How to Coach Yourself and Others How to Influence, Persuade and Motivate | Page 40

challenges when trying to measure the degree to which
influence has occurred.
Another challenge we face is that influence is contextual not
absolute. People who influence others do so primarily in areas
where they have specific expertise or authority. It is common to
be influential in one area but have little or no influence in
others. One of the main issues with current influence tools are
they do a relatively po or job of establishing contextual
relevance.
The distinction between creating influence within a target
audience and who/what has influence over the target has a
tendency to get muddled. To clarify, determining who has the
potential to influence the target audience, (the influencers), is a
targeting question. Have we created influence, (changed
attitudes, opinions, beliefs and/or behavior) is a measurement
question.
Influence is purposeful. In real life or digital life, when we set
out to change the opinion, attitude, beliefs or behavior of
another person or group, we do so with a downstream
motivation – for them to take a specific action. The list of
possible actions is lengthy – buy a product, visit a website, tell a
friend, vote, wave a sign and donate to name a few. Of course,
not all desired actions are equal in terms of amount of influence
required for change. Opinions might be easier to change than an
attitude. An attitude is easier to change than a belief. Behavioral
change can range from relatively easy to nearly impossible
depending on the specific behavior. In marketing, the ultimate
behavior or action we try to influence is purchase behavior. It is
important to think through the specific actions you hope the
target will take as a result of being influenced. This is also the
sweet spot for influence measurement.
While creating an action/behavior change is the ultimate reason
for influencing someone, it is helpful to think of the process of
influence as two stages – opinion, attitude or belief change –
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