29 November 2018

Persuasive communication for better negotiation

As you know, persuasive communication is one of our best weapons to create a good work environment of our company and, thus, to improving performance and the productivity of our essential staff without having to raise their salary. But there is more... Did you know that improving your persuasive communication skills will enable you to negotiate better with your customers and suppliers? Read on, because in today's article we tell you about what is persuasive communication and how can you improve it? This ability to improve contractual conditions with both your company's customers and suppliers.

What exactly is persuasive communication?

Communicating persuasively is a skill which consists of using different tools to convince to the person we are talking to, regarding the truthfulness of our message, our arguments, opinions, criticisms... Do you think that's a rather vague definition? Don't worry, we'll expand on it.

What does persuasive communication aim to achieve?

Communication Persuasive is aimed at one objective: to convince, To persuade, to get our interlocutor to believe our words, accept our arguments, forget their own opinion and, finally, share our own opinion.

La comunicación persuasiva alcanza su objetivo mediante una combinación de estrategias, incluyendo el uso de la lógica y la evidencia (logos), la apelación a las emociones (pathos) y el establecimiento de credibilidad y autoridad (ethos). También implica comprender a la audiencia, adaptar el mensaje a sus necesidades y valores, y utilizar tácticas como la repetición, el encuadre y el contraste.

To achieve its final objective –convince-, persuasive communication uses both Verbal communication as well as non-verbal. In other words: in persuasive communication, the sender of the message not only convinces with the words, ideas or opinions they convey verbally. They also try to persuade their interlocutor through gestures, looks, silences, the pauses between sentences, the gestural posture of their hands, back, chin… I assure you it is absolutely fascinating to see in full action a Persuasive communications professional, but of course, it has its risks if the person you want to convince that skilled communicator is you.

Tanto los especialistas en marketing como los políticos utilizan la comunicación persuasiva.

Persuasive communication is used daily by professionals from different groups:: the politicians and its promotional campaigns, the publicists and their television advertisements, the art critics and his press articles… But the ability to defeat and convince someone simply by conversing is not an exclusive skill Of these artists of persuasion. Any one of us can learn certain techniques and, by practising, become that persuasive communications professional sought after by companies and “feared” by suppliers.

Keys to improving persuasive communication

As we were saying before, you can learning to communicate persuasively and convincing, it is not easy, but it can be achieved with a lot of training and some patience.

There are certain keys that will allow you to improve your persuasive communication skills, achieving better contracts with your suppliers, greater flexibility in extending payments, etc. Where can you start? Take note of the following Five practical tips:

Practice active listening, that other essential skill to lead human teams and to achieve the necessary improvement of the Internal communication between employees and managers.
Script the conversation. A clear and simple script including not only the key points you will cover with your interlocutor, but also the objectives you want to achieve by the end of the conversation.
Time the messages. Don't forget to include in the script of the conversation with your client or supplier on time you are going to spend to address each point, allocating more or less minutes depending on what you want to achieve with each. Remember that, in general, for persuasive communication to work It is vital to maintain your interlocutor's attention. So, you will have more opportunities to convince if every message you send is short, clear, concise and, of course, interesting.
Prepare well for meetings. Remember that preparing for meetings includes setting up the location where the meeting will be held: the lighting, the seating arrangement, background music, the state of mobile phones (switched off), etc.

Check your physical appearance. Remember that body language has a huge influence on persuasive communication and that your physical appearance will inevitably be part of the convincing message you want to convey. Therefore, remember to check that your clothes are in good condition (stains, wrinkles, scuffs...), your shoes, your hairstyle...