How to Coach Yourself and Others Techniques For Coaching | Page 437
is power in waking suggestion… suggestions made when a person is
awake and alert in order to produce a desired effect.
If human beings were unresponsive to suggestion, parents, peers and
the media would have no effect. People are, however, immensely
responsive to suggestion. Although the tendency varies greatly in
strength from person to person, every one is suggestible to some
extent.
The psychological basis of suggestibility is simply a tendency in human
nature to believe statements repeated a great number of times. This
tendency to believe has nothing to do with the ‘truth’ (or otherwise) of
the statement. Generally, reasons for believing the statement to be true
or false are not taken into account; the statement is believed solely
because it is bold, confident and typically repeated many times.
Everyone is Suggestible.
Advertising is directly tied to the power of suggestion. That is why
businesses spend billions on commercials and advertisements to
promote products. However, today merely suggesting that people
purchase a product or service may not be enough. Given the saturation
of messaging in the marketplace, subtlety is a major factor in how
impactful the suggestion will be. Being hit over the head with a blatant
message is not as effective anymore. It is not just about the power of
suggestion… but about the power of subtle suggestion. Therefore, sales
ads don’t focus on the product, but on how their product allows people
to do what they want to do or get what they want to get.
The Three Keys to Powerful Subtle Suggestions
For suggestions to be most effective, they should be:
simply expressed,
confident in tone, and
repeated often.
A single, halting statement is not very persuasive. A confident
statement, often repeated, is immensely persuasive. Simplicity in
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