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An idea
is just the first step. Your idea’s value is determined
by your ability to get others to buy into it and execute
it. The biggest obstacle to persuasion? Focusing too
much on what you see as the idea’s value, says Mario
Moussa, codirector of the Wharton School’s Strategic
Persuasion Workshop and coauthor, with G. Richard Shell,
of The Art of Woo: Using Strategic Persuasion to Sell
Your Ideas (Portfolio, 2007). “What’s convincing to
you is not necessarily convincing to others,” he says.
Moussa
and Shell have developed a strategic approach to
persuasion:
1.
Targeting the right person.
2.
Removing the barriers to being heard.
3.
Making your pitch.
4.
Securing commitments.
Let’s
look at steps 2 and 3.
TURN
POTENTIAL BARRIERS INTO BRIDGES
Think of
persuasion as making it easy and obvious for the other
person to agree with you. There are five barriers that
can come between you—but each barrier can also serve as
a bridge, helping you connect with the other person and
move him to your side:
Credibility.
Credibility isn’t about you and your credentials; it’s
about how other people think about you and your
credentials. Establishing credibility means
demonstrating that you possess competence and expertise,
and that you’re trustworthy.
Relationships.
When people know you, like you and trust that you’ll
reciprocate favors, they are much more likely to listen
to your ideas and to go along with them.
So when
someone’s support matters, work to establish rapport
with her before pitching your idea. Face-to-face
meetings work best, but a carefully composed,
personalized e-mail can also be effective. The more
relationships you cultivate and nurture, the better
positioned you’ll be.
Beliefs
and values.
Position
your idea as supporting or furthering a core belief or
value held by your audience.
Shell
and Moussa tell the story of how Bono, the Irish rock
superstar and left-wing activist, was able to persuade
Jesse Helms, the arch-conservative US senator, to
support forgiving African debt so that local funds could
be devoted to treating AIDS in Africa. Their different
belief systems initially stood between them, but Bono
got Helms on his side by appealing to a deeper value
they shared: their commitment, as born-again Christians,
to helping the poor and the sick.
You’re
not going to change someone’s mind about a deeply held
belief. But you can “reposition your idea so people see
it as consistent with an underlying value that runs
deeper than the belief,” write Shell and Moussa.
Interests.
Frame your idea in terms of how it will meet the other
party’s interests and needs.
Shell
and Moussa cite how Steve Jobs persuaded Steve Wozniak
to invest $1,000 so that they could build 100 printed
circuit boards to sell to computer hobbyists. Jobs
argued that they could double their money. But Wozniak
didn’t believe the boards would sell and refused—his
interest was not to lose money. So Jobs appealed to
another of Wozniak’s interests: to form a company.
Wozniak bit, and Apple was formed.
Communication.
When you’re trying to persuade someone, it’s important
to tune in to that person’s preferred communication
channel: visionary, rational or relational.
When
Joanne Bradford was hired as head of online advertising
for Microsoft’s online network, MSN, she tried to
convince CEO Steve Ballmer and her boss to double her
sales team so that MSN could punch up ad sales volumes.
But the more she pressed her case, the more resistance
she encountered.
She
realized that at Microsoft, the preferred communication
channel was numbers-driven and rational; she’d been
communicating in a visionary channel. Once she started
using lots of data—for instance, charts showing how more
salespeople would translate to more revenue—her
effectiveness as a persuader took off. She was able to
build on small wins to catch the big prize: Ballmer’s OK
to hire 150 additional salespeople.
MAKE THE
PITCH SIMPLE AND MEMORABLE
Shell
and Moussa cite studies that show approximately 30
million PowerPoint presentations are made around the
world every day, and 78 percent of surveyed executives
said they had slept through a presentation in the last
month.
To keep
your audience engaged, start off with the “PCAN” pitch:
§
Problem:
Concisely define the problem—from your audience’s
perspective.
§
Cause:
Identify the cause of this problem.
§
Answer:
Explain how your idea provides an answer to this
problem.
§
Net
benefits:
Detail why your idea will yield the most net benefits.
CLOSE
THE SALE
“You
really have two audiences,” the authors write, “your
audience’s rational calculator and its intuitive
decision maker.” Brainstorm ways to make your pitch
vivid, memorable and emotionally appealing. Can you
personalize it? Can you make it more tangible with
illustrations or analogies? And don’t forget the power
of stories to make your idea come alive.
*****
SELLING
YOUR IDEA: A CHECKLIST
DEFINE
YOUR IDEA AND IDENTIFY DECISION MAKERS
§
What
problem does my idea solve?
§
Whose
input or support do I need?
§
What do
I need from key people?
§
Feedback
§
Access
to others
§
Authorization
§
Endorsement
§
Resources
§
Implementation
REMOVE
THE BARRIERS TO YES
§
What is
the basis for my credibility with this person? Can I
emphasize this?
§
What
characterizes my relationship to the person I’m trying
to influence? Can I improve that relationship?
§
What
beliefs or values does this person hold that could block
or support my case?
§
How can
I address the person’s interests?
§
What
communication channels should I use?
1.
Visionary
2.
Rational
3.
Relational
MAKE THE
PITCH
§
Is my
PCAN pitch built on how my audience sees the problem?
§
What
evidence will best resonate with the other person?
§
How can
I personalize the pitch and make it memorable?
§
How can
I connect my pitch to organizational goals and values?
SECURE
COMMITMENT
§
What
issues related to turf, resources, credit or careers
might prevent others from committing to my idea?
§
How can
I create momentum to generate a snowball effect?
§
What
alliances or coalitions should I develop to secure
implementation? |
