emotions Archives » Goldmine Marketing

Tips to Persuade People (who don’t want to listen)

8:34am Wednesday
Saint Paul

Someone asked:

> What are some strategies for persuading someone
> with differing opinions who is not open to listening
> to our perspective?

Before you can persuade someone, which should be to their benefit (otherwise it’s manipulation), he or she must have an open mind. If you can’t get there, nothing will work.

*|FNAME|*, persuading people is not easy. You have to set up a situation where they’re willing to question their own entrenched ideas, which means they may come to the conclusion that they’ve been wrong about this idea for however long.

And—as no one wants to be wrong, possibly shifting their entire world view—they’d rather fight than see the light.

So you can’t persuade them as much as you can give them the opportunity and ideas to persuade themselves.

Now, to open someone’s mind to a new way to see the world, you have a few options…

Different Realities — Which Do You Live In?

11:05 pm

Saint Paul, Minnesota

Years ago, when I first started reading and writing about persuasion, I found myself moving further to the political right. Or, perhaps, further from the current political left.

Learning about the tools and techniques of persuasion, I could see the manipulation of the population and how easily our energy is directed.

Persuasion, at its core, is getting someone to see the benefits of an action or a believe, and to change their behavior ‘for the better’ because of it.

Manipulation, on the other hand, benefits the manipulator but not the manipulated. Rioting, anyone?

When you’re the first to mention an idea, you “win” that mind space. This is the purpose of a Blue Ocean strategy, that you define a new market and you’re the only one serving it.

But when someone already has an idea and you’re hoping to persuade them to see the benefit of its opposite? Much harder.

Denny Hatch’s 7 Emotional Buttons to Get People to Take Action!

Denny Hatch is an “old-school” marketer and copywriter that cut his teeth with direct mail, long before the internet was a thing.

The emotions Hatch identifies in his out-of-print book The Secrets of Emotional, Hot-Button COPYWRITING get people’s juices flowing.

Emotions, it should be said, are the basis for most decisions that people make (but I suspect you already knew that, you wise cookie you… and if you didn’t know it — good on you for wanting to learn!)