Danny Meyer puts a fine point on the persuasive elements of employee bonding and friendship. Meyer owns thirteen high-end New York restaurants, and states, “A productive day for me is much more about human transactions than it is about technical accomplishments. It’s looking people in the eye and connecting with them in a way they feel seen.”

Do your clients, employees, associates feel connected with you? Do they feel “seen?” Do you know and record relevant information about every one of them? Are you employing the Friendship Trigger to reach their emotional decision and action motivators? Create trust and great relationships by bonding with all your contacts and your productivity will soar.

Giving and getting is a cash preservation tool for today’s business owner and manager. Bartering is a huge business. According to Fortune Small Business magazine, “It can help move unsold inventory, put idle staff to work, it can drive new cash business.”  Bob Meyer, publisher of Barter News, estimates that one million entrepreneurs are involved in barter exchanges totaling $10 billion in value. Many businesses give goods and services in return for internet service. The internet itself is a give-and-get facility. In 1980, there were 40 barter exchanges; on the internet today there are 500.

Can you activate the Reciprocity Trigger in your business? Why not? You can offer anything of value in return for work and goods you want. Reciprocity was once the currency of life, and the concept is as valid today as ever.

How have you used the reciprocity trigger or seen it work for others?

“A prudent question is one half of wisdom.” – Francis Bacon

How much easier would selling be if you could really see things through your customer’s eyes? Here’s how the pros do exactly that. It’s a process called Value Profiling and like many effective techniques, it is not complicated (most salespeople just don’t know it or don’t do it).

SKILL TARGET: Find out what your prospect wants, and emphasize those features and benefits which meet their criteria.

It sounds simple, but the steps in the process are critical:

The world’s most creative and important products, inventions, and solutions were nothing more than ideas until someone persuaded someone else to do something. Great persuaders bring ideas to life. Persuaders make things happen.

The greatest historical achievements ever created are the results of persuasion. The empire builders, the Caesars and Napoleons, won by persuading others to follow. Cities and civilizations were built with persuasion. Columbus persuaded Queen Isabella that he could reach the East, India, by sailing west; then persuaded her to finance his ships. Slave Frederick Douglass wrote, “If I can persuade, I can move the universe.” He persuaded Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. JFK persuaded Congress and the American public to support and fund a plan to put an American on the moon.

But what happens when people can’t persuade?

Before persuading others to say “Yes!” let’s take a quick look at our own decision process. Only when we understand how the brain makes decisions can we successfully influence others’ decisions

Life’s Challenges

Let’s face it, life is a challenge. From the minute our eyes pop open in the morning until they close exhausted at night we deal with an avalanche of decisions. Get out of bed now or snooze? What to wear? What for breakfast – stick to the diet or enjoy? Which route to work? Stop for gas now or on the way home? Listen to the news or some new music? Which music?

What do we know today about persuasion that we didn’t know before? What can you learn that will change your life for the better? What’s new and different?

What’s New And Different?

The difference is simple, dramatic and exciting. With new, live, real time brain-imaging technology, we know definitively how the brain really processes information. We finally know how to influence others’ decisions and actions. And we’ve been doing it wrong for 2,500 years, since Aristotle wrote that the best route to persuasion is through reason, logic and rational input.

Top neurologist, Dr. Richard Restak, author of the book and PBS series “The Secret Life of the Brain” put the lie to that long-held belief stating: “We are not thinking machines; we are feeling machines that think.” Restak adds, “Your brain is not a logic machine. Emotions and feelings about something occur before you’ve made any attempt at conscious evaluation.”

1. Present your proposition clearly, with conviction.
2. Present your supporting data, with the right facts, logic and information.
3. Structure your “deals” and move on to closure.

But according to Dr. Jay Conger, Director of the Leadership Institute at the University of Southern California Business School, “Following this process is one surefire way to fail at persuasion.”

Why?

Neuroscientists have recently discovered that the brain waves we emit when we engage in logical thinking (for example, when we solve a math problem) are virtually identical to those we emit when we are forced to plunge our hands and arms into ice water. It’s painful! Further, these researchers have determined that our brains require 300 percent more effort—measured in calories burned—for heavy thinking, compared with “mental cruising.”

No wonder people hate a logical, reasoned approach!

Our McGraw-Hill book, The 7 Triggers to Yes Chinese language version has just hit the streets in Hong Kong, Singapore, Beijing, Taiwan and throughout Chinese speaking Asia. The Chinese want it, love it, because they understand the value of persuasion.

Whatever your location in the world, to succeed, to grow and prosper everyone needs persuasion skills. Whether in sales, management, or leadership of an entrepreneurial business, persuasion is the key to success. The Chinese have a legacy of generating great wisdom – They now have The 7 Triggers to Yes to add to that wisdom!

Take a trip back to the Fifth Century B.C., when Athenians were experimenting with a new form of government. The Athenians quickly discovered that to succeed in a democracy, they had to be persuasive. Leaders used persuasion (then called rhetoric) to gain agreement and win support. Everyday citizens used persuasion before a new legal body—the jury.

Recognizing its importance, Athenian scholars, including Plato and Aristotle, began to study the powerful process of persuasion. Circa 435 B.C., they defined three elements of the process of persuasion: Logos, the appeal to logic, reason, and facts; Pathos, the appeal to emotions; and Ethos, the appeal of the speaker’s character and credibility. These scholars found that one or more of these appeals characterize any instance of persuasion.

Aristotle wrote three books about persuasion. Among his conclusions, he stated that logic is the most reliable appeal, and that it is a “human failing” that people sometimes tend to be persuaded less by logic and more by emotion. Scientists are now learning precisely why appeals to logic can be so unproductive. And they’ve learned that Aristotle had it all backward when he defined logic as the most reliable appeal to persuasion.

In the Managing for Success column of Investors.com and its print edition, Investors Business Daily, Morey Stettner profiles The 7 Triggers to Yes, helping to explode the myth that logic wins business, and that emotions have no place in decision-making. Stettner summarizes three emotional triggers we all employ – Authority, Hope and Reciprocity. The original article can be found here.