How to Coach Yourself and Others How to Influence, Persuade and Motivate | Page 269

Positive Word Choice
You can use positive words to help prospects feel more confident, safe, or
happy. You can also use negative words to trigger depression, anxiety, or
sadness. When you use positive words, you capture and keep the attention
of your listeners on the points you want them to concentrate on. The
words you choose to use can mentally keep them on track. For instance, if
you want to plant seeds of doubt, you would use negative forms of
speech. When we are in a positive mindset, we don't ask as many
questions. Positivity puts our mind in a comfortable, more persuadable
area. When the negative is triggered, it requires more mental effort and
our mind begins to search for incongruities or weaknesses in the
argument.
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich published a guidebook
called Language: A Key Mechanism of Control.[3] In it, he advised
Republicans to use positive governing words for themselves and negative
words for their opponents. This pamphlet encouraged them to use the
words "common sense, courage, dream, duty, empowerment, fair, family,
and freedom" when talking about Republican ideals. He then advised
them to use the following words to talk about their Democratic opponents
and their position: "betray, bizarre, cheat, collapse, corruption, crisis,
destroy, devour, and disgrace."
Remember how in 1980 Chrysler almost closed its doors and declared
bankruptcy? Their only hope was $2.7 billion in loan guarantees from the
federal government. This seemed hardly possible. Why would Congress
approve such a sum for a private corporation? Chrysler and its lobbyists
knew the right language would tip the balance. They positioned their
argument so it was about the government providing a "safety net" for its
companies, the same way it does for individuals. They further argued that
this was an "American problem" belonging to everybody and not a unique
situation only to themselves. Their strategy worked! The argument won
Congress over, and Chrysler got the financial guarantees it needed.
Persuaders use very assumptive and assertive language. For example,
instead of saying, "If you get the report done by Friday, we'll leave early
and go out to dinner," they would say, "When you get the report done by
Friday, we'll leave early and go out to dinner." Effective persuaders also
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