Persuading a person to do a particular thing or action is called persuasiveness. It is an art by itself. It is not easy to make someone do a particular thing, unless and until he or she wants to do it himself or herself. Most people do not like to be told what they should do or not do. They prefer to make their own decisions.
Certain professions like salesman or woman require persuasive skills they need to encourage the customer to take interest in their products and to buy them. In fact, even children often have to be persuaded by their parents to do a particular thing. The parents tend to cajole them
One has to cultivate the skill of persuasiveness. How does one do it?
How to be persuasive? – Cultivating the Art of Persuasiveness
- One must be patient. One must not give up.
- One must set goals to attain. Targets must be set up.
- The target audience must be understood well. One must know what appeals to the person who is being persuaded.
- Crude behavior must be avoided. One must be polite and courteous even while convincing a person. Rudeness can aggravate the other person and he may not do it.
- One must be tactful. What you say matters. One must not utter something that would offend the other party.
- Be confident. The person who is persuading must be sure of himself or herself. For example, in case a salesperson is selling a product he or she has to be very familiar with the product.
- One must not over do things. Appearing over-confident can also put off the other person.
- Style of speaking also matters. A person who can play with words and is good at the language being spoken can easily convince the other person.
- A pleasing demeanor helps. One must smile while trying to convince the other person or at least be pleasant. An overbearing attitude may not fetch the required results.
- Public relations techniques work, perhaps taking a person out for a cup of tea or dinner, making his or her presence very valuable.
Being persuasive requires patience and the desire to reach one’s set targets. One has to be confident and be pleasant while trying to convince another person about a particular thing.
