Encourage a positive response to persuasive messages by

• Using positive and polite language.
• Understanding and respecting cultural differences.
• Being sensitive to organisational cultures.
• Take steps to establish your credibility.

Be sure to understand cultural expectations.

Just as social culture affects the success of a persuasive message, so too does the culture within various organisations.

Some organisations handle disagreement and conflict in an indirect, behind-the-scenes way, whereas others accept and even encourage open discussion and sharing of differing viewpoints.

Persuasive messages are often unexpected or even unwelcome, so the “you” attitude is crucial. If the audience is sceptical or hostile, credibility is essential.

Use these techniques to boost your credibility:

• Use simple can clear language to minimise sceptical responses.
• Provide objective evidence for claims and promises.
• Identify sources, especially if your audience already respects those sources.
• Establish common ground with the audience by emphasising beliefs, attitudes, and background experiences.
• Be objective and present fair and logical arguments.
• Display a willingness to keep the audience’s best interests at heart. Persuade with logic, not high-pressure tactics.
• Try to build your credibility before presenting a major proposal or asking for a major decision so don’t have to evaluate both yourself and your message at the same time.

Completing Persuasive Messages

Details can make or break a persuasive message, so don’t skimp on this part of the writing process.

Judge your argument objectively and try not to overestimate your credibility.

If possible, ask an experienced colleague who knows the audience well to review your draft.

Make sure your design elements complement, rather than detract from, your persuasive argument.

Make sure distribution methods fit the audience’s expectations and preferences.

Developing Persuasive Business Messages

Persuasive business messages comprise a broad and diverse category, with audiences that range from a single person in your department to large external groups. Success as a businessperson is closely tied to the ability to convince others to accept new ideas or act on your recommendations.

Strategies for Persuasive Business Messages

Within the context of the three-step process, effective persuasion involves four essential strategies:

• Framing your arguments
• Balancing emotional and logical appeals
• Reinforcing your position
• Anticipating objections

Framing Your Arguments

Most persuasive messages use the indirect approach. One of the best-known models for indirect messages is the AIDA model, which organizes messages into four phases:

• Attention. The first objective is to engage readers or listeners in a way that encourages them to want to hear the main idea.
• Interest. Emphasize the relevance of the message to the audience. Paint a more detailed picture of the starting theme.
• Desire. Help audience members embrace your idea by explaining how the change will benefit them, either personally or professionally.
• Action. Suggest the action you want readers to take and phrase it in a way that emphasizes the benefits to them or to the organization they represent.

The AIDA model is tailor-made for using the indirect approach, allowing you to save your main idea for the action phase.

AIDA can also be used for the direct approach, in which case you use your main idea as an attention-getter, build interest with your argument, create desire with your evidence, and re-emphasize your main idea in the action phase with the specific action you want your audience to take.

With either the direct or indirect approach, AIDA and similar models do have limitations.

• It is a unidirectional method that essentially talks at audiences, not with them.
• It is built around a single event, such as asking an audience for a decision, rather than building a mutually beneficial, long-term relationship.

Balancing Emotional and Logical Appeals

Generally speaking, persuasive business messages rely more heavily on logical appeals than on emotional appeals because the main idea is usually regarding some practical, measurable aspect of the business. To find the optimum balance, consider four factors:

• The actions you hope to motivate
• The readers’ expectations
• The degree of resistance you need to overcome
• How far do you feel empowered to go to sell your point of view

As its name implies, an emotional appeal calls on audience’s feelings and sympathies rather than facts.

However, emotional appeals in business messages usually aren’t effective by themselves because the audience wants proof that you can solve a business problem.

A logical appeal calls on reasoning and evidence. A logical appeal makes a claim based on a rational argument, supported by solid evidence.

When appealing to the audience’s logic, you can use three types of reasoning:

• Analogy. With analogy, you reason from specific evidence to specific evidence.
• Induction. With inductive reasoning, you work from specific evidence to a general conclusion.
• Deduction. With deductive reasoning, you work from a generalization to a specific conclusion.

To guard against faulty logic, follow these guidelines:

• Avoid hasty generalizations.
• Avoid circular reasoning. Circular reasoning is trying to support your claim by restating it in different words.
• Avoid attacking an opponent. Show the weaknesses in the opponent’s argument instead.
• Avoid oversimplifying a complex issue.
• Avoid mistaken assumptions of cause and effect.
• Avoid faulty analogies. Be sure that the two situations being compared are similar enough for the analogy to hold.
• Avoid illogical support. Make sure the connection between your claim and your support is truly logical and not based on a leap of faith.

Reinforcing Your Position

Once the basic elements of your argument are established, step back and look for ways to bolster the strength of your position.

Next, examine your language.

• Use vivid language and abstractions carefully and honestly.
• In addition to examining individual word choices, consider using metaphors and other figures of speech.

When asking for something, audience members will find it easier to grant a request if they stand to benefit from it.

Anticipating Objections

Even the most compelling ideas and proposals can be expected to encounter some initial resistance.

The best way to deal with audience resistance is to anticipate as many objections as possible in advance.

By bringing up potential problems right away, you demonstrate a broad appreciation of the issue and imply confidence in your message.

Anticipating objections is particularly important in written messages when you don’t have the opportunity to detect and respond to objections on the spot. Find the holes before the audience does. Then find solutions to the problems you’ve uncovered.

When anticipating objections, keep these three strategies in mind:

• You don’t have to explicitly discuss a potential objection.
• Present all sides to the situation, explaining the pros and cons.
• Be open to compromise.

Avoiding Common Mistakes in Persuasive Communication

Take care to avoid these common mistakes:

• Using a hard sell
• Resisting compromise
• Relying solely on great arguments
• Assuming that persuasion is a one-shot effort

Common Examples of Persuasive Business Messages

Most of these messages can be divided into persuasive requests for action, persuasive presentations of ideas, and persuasive claims and requests for adjustment

Persuasive Requests for Action

The majority of persuasive business messages involve requests for action.

• In some cases, those requests are anticipated or will require minimal effort on the recipient’s part, so the direct approach is fine.
• In others, you’ll need to introduce your intention indirectly.

Your goals in a persuasive request for action are:

• To gain credibility
• To make readers believe that helping you will indeed help solve a significant problem
• To close with a request for a specific action or decision