How to Coach Yourself and Others How to Influence, Persuade and Motivate | Page 27

10 Ways To Be More Persuasive
by Stephen Mills
Everyone has a
message. Everyone
wants to be more
persuasive. Whether
you are an employee
working for someone
else, an owner of your
own business, a
student, a blogger,
etc. you need to be
heard. In that sense
we are all marketers.
The world is drowning in information and when you speak you
need to make sure your message gets results.
The following are 10 ways to be more persuasive. They are all
proven effective in controlled experiments.

1.

Social Proof – When the course of action is not clear,
people look to others for guidance (even though they will
deny that fact). Put more simply, people tend to do what
other people similar to them do. This behavior is
programmed into our genes and is well established.
Social proof is more influential when we are observing
others we perceive to be similar to us. So if you are
trying to sell someone on something, be it an idea or a
product, a powerful method is to show how others like
them have already bought into it.

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