Persuasion attempts to influence people's beliefs, attitudes, intentions, motivations, or behaviors in relation to an event, idea, object, or other person(s). Persuasion is achieved through written or spoken communication that conveys information, thoughts, emotions, logic, and arguments. Effective business communication often involves persuasion. Salespeople, lawyers, and politicians make their living attempting to persuade others, and persuasion is an important part of the work of managers and leaders as well.
Persuasive communication achieves five things:
- Stimulation
- Convincing
- Call to action
- Increase consideration
- Tolerance of alternate perspectives
Stimulation
Persuasive communication reinforces, intensifies, and prioritizes existing beliefs. The purpose may be to spur action, build group cohesion, or develop commitment to a shared set of goals. This approach may begin by acknowledging areas of common ground and then introducing new information that helps the audience value this commonality even more.
Convincing
Sometimes a message is meant to convince an audience of the rightness of a certain choice or course of action. This often involves getting people to change their minds. The use of evidence and logical reasoning are effective techniques for accomplishing this type of persuasion.
Call to Action
Persuasive argument is often a call to action. This type of speech is not purely about stimulating interest to reinforce and accentuate beliefs, or convincing an audience of a viewpoint. Its intention is to get people to do something (often to change their behavior). Calls to action are commonly part of implementing decisions.
Call to action
A call to action offers its audience a clear choice for their response.
There are several types of calls to action: adoption, discontinuance, deterrence, and continuance. Adoption means the speaker wants to persuade the audience to accept a new way of thinking or adopt a new idea that influences their behavior. Discontinuance is the opposite: it involves the speaker persuading audience members to stop doing something (like quit smoking). Deterrence is a call to action that focuses on persuading the audience not to start something if they haven't already started. Continuance means the speaker wants to persuade the audience to continue doing what they have been doing, such as reelect a candidate, keep buying a product, or stay in school to get an education.
Increase Consideration
Persuasive communicators also work to increase audience awareness and willingness to consider their position. Effective persuasion requires a target that is open to persuasion, and often this depends on how a message is framed and delivered. For example, an audience that is unmoved by appeals to emotion may be more willing to listen to rational arguments and facts.
Tolerance for Alternative Perspectives
The final key to creating a persuasive argument is helping the audience develop a tolerance for alternative perspectives. Perhaps the audience is interested in purchasing a certain type of car; as the lead salesperson on that model, the speaker has to listen and perform informal audience analysis to learn that horsepower and speed are important values to this customer.