How to Coach Yourself and Others How to Influence, Persuade and Motivate | Page 375

Chapter 14
The Rule of Balance
Logical Mind vs. Emotional Heart
Overview
When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creaturesof
logic, but with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudiceand
motivated by pride and vanity.
—DALE CARNEGIE
In persuasion, your message has to focus on emotions, all the while
maintaining a balance between logic and feelings. Logic and emotion are
the two elements that make for perfect persuasion. We can be persuasive
using only logic or only emotion, but the effect will be short-term and
unbalanced.
Emotions create movement and action. They generate energy during the
presentation and get prospects to act on the proposal being presented. The
challenge with relying exclusively on emotion to persuade your prospect
is that after she has left the persuasive situation, her emotions fade,
leaving her with nothing concrete to fall back on. Logic plays the role of
creating a foundation for emotion. This balance between logic and
emotion could be called the twin engines of persuasion and influence.
Persuaders know that each audience and individual has a different balance
between logic and emotion. Your analytical type personalities need more
logic than emotion. Your amiable personalities require more emotion and
less logic. Always remember, you have to have both elements present in
your message, regardless of the personality types listening.
In most persuasive situations, people react based on emotions, then justify
their actions with logic and fact. A message that is completely based on
emotion will often set off alarm bells on the logical side. On the other
hand, a logical message with no appeal to emotion doesn't create a strong
enough response in the audience. An effective persuader will create a
proper balance between logic and emotion in order to create the perfect
persuasive message.
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