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27 Powers of Persuasion: Simple Strategies to Seduce Audiences & Win Allies

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How frustrating is it when you have a great idea or an important viewpoint, yet people don't seem to be rushing to support you? Persuasion is an elusive skill, and it relies on more than just being "right." I found that the book 27 Powers of Persuasion: Simple Strategies to Seduce Audiences & Win Allies by Chris St. Hilaire with Lynette Padwa does a good job in offering up suggestions on how you can do much better in bringing people over to your side without resorting to physical violence. :)

Contents:
Focus on the Goal; Evaluate Egos; Soothe or Sidestep Other Egos; Manage Opposition by Giving It Nothing to Oppose; Make Your Weakness Your Strength; Find One Thing to Like About Everyone in the Room; Use the First Five Minutes to Make People Feel Safe; Stay in the Present; Recognize Their Reality; Make It About Choice, Fairness, and Accountability; Keep It Simple; Own the Language; Use Emotional Language; Make Sure Everyone's Invested; Get Third-Party Validation; Get a Couple of Numbers; Arm Your Advocates; Aim for the Undecideds; Avoid Absolutes and Hypotheticals; Learn How to Use Silence; Get Physical; Don't Say No, Say "Let's Try This"; Release Bad News Quickly and Good News Slowly; Challenge Bad Ideas by Challenging the Details; Play Devil's Advocate; Don't Change, "Adapt"; Be Your Own Pundit; Notes

St. Hilaire brings his experience in jury analysis as well as his Eastern philosophy and attitudes into play here. He has managed strategy and messages for political campaigns, as well as founding a company that consults on jury selection. These are obviously two areas where persuasion is a critical skill, and St. Hilaire has been successful at it. Each "power" listed above is a separate chapter, which makes it very easy to pick a method and focus on it. I appreciated the blend of explanation and example in each chapter. It made for an effective approach for understanding the skill along with a instance of how it plays out.

27 Powers of Persuasion avoids something I was a bit fearful of before I started reading. It'd be very easy to go down the path of manipulation over persuasion, as the two can sometimes be dangerously close to each other. But I didn't get that sense at all. Yes, you can make people react in predictable ways with language and actions. But that's just a basic reality of life. You can try and convince people by yelling at them, or you can show that you understand their points and work to answer their questions. Guess which one will be more effective? You need to understand that if you want to succeed. The book is also useful in giving you insight as to others may be trying to persuade you. For instance, if you understand how owning the language predisposes you to think about a company or product, you can be more objective when it comes to making your own decisions. And I can't help but think that FAR too many people and organizations have ignored the technique of releasing bad news quickly and good news slowly. Trying to let bad news trickle out to avoid a "hit" only feeds the story and the media frenzy for a longer period of time. If you take the hard hit up front, then the story can start to die down for lack of new information. Then you can get on with resolving the situation.

27 Powers of Persuasion is a book that can pay for itself in a single critical situation at work when you have a lot at stake in a particular outcome. I learned quite a bit from it, and I'll be returning to various chapters over time...

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Author
Payment: Free

A friend gave this to me on Wednesday, and I really just started it because I needed a book to read on a long drive. I'm not in any of the industries this author is in, so I was skeptical how I could use any of the tips to improve my success as a schoolteacher. But I ended up finishing the book the same day I started it -- that's how blown away I was by the suggestions and tips contained inside.

"Persuasion" can be kind of a dirty word, but I really think all of the techniques involved are about improving communication between people rather than some sort of manipulation. For me, these tips have helped me get other people (including kids!) to listen and respond more effectively, improving the entire interaction. I can definitely see how the techniques in this book could be implemented in many, many situations. I came on to Amazon to buy my own copy and ended up buying three others for my parents and sister!

This book gets to the point and gave me helpful communication ideas I was able to use right away. I came here specifically to write that I followed one of the book's points yesterday, Use Silence, and it worked. I had a meeting with a troubled employee yesterday. I can't say too much, but for the first part of the meeting, I felt like I the employee was just telling me what he thought I wanted to hear. So I just shut up. There was maybe 45 seconds of uncomfortable silence (felt like 2 hours then) and then suddenly, he start rambling and giving up more and more info. It worked and the advice was simple and effective.

Picked this one up on a recommendation from a co-worker. A great little source for some pretty cool communication tricks and strategies. Also, a pretty insightful review of how various legal, political and journalists have refined communications strategies over the years. A lot of these examples were simple and pretty easily applicable every day. This is the type of book you take notes on and something I am going to recommend my employees read.

I have been a sales manager and sales trainer for 7 years and a salesman for all of my professional career. This book is by far the best book I've ever read in understanding human persuasion and putting it into practice in my career. I have read books from Tom Hopkins to Dale Carnagie. I have spent hundreds on training and seminars and this book has taught me the one thing that none of the others were able to do. Turn ideas into action. Nothing against the other authors but I am now requiring all of my salespeople read this book and I will be training directly from it's pages from now on.

Within the first few chapters I guarantee you will gain several effective -- and immediate -- ways to become a better communicator. These ideas for how to better persuade are simple yet highly beneficial. Putting things in the positive is something we should all be doing in our daily lives, and you'd be surprised how effective that is in achieving agreement and cohesion. I highly recommend this book.

Of all the many books I have read on business and entrepreneurship, this was the most influential. I read it about a year ago and I still reflect on the ideas mentioned here because they are the core ideas that make you a stronger person when it comes to dealing with others on a professional level. I really appreciate the writer, who genuinely understands dialogue and communication.

I find most "business books" pretty boring. Most of them tend to blend into one bland mess of obvious advice and tedious principles. Not so with 27 Powers of Persuasion. While St. Hilaire gives plenty of handy tips, he illustrates them with interesting anecdotes from the world of politics and law -- and delivers them with a dash of Eastern wisdom. I was fascinated to see how he incorporates Buddhist principles, giving his advice a little bit of a timeless quality that makes them, to me, more compelling. And they work. In the few days since I've read the book, I've noticed a number of opportunities to tweak my normal approach by employing this book's advice. It's not the kind of book that tries to make you act like someone you're not -- rather, it helps you adjust your approach to make you your most persuasive self.

Now that I'm a consultant (who isn't these days?) I wanted some info on getting my foot in the door, etc., so I picked up this book. I was hoping to get just a few tips, but the book is loaded with them. Some are really surprising and counter-intuitive, like the author's advice about when NOT to dress the same way as the people you're meeting with, and to focus in the first five minutes on making them "feel safe," as he puts it. The information on how to use language is very clear. There are at least 15 tips I could use tomorrow. The book is worth the price just for the chapter on how to use silence.

Expecting something a bit more devious, I was relieved to find this is a positive look at persuasion, rather than manipulation. There's plenty to read on how you can articulating your own views clearly and in a way that your audience can buy into, but it also lingers on the importance of listening and helping your audience open up. If everyone was using the tips in the book, we'd get to the truth faster.

There's a fine line between obvious and insightful, and thankfully this book sits squarely on the side of the latter. You're unlikely to disagree with the chapter headings as for the most part they seem like common-sense. Once you dig into the chapter however, there's a wealth of techniques and best-practices that you're unlikely to have thought of, and that can be applied to your own situations. There's the odd surprise as well - advice that seems counter-intuitive, like acknowledging your weaknesses or maintaining silence, that unfolds into a useful strategy as you read the practical advice.

The author draws lessons from politics, journalism and every-day life so it's easy to relate to the lessons learned, and the powers are broadly applicable to most of our interactions, even if your name doesn't get printed on by-lines or voting slips.

Also impressed to see the author giving examples of successful and unsuccessful campaigns, and drawing positive lessons from both. In fact, that's one of the 27 powers right there, and it's good to see the author practicing what he preaches.

I've also noticed that I now see TV interviews, political debates and sales-pitches in a new light. That alone is quite a persuasive reason for finding a copy.