there will be shortage of petrol form tomorrow, it is highly likely that most people will start purchasing even though they have enough of it.

People respond well when they like others. This liking is based on similarities shared between them. It is also brought on by genuine complements and good words shared. For example if there are two vendors who sell apparels people tend to prefer the one who is soft spoken and is friendly in nature as opposed to the vendor who does not care whether you buy or not.

We are more persuaded by people in authority who are more experienced and experts at something. For example a compounder giving us medical suggestion as compared to a doctor. We will obviously be persuaded by a doctor and listen to him even if the medical compounder says the same thing.

Consistency is an interesting human nature. People want to be consistent. This can be utilized by the manager to his advantage. For example asking a small task at first that is asking for a bigger favor later will persuade the worker to accept as they have already accepted a similar task beforehand. People also respond to consensus. This means that people follow the crowd. As an innate human nature people tend to flock over places that have more people. For example two restaurants who serve similar food at similar price, but there are customers in one while the other is empty. New customers will tend to go where there are other customers as opposed to the one that is empty.

These are some ways in which hidden persuasion function and good managers can be model these factors for better persuasion.

Reference

Congner, J. A. (2013). Harnessing the Science of Persuasion. In J. A. Congner, HBR’S 10 Must Read (p. 132). Boston: Harvered Business School.