Convincing others Essay Example

align="justify">Paying a landscaper 1,000 dollars to tend one's garden is not persuasion: it's buying a service.

However, in many contexts hierarchical and economic incentives are intertwined with persuasion practices. In the default situation from which this article proceeds, however, the PEP is not in a position to order around, or to buy her way in. She will need to make clear what she wants, and especially why the UP wants it too. For enterprising people, having to convince stakeholders to commit it is not the only reason why it is important to know about persuasion.

Obviously, the better a case is made and presented, the higher the chances of success. If the PEP has weak persuasion skills, stakeholders will more likely refuse a request, and may even go with the proposal of a competitor.

But one other reason to know about persuasion is that it is a two-way process. For example, it is not just that an PEP persuades an investor to commit money, knowledge and outworks. The investor will persuade the PEP just as much, in order to arrive at favorable terms. All stakeholders have their own aims and agendas, and will use persuasion to further those.

Thus, the better the PEP understands persuasion processes, the better she understands how others attempt to persuade her. Furthermore, Peps often work under conditions of uncertainty, information scarcity or overload, time pressure, and fatigue (Baron, 1998; Gibbs, 1993).

Typically, in these situations there will be an increased reliance on gut-feeling and rules-of-thumb, as these conditions make it impossible to exhaustively duty and analyze the situation. The application of realistic 7: Persuasion 5 of-thumb is studied in persuasion

science under the heading of heuristics (Calling, 1984/2007).

Heuristics are generally efficient and effective. However, they also have a long history of use in persuasion, and stakeholders may attempt to influence by means of these heuristics to further their own aims. Enterprising individuals who operate under the conditions outlined above are especially susceptible to these practices.

So the PEP needs el knowledge of persuasion for 'defensive' purposes as much as for achieving what she has set out to achieve. Heuristics will be discussed at length in a later section of this article.

Various professions have persuasion as their daily tasks. These vocations include politicians, diplomats, lobbyists, advertisers, sales people, proselytizes, and recruiters. It is therefore not surprising that a vast body of research has emerged that studies the influence processes and tactics that these persuasion professionals employ.

Although some people appear to be born persuaders, persuasion is not only an art, it is also a science. Persuasion is a complex process in which many factors play a role. Persuasion skills can be improved through study, practice, and reflection.

It is important to be aware of one's own preferences for certain persuasion styles and tactics, their strengths and weaknesses, and to be able to employ a diversity of approaches. Various overviews of the persuasion literature have been written and any enterprising individual is well advised to study these sources (see Coffee, 2002; Perlman's, 201 0; Rogers, 2007). This article provides a brief overview of this literature in the context of the novice PEP setting out to realize her aims.

The professions mentioned above are suffering from a poor reputation.

They are believed to be sacrificing the

truth to further their own interests. They suffer from a low level of trust and for that reason need to take several extra measures in order to be persuasive. Persuasion processes, however, are not ethically suspect in and of themselves.

Convincing a child to come to the grocery store by highlighting that it will get one of those sweets sold at the counter (or given out for free, by clever retail operators) is a matter of highlighting the Article 7: persuasion 6 benefits of the proposition. But persuasion can easily become manipulative (Johannes, 2001).

In fact, several people who worked as professional persuaders became so sick of themselves that they stepped out of their industries and wrote books exposing the dubious practices involved (some of these cases are discussed by Levine, 2003). Luckily, as a class, start-up entrepreneurs do not have this tarnished reputation.

For Peps, it is very important to build a reputation of honesty and reliability. It is one of the most important factors that people consider when deciding whether they want to have anything to do with the venture.

Suppose that two enterprising individuals have a case to make to a potential artificial in a venture (such as a potential investor, client, supplier, or business partner). Only one of them can be rewarded.

Even in the simplified case of two competing enterprising people, there is usually a third competitive force at work: the vested interests in maintaining the status quo. Incumbent organizations will try to defend their positions. Which factors will tilt the balance? The remainder of this article provides an overview of these factors. Because a great many elements play a

role in persuasion processes, this overview is necessarily brief.