Jay Heinrichs on Influence
I'm honored to have a guest post at Sources of Insight from Jay Heinrichs on The 10 Best Ways to Persuade. Jay is the author of best seller Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion. I originally found out about Jay's work through a mentor and it helped me greatly improve my effectiveness in key scenarios, as well as understand why and how influence works.
Here's a summary of the key techniques:
- Switch to the future tense.
- Use “code words.”
- If you can’t think of anything to say, repeat what your opponent said.
- When in doubt, concede.
- Express your opinion reluctantly.
- Image comes first.
- After image, logic.
- Save emotion for last.
- Timing is … well, it’s pretty important.
- The medium can help (or hurt) the message.