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The
Law of Involvement suggests that the more you engage
someone’s five senses–involve them mentally and physically,
and create the right atmosphere for persuasion–the more
effective and persuasive you’ll be. Listening can be
a very passive act; you can listen to an entire speech
and not feel or do a thing. As a persuader, you need
to help your audience be one step closer to taking action.
As a master persuader, your goal is to decrease the distance
someone has to go to reach your objective.
When you get a prospect to start something, it is most
likely they will follow through and complete your desired
outcome. The more involved they become, the less psychological
distance between the start and the finish. The desired
outcome becomes more and more realistic instead of just
an idea you are proposing. If you put on your shoes to
go to the store, you are more likely to continue in that
direction. If you sit down and turn on the TV, your goal
of going to the store is more unlikely.
There are many ways to use involvement. We are going to focus
on the following:
1. Increase Participation
2. Maintain Attention and Create Atmosphere
3. The Art of Questioning
4. Tell Mesmerizing Stories
5. Repeat and Repackage
6. Build Suspense and Distraction
7. Generate Competition
8. Master the Five Senses
Participation: Power of Mental Engagement
You can create involvement through increased participation. The
more we take an active role and get involved, the more open to
persuasion we become. When we take an active part in something,
we feel more connected to and have stronger feelings for the
issue at hand. We have a personal stake in what we are doing.
One of the keys to successful participation is making your problem
their problem. This technique creates ownership and a willingness
to help on the part of your prospects. Obviously, asking for
help is much milder than telling someone what to do or think.
You will have more success involving your prospects in the solution
if you give them the option of participating rather as opposed
to just giving them the solution. Feeling that it was their choice
and their solution, your prospects will take ownership – they
have persuaded themselves. It becomes their own problem and their
own solution. By nature, people will support what they help create. Role-Playing
One tactic to get your audience more involved is to use role-playing.
This technique has proven to be effective in getting people to
actually convince themselves of something. Role-playing is the
single most powerful way to induce attitude change through vicarious
experience. In essence, you are getting people to make up arguments
against their own beliefs. Do you want to know just how powerful
role-playing is? One experiment used role-playing to convince
people to stop smoking. The subjects role-played cigarette smokers
having x-rays, receiving news of lung cancer, and coughing with
emphysema. When compared with a control group of smokers, those
who role-played this situation were more likely to have quit
than those who passively learned about lung cancer.
In another study, students were tested to see what types of persuasion
techniques were most effective in delivering an anti-smoking message.
One group was assigned to write, stage, and put on the presentation,
while the other group was simply required to watch the presentation.
As you might imagine, the group that was more involved in the presentation
held more negative feelings about smoking than did the group who
had just passively listened.
During
World War II, the United States government had to ration traditional
meats
such as beef, chicken, and pork. However, Americans
tend to be very picky about the meats they eat and often do not
accept meat substitutes. The Committee on Food Habits was charged
with overcoming the shortages of popular foods. How could they
override the aversion to eating other meats? Psychologist Kurt
Lewin devised a program to persuade Americans to eat intestinal
meats. Yes, your favorite – intestinal meats. He set up an experiment
with two groups of housewives. In one group, the housewives were
lectured on the benefits of eating intestinal meats. Members of
the committee emphasized to them how making the switch would help
the war effort. The housewives also heard fervent testimonials
and received recipes. The second group of housewives was led in
a group discussion about how they could persuade other housewives
to eat intestinal meat. This group covered the same main topics
as the other group. Of the group that was more involved in "role-playing" and
discussing the question of "how they would persuade and convince
others to eat intestinal meats" 32% of the housewives went
on to serve their families intestinal meats. This was compared
to 3% of the first group.
Participation
Another way to get people to participate with you is to ask their
opinions or advice. Simple phrases such as, "I need your
help." "What is your opinion?" "What do you
think about…?" "How could I do this?" "How
would you do this?" "Do you think I am doing it right?" and "Do
you have any ideas?" can immediately spark the interest
of your listener. Watch how another person brightens up when
you ask for his or her advice. For example, if you ask your neighbor, "Frank,
how about helping me fix my fence?" he will probably tell
you he is busy and has plans for the next twelve weekends. But
if you say, "Frank, I have a challenge with this fence that
I can’t solve. I don’t know what I am doing wrong and can’t seem
to get anywhere. I am not sure if I am doing it right or what
to do next. Do you have ideas about how I could mend this fence?
Could you come take a look?" You will see a marked difference
in response between the first request and the second. People
have an innate desire to feel wanted and needed. When you fulfill
this need, you open the door to persuasion and action, a fact
which has been proved beyond a doubt by records kept on industrial
workers. Workers who have no voice whatsoever in management,
who cannot make suggestions, or who are not allowed to express
their ideas simply do not do as much work as workers who are
encouraged to contribute. The same is true in families. Dr. Ruth
Barbee said, "It is surprising how willingly a child will
accept the final authority of the father, even if the decision
goes against him, provided he has had a chance to voice his opinions,
and make his suggestions, before the final decision is reached."
Our
opinions play an enormous role in changing our minds about
issues. For
action
to occur, the change must be internalized. Consider
this example: Suppose you surveyed people’s opinions on some topic,
let’s say capital punishment, then divided them into two groups.
Both groups are to write an essay on capital punishment that is
against their true views. One group is "required" to
write the essay, while the other group is asked to "volunteer" to
write the essay. Both groups are then surveyed again for their
opinions on capital punishment. What do you think the results would
be? When this experiment was actually tried, the individuals required
to write the essay showed almost no change at all in their opinions.
Those volunteering to do so showed changes in opinion when tested
later, even though their essays were written from a standpoint
in conflict with their true views. From this, we learn two things:
First, there was greater compliance from those who were given the
choice and not forced to participate; and, second, as discussed
in an earlier chapter, when people feel conflict or dissonance
internally, they will often adapt or even change their position.
In
the next Millionaire Diamond Mine, I will introduce
you to the Law of Involvment.
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Excerpts
taken from Magnetic Persuasion by Kurt Mortensen
www.magneticpersuasion.com Kurt
Mortensen, author of Exponential Success Skills and Weapons
of Influence, is one of American’s leading authorities
on Persuasion, Motivation and Influence. After receiving a
Masters of Business Administration and a Bachelors of Arts,
he began many successful entrepreneurial ventures, through
which he has acquired many years of both experience and success.
In addition to his extensive entrepreneurial and sales experiences,
Kurt is a sales and persuasion coach helping thousands of people
reach higher levels of success, income and persuasion mastery.
Currently, he is a speaker, consultant, and a Trainer for Mark
Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen Protégés.
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