The Hindu Business Line : How to get everybody your way

WHAT would you do if you suddenly realised that you had burglars in your house? You'd perhaps do what every law enforcement officer would tell you to do. Give them a way to escape. Never confront criminals so they have no way to get out. They're liable to turn violent. The same principle applies in persuasion, according to Roger Dawson, the author of Secrets of Power Persuasion for Salespeople. So, you should always let the buyer have a way to get out; let him/her have options. Persuasion is the art of getting somebody go along with your point of view. And, selling is really a "persuasion contest", not `manipulation' that worked in good old days.

Read on:

The principle of bonding tells you that you shouldn't be too concerned if you can't get full compliance in the early stages of the persuasion process. If you can get the buyer to agree to even a watered-down request, you'll have more success later.

`Diffusion' is a verbal persuasion tool to bring an angry person along your way of thinking. When someone has taken an opposing position to you, make the case that there isn't any conflict and that you're really out for the same thing.

The lives of field-dependent people are constantly being affected by what's going on around them. They quickly take on the mood of the people around them. They often avoid watching the news on the TV because they're so deeply affected by bad news. Field-independent people seem oblivious to what's going on around them. While the former are persuaded by what others think, the latter are not.

The classic Greek model of persuasion calls for ethos, pathos, logos... and a return to ethos. In layperson's language, that means starting by getting them to like you (ethos). Then, touch their emotions in your appeal (pathos). Back it up with a little logic (logos) in case they have to justify their decision to someone else. Then use ethos so they won't change their minds... and they'll be glad to see you the next time.

Here is a magic persuasion tool: Use the buyer's name at the beginning or the end of a sentence. Make your request. Tilt your head and smile as you say it.

To resist `power' persuasive salespeople, you may need a different book.

Put people on balance sheets

P&L is profit and loss. Wrong. It is `people and love', according to Mary Kay Ash who built one of the most admired companies in the US. She turned a $5,000 investment into a billion-dollar corporation, and Jim Underwood compiles her `9 leadership keys to success' in the book More than a Pink Cadillac. The company has averaged double-digit growth almost every year of its existence; its global sales organisation has operations in 33 countries; and it has 9 lakh `independent beauty consultants' worldwide. And for independent sales directors who have earned the `pink Cadillac', the car represents their own hard work and the determination to overcome obstacles. Read on:

Kay held a deep belief that if you created a company that is based on exceptionally high standards of excellence and made it clear that you believed that everyone could achieve far beyond his or own estimates of his or her ability, people would respond. And they did.

Among the members of the industry association, the Direct Selling Association (DSA), two very different responses to the Internet emerged. One camp feared the Net as a disruptive technology and was inclined to ignore it and hope it would go away. The other camp plunged in with both feet, setting up Internet distribution and sales systems that promised improvements of 30 per cent or more in profit margins.

At the peak of her business career, Kay personally sent an average of 5,000 letters and cards each month. And she did not simply sign form letters; she directed a personal response to every individual. In many cases she would try to include something inspirational and personal, especially for people going through difficult times.

Something almost magical happens when people are treated well. When people feel valued and appreciated, they are more productive. The company is more competitive and is in a better position to treat its people well. It's a virtuous circle. Yet treating people well is surprisingly uncommon in corporate America.

As organisations grow, people get fewer opportunities to see why they are personally important to the company. People in staff roles, for example - where most of the work-day is focussed on more abstract managerial or functional duties isolated from the independent sales force and the end consumer - can get isolated and out of touch. One effective countermeasure is to arrange to put staff members in direct contact with their `customers', the independent sales force.

Not all beauty is skin deep. Nor all assets balance-sheet deep.

Individual in every customer

There is only one name in marketing, writes Tom Peters, about Philip Kotler. And Kotler's new book Marketing Insights from A to Z, could well be the summa that captures the best of his insights, "as original today as when he first took pen in hand, forty years ago". In the book, Kotler highlights 80 of marketing's fundamental concepts, from `advertising' to `zest'. As the blurb puts it, the book is `comprehensive enough for managers who want a complete primer on marketing but also a cutting-edge resource for seasoned marketers who need to keep up with the latest thinking'. A few picks:

The ad's mission can be one of four: to inform, persuade, remind, or reinforce a purchase decision. With a new product, you want to inform and/ or persuade. With an old product, like Coca-Cola, you want to remind. With some products just bought, you want to reassure the purchaser and reinforce the decision.

Marketing thinking is shifting from trying to maximise the company's profit from each transaction to maximising the profit from each relationship. Marketing's future lies in database marketing, where we know enough about each customer to make relevant and timely offers customised and personalised to each customer. Instead of seeing a customer in every individual, we must see the individual in every customer.

Niches are not necessarily small companies. Professor Hermann Simon, in his Hidden Champions, lists scores of midsize German companies that enjoy over 50 per cent market shares in well-defined global niches. Examples include Steiner Optical with 80 per cent of the world's military field glasses market; Tetra Food making 80 per cent of the food for feeding tropical fish; and Becher producing 50 per cent of the world's oversized umbrellas. Although they are less visible to the public, they are highly profitable.

Media people are always searching for new media vehicles that are more cost-effective or attention-getting. They are now putting your ads on blimps and racing cars, and in elevators, bathrooms, and next to gas pumps. Yet as ads proliferate, they are in danger of being less noticed.

D. Murali

CatalystBooks@hotmail.com

Courtesy: Landmark