Honing Your Persuasive Skills (4 C’s)

Every writer, marketer, politician, or any other compliance professional starts off by imitating the popular tried and tested techniques.

For instance, in an earlier chapter, we discussed the six principles of influence by Robert Cialdini — reciprocity, liking, commitment and consistency, scarcity, social proof, and authority. Entry-level compliance professionals simply mimic techniques for each of these principles. 

For example, a politician leveraging reciprocity may promise money to the citizens in exchange for their support.

Although mimicking popular techniques will give you varying levels of success, they aren’t always ideal.

Popular techniques, as the name suggests, are well-known, which means the target audience is more likely to see through your bullshit. This may backfire as they could see you as a disingenuous person from then on.

Hence, it is imperative that you, an aspiring compliance professional, continue to hone your persuasive skills to write words that can move mountains.

Fundamentally, there are four things you need to focus on.

1. Companion

When you are recommending someone to buy a product, seek a service, or do anything, the end goal should not be to fuck them over. If you want to deceive them, you can only do it once and unless you have an endless supply of scapegoats, I recommend against this strategy.

Think of them as yourself. If you were in their shoes, would your advice help or harm them?

By starting from a position of truth, you are already setting yourself up for a win. You can make your argument more convincing because you actually believe in it rather than just parroting some sales script that your superiors handed to you.

Moreover, speaking the truth and providing logical reasoning behind your points will earn their trust. This increases the potential for success even further.

You are better off getting 100 customers or clients who believe in your abilities to deliver fully over 10,000 one-off buyers. So, the first ‘hack’ for honing your persuasive skills is to be a well-wisher of your audience.

Think of all the webcam models that offer companionship over a raunchy show. Of course, anyone can tell that they are actually after the money of their ‘fans’, but momentarily, it does the trick beautifully.

2. Content

I briefly talked about ‘making an argument’ and ‘providing logical reasoning’ in the previous section. That’s what content is all about.

Most compliance professionals, even the experienced ones, think of content as something such as a video or a pamphlet, typically, a sales enablement material. However, content is not what you relay, it’s what your audience understands for that’s what drives their decision-making.

Consider the example of smartphones.

The majority of manufacturers don’t talk about the technical specs of their latest model in the ads directed to the general audience. Instead, they talk about the USP, which could be the camera, battery life, or the overall user experience.

Marketers interpret it as ‘speaking a language that the target audience can relate to’, which is only partially correct. The other thing that this way of messaging or promotion does is to help potential buyers visualize using the product or leveraging the services themselves.

Consequently, simply saying that the new model has a longer battery life, they can show on-field professionals seamlessly going through their day. This will make it easier for anyone to realize the true value of the product.

OnlyFans models do it well too. Rather than just telling you what ‘content’ you will get after subscribing, they give you a little taste of their social media handles. The human imagination, powered by the lizard brain, does the rest. The simps understand what’s behind the paywall.

3. Confidence

No one trusts a stuttering fortune-teller.

All fortune-tellers are scumbag liars. Just like religious preachers. However, the ones who can sell it better by believing in it more strongly than their counterparts have more influential power over their audience.

It is essential to have domain knowledge, expertise, and faith in your purpose. If you think you are truly helping another person, it should reflect in the sincerity of your message. Likewise, if you know that you are scamming someone else, you can’t lie to yourself about it.

Unsurprisingly, confidence will get you places where talent won’t. Dating, career, and personal relationships become easier to maintain if you just speak confidently. Now, beware that if you are just a talker it will eventually backfire.

4. Conditions

You shouldn’t ask a man at a funeral to renew their car insurance. A lot of skilled content writers and digital marketers don’t realize the importance of time and place. I see this a lot on social media and on different brands' websites.

These dumbasses plug in their products or services in weird places, which not only affects their conversion but also retention.

There are times when we are more likely to take risks and be more lavish. Similarly, there are times when we are more risk-averse even if it comes at a price of a high potential reward.

It is possible to manufacture conditions where people will be more open to your suggestions, opinions, and recommendations. Restaurants, for instance, do this perfectly by sending complimentary drinks and snacks to their customers. This inspires folks to order more.

Another example is OnlyFans models doing free livestreams. It is interesting to note that it costs nothing to join the livestream but you have to tip these pretty hoes to get their attention and become the Lord of Simps. In regular circumstances, folks may not think of paying them, however, once they join, the chances increase.

Conclusion: Mastery Over Time

When I started off as a content writer in 2019, I copied templates and styles of other authors and marketers. As I gained more knowledge about psychology, I leveled up in the four aforementioned areas to become a better persuasion professional.

It is crucial to think well of your target audience as it inspires you to create clearer, targeted content that you can present confidently. Of course, it is pivotal to wait for the right circumstances to ensure your reader is in the right headspace to listen to you.

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Next Chapter: Difference Between Persuasion and Manipulation

Previous Chapter: Writing Articles That Persuade: 5 Tips

Index (with Prologue): The Fundamentals of Persuasive Writing

Persuading with confidence in the right conditions