Regardless of whether it is an important business pitch, a light hearted argument with friends, or a favor that you are asking of somebody, persuasion is one of the most important elements of interaction. If used properly and effectively, elements of persuasion can be extremely powerful in the manipulation of other people in a social or professional situation. It is a common belief that one needs to appear powerful among many other things to truly be persuasive. Taking these prior statements into account, many individuals in this day and age still have trouble convincing people or persuading others. For those who lack social skills and specifically the knowledge to effectively persuade, the internet has become a helpful tool in teaching them how to tackle their predicament. However one of the faults in our universal and extensive database is that not all information is credible. I have picked a self help guide from the Forbes website, arguably one of the most well known business magazines in the world, on how to effectively persuade. Although one would think that such a commonly used business website would be credible in an aspect that is so crucial in the business world, my extensive research has shown flaws in the short list of self help tools given. The list is not completely out of the ball park which is somewhat assuring but their are definitely some key aspects of persuasion that the author, Kevin Kruse, has failed to mention or contradicts. Through this essay I plan on breaking down each component that Kruse has mentioned and comparing it to other scientific research and lists I have read about that either back up his work or contradict it. Also in this effort I plan to dispel or correct rather the commonly accepted belief that power is a necessity for the effective persuasion of others.

Kruse calls his first point of persuasion, “Give a Shortcut by Alluding to Others”. He writes,“It’s as easy as talking about how other people made the same decision when they were in the other person’s shoes. If you don’t have someone specific, you can feel free to use loose terms such as “many people,” or even make an assumptive statement such as “I’m sure they would…”” (Kruse) This element is actually scientifically proven to help persuade but is only a specific component of a larger step called Consensus. The basis of consensus is that when the audience see that a large group of other people are taking a certain action in the face of the same decision that they are working through currently, more often than not the persuaded will choose to also perform that action. In shortened terms, “People will look to the actions of others to determine their own.” (Cialdini) An example of this is given in a video on persuasion by Dr. Robert Cialdini, he sites how a hotel might put a sign in your bathroom urging you to reuse your towels. Common reasoning given on one of these signs is that it’s better for the environment to reuse your towels, which statistically has about a 35% rate of compliance. It’s a fact that about 75% of people staying overnight at a hotel reuse their towels. Statistics from a hotel that put “75% of our guests reuse their towels, please do as well.” on their signs in the bathroom, had 26% increase of towel reuse in their hotels. The concept is fairly straightforward and speaks to our inherent human urge to follow trends. Kruse writes that we suffer from “decision fatigue”, which helps us gravitate to a shortcut in making a tough decision. He is correct in citing this as an important component of persuasion.

Kruse also says that one of the key components of persuasion is to “Keep it Simple”. He explains this point by saying, “Whatever you want to persuade people to do, make sure it’s easy to digest, understand, and is as simple as possible. The reason? We’re lazy and confuse easily.” This is a valid point. Although I haven’t seen this as being a huge aspect of persuasion, it has been mentioned and speaks for itself in some ways. Research shows that “Simplicity provides meaning to your audience.”(Shah) If a person being convinced doesn’t understand what is being presented to them then they are more likely to disagree. This is because the unknown causes people to reject ideas completely for fear of being left in the dark. Especially in a business situation where the audience may be investing money, there is no way they will invest without complete understanding of where their money is going. Being clear in your desired outcome can help in moving along to the argumentative portion of persuasion but can also sometimes do the opposite. Some research says to keep your true desired outcome a secret. Articles say to keep a good balance between both sides but to usually stay away from presenting your true intention because then all reasoning presented is judged by the outcome. (Shah) Although sometimes applicable, to always apply this step to the real world is at times just not possible. Conversations and causes that people persuade for are often very complicated especially when talking about something such as politics where there are so many different components to look at when presenting a solution for an issue. I would say that simplicity is key where applicable but not as important as some other components of persuasion. In the end Kruse is not wrong in presenting this as an element of persuasion in general but looking at how specific and concise his list is, I don’t think simplicity is as important as some other aspects.

“Control the Frame” is the next main point Kruse emphasizes. “We need to come from a place of expertise and when our idea or position is challenged, we should act with disbelief and shock that the other side isn’t accepting our position at face value. This display of massive confidence can lead others to think, “Wow, he’s really sure about that. Wait… Am I wrong?”” (Kruse) Yes, confidence is key to any social interaction going smoothly especially if it is having to do with how much you believe in a product you are selling but research highlights authority over Confidence and I think this is an important difference that Kurse isn’t focusing on. Confidence is a simple concept and has more to do with interaction then persuasion. Rather than Confidence the presenter should show Authority or credibility in his or her field. This is something that shows the reliability of the presenter on his or her subject. Professionals, for instance, often use diplomas to show authority by putting them on the walls of their offices. The key to authority is to show it almost as if by accident instead of saying it. Somebody else talking you up works just as well if not better. (Cialdini) This is where the misconception about power comes in. Many people think that you must be in a position of power over the audience to effectively persuade but this is wrong. Authority and power are not the same thing at all even if they can send a similar message. Authority shows how good someone is at their job, while power is more of a flaunt then an actual tangible thing. Studies actually show that an audience listens better to someone who is at the same social or professional level that they are. In an experiment, scientists observed the audience and communicator relationship between both high power and low power roles on both ends and the results showed that high power communicators were most effective on high power audiences and low power communicators were most effective on low power audiences. (Dubois, Rucker, Galinski) This shows that instead of power, credibility along with being personable rule in the art of persuasion. Kruse didn’t quite hit the nail on the head with this one but he was still in the ballpark.

As the list goes on, the guidelines seem to be less and less accurate. Kruse’s next rule of thumb is something called “Praeteritio”. He writes that Praeteritio sounds like, ““I’m not going to do you the indignity of bringing up when you were arrested. You’ve suffered enough from that.” By virtue of saying that you won’t bring something up, you’ve brought it up. It’s a little sneaky and underhanded, but it also gives you plausible deniability, which means that people won’t be able to call out exactly what you’re doing because you’re phrasing it in a “high road” manner.” I don’t see in any way how this should be considered a basic component of persuasion. From the research I have done I haven’t come across this as a basic component. I would deem Praeteritio unimportant in a top 5 list on persuasion and instead focus on scarcity. 

Scarcity is the concept that when something seems less accessible or more exclusive it also becomes more desirable. This is a well known principle in economics that when a products supply goes down the demand for it goes up. The rarity of a product or an idea makes it more valuable and in persuasion this is key in getting the audience interested in what you’re saying. United Airways provided a real life example of scarcity when they announced in 2003 that they would no longer be operating the twice daily London New York Concorde flight because it was uneconomical. They changed it to one flight a day, and the following day after the announcement sales went through the roof. Nothing changed about the flight itself but because there were less opportunities to take the trip, more people bought the ticket. (Cialdini) In a business pitch an example of scarcity would be prefacing your presentation with “not many people know about this” or “this is a secret in the business world”. Sentences like these interest the audience and have them alert to get filled in. I think scarcity should without a doubt be included in a top 5 list of important aspects of persuasion as opposed to praeteritio. Kruse made a mistake in missing this key aspect.

Kruse’s last point of persuasion is “Embrace the Status Quo”. He writes, “If you wanted to plant the idea of vacationing at the beach, you might say to your partner, “I’m glad we’re going to do a staycation this summer. I mean, it would have been nice to unplug and relax at the beach for a week, but I’m looking forward to getting the garage cleaned up finally.”

In a nutshell, you are talking around the idea, staying positive, and mentioning the benefits – most importantly, you are embracing the downsides, which ensure that there is zero pressure or expectation on the other person. You’re saying that you’re happy with the status quo, but just thinking out loud.” This step confused me, mostly because I have a hard time picturing how this step could be used in a business pitch. It definitely doesn’t seem like it fits in this list of the top 5 points of persuasion and comes off as a last minute add on. Instead off this step which seems unnecessary and unfocused, I think Kruse should have mentioned “Liking”.

“Liking” is a basic principle of social interaction but also very important in the act of persuasion. If you don’t like the person interacting with you, the chances of you caring about what they’re saying are slim to none. Liking is broken into 3 main components, the first of which is similarity. Studies show that we as humans do better in group work if we have established a similarity between ourselves and our partners. (Cialdini) This and giving compliments are important to make before starting business conversations because they lighten the atmosphere and make it considerably easier to interact and do fluid business. The last component of liking is cooperation. This means that someone is more likely to listen to you if you offer them help of your own in the task that you want them to do. This concept is similar to leading by example. Cooperation coincides with the prior statement about power that people are better persuaded  by others who are perceived to be at their same level of social hierarchy. Cooperating destroys any boundaries between you and the audience you are trying to persuade making you, as the speaker, more trustworthy and personable.

Overall I think it’s a little bit ridiculous that a magazine as renowned as Forbes has included in their website a list as weak as the one I have accessed above. Although Kruse seems to have a general grasp on certain concepts that are deemed important regarding persuasion such as “Alluding to Others”, “Keeping It Simple”, and overall Confidence. He misses out on some key aspects of persuasion which my research has shown are super important to being effectively persuasive. The main flaw in his list is that instead of actually making a cohesive argument of his own he alludes to another author’s work, “Persuasion Tactics” by Patrick King almost exclusively. The book he references obviously has a much more in depth perspective on Persuasion and it is clear that Kruse basically just picked 5 random aspects of persuasion from the book and comprised them into something that resembles a Top 5 List. The failure to mention “Scarcity”, “Liking”, and dis attributing importance to overconfidence instead of authority is why this list is lacking. For someone who needs help in learning about persuasion this list would be really hard piece of work to decipher after a certain point. The first couple of points are great and follow the general scientific knowledge of persuasion but some of the other steps are too specific to a certain situation. For instance you can’t really use Praeteritio unless there is something to allude to. Furthermore, mentioning the opposite option generally leads the presentation to lose focus from the actual idea that the speaker is trying to convince the audience of. This among many other things makes this list a weak representation of key concepts needed to understand how to effectively persuade. As a single representation in this case of a larger category involving self help lists focused on persuasion I would say lists like this one aren’t reliable at all. An individual would be lost to say the least if he looked to a self help list for answers simply judging from this specific representation. My suggestion based off of my experience in comprising the research to access Kruse’s self help list is that individual research is almost indefinitely a better option than looking to a guide such as this one. Self help lists are in fact not 100% reliable and this is evident because even a magazine as renowned as Forbes included this faulty piece which mixes up relevant information with steps that are unhelpful and too specific. Nothing but concrete research and information from a reliable perhaps even scientific source should be suitable for extensive information on this topic.
