Persuading and Influencing Others: What is the Best Order?
You find yourself in situations where you need to be able to persuade and influence people quickly. But you’re a very busy and important person. You might find yourself struggling to get your thoughts collected and ideas placed in the right order to have the greatest impact. What is the best order?
I have found over the years that there is an order and sequence that seems to have the greatest impact in persuading and influencing others. This formula is called Monroe’s Motivated Sequence.
Attention
Need
Satisfaction
Visualization
Action
You get peoples’ attention by sharing a startling statistic, telling a story, or referring to the situation at hand.
You establish the need, that there is a problem with the status quo, and explain how it directly affects them.
Then share your idea of how to satisfy that need or solve the problem.
Get them to visualize the future. Have them imagine the negative consequences if they don’t follow your suggestion and have them picture the positive benefits if they do what you suggest.
Finally call them to action; tell them exactly what you would like them to do.
It is also wise to cite two sources other than yourself and have a visual aid that demonstrates the positive outcome you seek.
Try the Motivated Sequence. It balances logic with emotion, and helps people make a good decision, and feel good about the decision they just made. That’s the least we can do for people.
For more on Persuading and Influencing others, watch Kit’s presentation. And don’t forget to check back to Welchlin.com every Monday for a new video blog.