Week# 6 - Persuasive Messages

Week
#6
Feb 21, 2021
Persuasive Business and
Sales Messages
Persuasion Is More Complex and Impersonal
When you want your ideas to prevail, start thinking about how to present them.
Listeners and readers will be more inclined to accept what you are offering if you
focus on important strategies.
Persuasion is the attempt to change someone’s attitudes, beliefs, or actions.
Having a great idea or a great product is not enough; you need to be able to convince others
of its merits.
Clarifying your purpose is an essential step with persuasive messages; make sure you really
know how you would like your audience to respond.
The most effective persuasive messages are closely connected to the things that are important to your
audience
Demographics include characteristics such as age, gender, occupation, income,
and education.
Psychographics include characteristics such as personality, attitudes, and lifestyle.
Choose your medium carefully to maximize the chance of getting through to your
audience.
Effective persuasive messages always emphasize the recipient’s needs over the
sender’s.
Crafting an Effective Persuasive Message
Convincing someone to change a belief or to perform an action when that person is reluctant
requires planning and skill—and sometimes a little luck.
A written request may require more preparation than a face-to-face request, but it can be more
effective.
Take care not to:
• Inadvertently insult your readers by implying that they’ve made poor choices in the past and that you’re
here to save them from their misguided ways.
• Coerce people into taking decision that go against their own interest
• Pack too many ideas in your message
• Lose focus on audience benefit

A persuasive request from Danuta Hajek.
Her research firm seeks to persuade other companies to complete a questionnaire revealing salary data.
In most organizations, salary information is strictly confidential.
“Research has shown that persuasive people are characterized by three specific
traits, something that I call the ‘triple threat’ of persuasiveness. . . .
[T]he triple threat of persuasiveness consists of expertise (or perceived authority),
honesty, and likeability.
When we are faced with someone who has any one of these characteristics, we’re
more disposed to agree to that person’s request; but if they have all three, our
willingness to yield and concede goes up exponentially.”
Merge Gupta-Sunderji,
leadership expert
Persuading Employees: Messages Flowing Downward
Instructions or directives moving downward from superiors to subordinates usually required little
persuasion.
However, employees are sometimes asked to volunteer for projects. For example, some organizations
encourage employees to join programs to stop smoking, lose weight, or start exercising. Organizations may
ask employees to participate in capacities outside their work roles—such as spending their free time
volunteering for charity projects.
Persuading the Boss: Messages Flowing Upward
Persuasive messages traveling upward require a special sensitivity to tone. When asking supervisors to
change views or take action, use words such as we suggest and we recommend rather than you must or
we should. Avoid sounding pushy or argumentative.
Strive for a conversational, yet professional, tone that conveys warmth, competence, and confidence.
A successful persuasive message typically takes more space than a direct message because proving a
case requires evidence.
Creating Effective Sales Messages in Print and Online
Neuroscience-based studies show that tangible mail appears to have a greater emotional
impact than digital mail. MRI scans, eye tracking, and other indicators of emotional
engagement suggest that physical materials “have a deeper and longer-lasting effect than
digital ads on instilling desire for products and services.”
Other openings calculated to
capture attention include a
solution to a problem, an
anecdote, a personalized
statement using the receiver's
name, or a relevant current
event.
Adapt your approach for social media:
Facilitate community building; bring current and potential customers together for
●●
mutual benefit.
●● Listen at least as much as you talk.
●● Initiate and respond to conversations within the community.
●● Provide information people want.
●● Identify and support your champions.
●● Be open, honest, and conversational.
●● Integrate conventional marketing and sales strategies at the right time and in the
right places.
Critique the Professionals
Visit the Facebook page of any company for which you are a current or potential customer. Read at least a
dozen posts (from the company itself, not from anyone else posting on the company’s
timeline). How would you describe the company’s approach to using Facebook as a promotional channel?
As a current or potential customer, does the company’s Facebook presence make you more or less inclined
to buy its products or services? Are you interested in reading more posts from this company? Why or
why not?
Summarize your reactions in a brief email message.

Your Task. For each of the following situations, check the appropriate writing strategy.
Direct Strategy
Indirect Strategy
16. A request from a sales representative to confirm an appointment for a product presentation
17. An announcement urging employees to participate in an optional program to feed homeless people at a nearby shelter over
Thanksgiving
18. An e-mail message to employees telling them that the company parking lot will be closed for one week while it is being resurfaced
19. A letter to a cleaning service demanding a refund for sealing a dirty tiled floor and damaging a fresh coat of paint
20.A request for information about new features of a cloud-based backup system for office files
21. A letter to a drugstore requesting permission to display posters advertising a college fund-raising car wash
22. A request for a refund by a buyer who purchased the wrong software but failed to uninstall it within the mandatory two-week return
period.
23. A message to your accountant asking her to reconsider her fee, which you think is exorbitant, considering that it was a bad year for
your business
24. A letter from a property owner to a nearby business asking it to prohibit mobile catering service trucks from gathering outside the
business at lunchtime
25. A memo to employees announcing a new procedure for submitting travel expenses.

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Psychographics include characteristics such as personality, attitudes, and lifestyle.

• Pack too many ideas in your message

• Lose focus on audience benefit

Summarize your reactions in a brief email message.

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