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The Three Driving
Forces behind Words that Sell
By Ric Moxley
To
communicate persuasively, whether in speaking or in writing, there are
three driving forces of success you must recognize and respond to. If you
bypass any one of these three drivers, you are guaranteed to fail. If you
master these three success-drivers, your message will persuade, leading
to the desired action. Let's take a close look at these three drivers of
persuasive language and why they are critical to your success.
I
start with a question. If you did not know me and I approached you,
asking you to give me $500, would you open your wallet and fork it over?
I will assume you're not a complete fool, so the answer is,
"No."
What’s
the problem here? I want your money, but you won’t give it to me. Why?
Obviously,
there are things missing in this transaction attempt. You don't have
enough information to be agreeable. You have too many questions to
willingly part with your money. "Who are you?" And: "Why
do you want the money?" Perhaps: "What's in it for me? Will I
ever see that money again??" My chances of coaxing you into giving
me $500 dollars are nearly nonexistent, wouldn't you say? At this point,
the three success-drivers of persuasion are missing from this flubbed
transaction.
What
are these success-drivers, and what makes them so powerful — so necessary
— so universally applicable? It's simply this: each one of these three
success-drivers is a key psychological passageway. Each must be addressed
to bring about any significant change: persuasion. They are neural
necessities — the connectors between what you are selling and what they
are willing to buy.
What
are they?
Driver
1: Get In
Driver
2: Get Through
Driver
3: Get Personal
We
will look at these three drivers from the perspective of selling
something — services, products, or a belief system — but these principles
hold true for any other less tangible attempt to persuade as well. The
goal is always the same: to cause change in another person. To change the
way they think. To change what they will do with their money. To change
how they feel about you or your message.
By
definition, any transaction requires at least two people: a seller and a
buyer. Let's assume in the examples below that you are the seller. Allow
me to introduce you then to your prospective buyer in this example, Fred
Clyant. What is your goal with Fred? Let's be honest: if you are in
business for profit, then you want Fred to (happily) remove money from
his wallet and hand it to you. For you to achieve this, Fred’s desires
must change. He must change his desire from keeping his money in his
wallet to giving that cash to you. This means your message must “get in”
— navigate critical neural pathways in Fred’s head — to “get through” —
to spark the thought processes that provide logical agreement with your
message. Then, the message must “get personal” — it must bring about a
desire which causes him to reach in to his wallet and act in your favor. Let’s look more closely.
1: You
Must "Get In"
Where?
You must get into Fred's head. To persuade Fred to change his thinking or
to release money from his wallet, you must first get into Fred's
consciousness, initiating interaction. I call this “get in” stage the cranial
assault. It is the first sensory connection. The beginning of any
interaction with Fred is the action on your part of engaging his sensory
receptors: his sight, touch, sound, smell, and taste. If you want your
words to sell, you must interact with these sensory receptors, which act
as gatekeepers and processors. Think about it for a moment; if all five
of Fred's sensory receptors were disabled, how would you sell to him? You
couldn't. You would have no way of communicating with him at all. The first
challenge then to getting into Fred's head is to make a significant and
positive impact on at least one of his sensory receptors.
Here's
the tricky part: to have a significant impact, you must beat the competition.
I don't necessarily mean your literal competitors, but rather the many
competing interests for Fred's attention. Literally thousands of messages
bombard Fred's senses every waking hour of his day. There must be
something in your message — whether spoken, written, or otherwise — that
stands out enough to capture Fred's attention. Otherwise, Fred Clyant
will never become Fred, the Client.
2. You
Must "Get Through"
Once
you successfully get past Fred's sensory receptors and into Fred's head, you
must then get through to Fred's reasoning. Think of this as the
left-brain assault. Your message must make sense; you must speak Fred's
language. How significant is the reasonableness of your message? That
varies from person-to-person, but this part of any customer’s thinking
must be confronted and
influenced before you can expect a favorable reaction.
3: You
Must "Get Personal"
Now,
we're talking about the right-brain assault: reaching Fred's feelings and
emotions. Yes, you must get personal with Fred. That is, Fred must become
emotionally involved in your attempt to persuade him. The message, the
product, the service: it must mean something to Fred personally, or he
will forever be separated from your attempt to persuade him. Like
the left-brained processes, a favorable reaction is impossible without
the emotional processes engaged. Put another way, if Fred cannot picture
himself personally associating with your product or service, he is
removed from it (as is his wallet).
How These Three Drivers Work Together
To explain how these three tools of persuasion
are connected, let's look at a common, real-world example of persuasive
messaging: the marriage proposal. Tell me: how successful do you think
you would be if you proposed marriage to a total (and mentally intact)
stranger you just met on the street? In the same way that I had no
success in convincing you to give me $500, you will surely also receive a
"no" response. Without doubt, the shocking nature of your
out-of-the-blue proposal will shock the stranger's sensory receptors.
Thus, yes — you “got in” — you got your message heard and recognized by
the stranger. But you did not get the desired response because you
neither "got through" nor "got personal." The
proposal could not get through because it made no sense. The stranger did
not know who you were nor whether you would be a
suitable partner. Your message was therefore not received favorably by
the stranger's left-brain thinking. Likewise, you had no relationship
with the stranger: no emotional attachment at
all. With no positive feelings connecting your desires with those of the
stranger, your would-be partner lacked the desire to commit.
Let's look at a more successful marriage
proposal now. It starts with baby steps of commitment. A friendly
introduction and pleasant conversation. Perhaps a request for a phone
number or to meet again. Then a period of courtship — still with little
commitment, other than to meet again. Over time, you "get
through" to each other, finding enough mutual interest to support a
continuing relationship. Your left-brain reasoning is now engaged. At the
same time, you "get personal," finding deepening attraction for
each other, linking emotionally. You and your friend now have added
right-brain activities — feelings and emotions — into the exchange. Pop
that big question now, and your odds of success
have increased significantly.
But . . . What about in a Sales
Transaction?
No
difference! Let's see how the three transactional drivers work together
in two different business transaction examples. First, imagine you're a
bottled-water salesperson. You are walking through Fred Clyant's upper
middle-class neighborhood. You are wearing Bermuda shorts, a wrinkled
sweatshirt, and sandals. Fred and his family are getting into their car
as you approach. You are carrying a clipboard and a pen. You ask Fred if
he would be interested in buying a bottled
water.
Fred: "What kind is it? How much does
it cost?"
You: "It's a new brand called Wahzoo Water. It's 15 dollars."
Fred: "No, thank you." He closes
the car door and leaves.
Let's
look at what went wrong. First, why didn't you "get through" to
his reasoning on the value of your product? Enter his left-brain world
for a moment:
§
He doesn't
know you. Based on your attire, Fred suspects that you are not a
professional.
§
He doesn't
know the brand you're selling. He wonders if your water is any better
than that which comes out of his tap for free.
§
And what
about that price? Fred considers it to be a bad value. He may even be on
the way to the nearest supermarket where he knows he can get his favorite
bottle of water for less than a dollar.
§
Is your
water bottle just six ounces? Or is it five gallons? Without sufficient
information, Fred cannot judge the relative
value of your product.
§
Without any
physical evidence — say, a free sample — Fred has no idea if your water
tastes good either.
Now,
enter Fred's right-brain world and see what's going on:
§
Your timing
is inconvenient to him; he's obviously busy, spending personal time with his
family. This could produce emotions, but only negative ones.
§
You, a
stranger, have invaded his personal space without his permission.
§
Fred
already has a favorite brand of water, one which he and his family enjoy.
There's already a commitment to that other brand.
§
He is
well-stocked with water, thus has no desire for any more water of any brand.
§
You came
with nothing more than your clipboard and a pen. Fred — a highly visual
person — has no idea what your product looks like.
§
Without a
sample bottle of your product, Fred's wife, May B. Clyant, is a highly
kinetic person; she can't get a strong sense of what it would be like to
have your product. You get no support from her.
Now,
let's look at a different example of doing business with Fred. Once
again, you approach Fred with the same bottled water product at the same
price. This time, however, you are meeting Fred on a lonely road in Death Valley. The temperature is 110 degrees Fahrenheit.
Fred has been wandering for over eight hours, completely lost, and searching
for signs of civilization. He is carrying no water and has neither seen
nor tasted any water on his hapless journey. Desperately thirsty, Fred
suddenly sees you coming. You ask if he would like to buy the water at
$15. He hands you a $100 bill and says, “Keep the change,” eagerly
snatching the water from you. Why?
§
Your timing
is right for "getting in" to Fred's consciousness. His
dehydrated state makes him a logical, ready customer.
§
The
competition is slim. There are no other water supply messages to compete
with. Further, any emotional attachment he may have to his favorite brand
is currently irrelevant.
§
Fred
understands that your product may help him survive. The best of his
reasoning supports a buy decision, wouldn't you say?
§
Fred
desires to live through his ordeal, and your product has thus become most
desirable. That's a strong emotional attachment.
In
this example, you have successfully navigated all three psychological
drivers required for a successful transaction. The sale is yours. This is
obviously an extreme example for the sake of explaining the driving
forces of selling. In upcoming issues of the Words that Sell column, we will look at some practicable
examples of how this works.
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WriteWorks Can Help You Use the Three
Driving Forces of Persuasion
Are you
confident, ready to adjust your writing style to take advantage of these
three motivating drivers? If not, remember that WriteWorks Agency works
only with experienced writers and editors: those we are confident can
imbue your mission-critical documents and marketing materials with
persuasive powers. Our writers insure that your words get in, get
through, and get personal, making those critical connections between your
product or service and your customers’ desires for buying those products
or services. Contact us for help in endowing your writing and speaking with
persuasive powers.
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