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Social Influence: Systematic Processing

When people evaluate information in order to make a decision, they do so using one of two methods. Knowing how to influence the process your target will use can increase your chances of gaining the response you’re looking for exponentially. The two types of evaluation processes people use are systematic processing, which is the process people use when critically evaluating all of the available information prior to making their decision, and heuristic processing, in which a decision is made quickly based on factors that are usually irrelevant such as attractiveness of the other person, amount of information presented, or confidence of the presenter. This post will show you how to get someone else to process information systematically.

If you were presenting a business proposal to a corporate manager and had an absolutely impeccable presentation set up that was full of all the information he would need in order to see that your offer would be beneficial to him and his company, you would certainly want to make sure he uses systematic processing when evaluating the information you give him. One thing you could do to influence his method of decision making towards a systematic approach, is to make sure you grab his attention. If you’re using a visual presentation, make sure that it’s very aesthetically pleasing by possibly including some motion effects that sustain their attention. Of course, be sure not to go overboard on this since doing so has a tendency to take away from your overall message.

Offer them some type of caffeinated drink. They’ll think of this as nothing more than you being kind and hospitable to them before the proposal. However, the consumption of caffeine will increase their likelihood of giving your proposal a systematic evaluation due to the stimulation effect it has on the brain. Another thing that could help is to make your presentation feel more personal and relevant to them and their company. When people believe that they’ll be directly effected by the subject matter, they’ll be a lot more motivated to actually pay attention to every detail you have to give them. You can do this by providing examples of other businesses similar to theirs that have benefitted from what you have to offer.

If you have a story that is relevant to your targets situation, and that would shed some positive light on your proposal, don’t hesitate to share it with them. To optimize the effectiveness of this particular technique, make sure it’s presented in a way that they could easily relate to, and if someone in your story is benefitting from the same proposal you’re presenting to them, make sure they can picture themselves as the beneficiary as well.

These are all great ways of getting people to really pay attention to the material you have to give them relating to your offer, request, proposal or whatever it may be, using a systematic approach. Of course you don’t always want the other person to process your information systematically, especially if you know your reasoning is weak or if you didn’t have enough time to put together a proper presentation. In that situation, you’ll want to elicit a heuristic style of processing information which we’ll discuss tomorrow.

Are You Human Spam

Are You Equivalent to Human Spam?

Human Spam We have all received spam in our inbox.  The messages are usually irrelevant most likely unsolicited, and generally for the purposes of advertising, phishing, or spreading malware.  Our reaction to spam is commonly not positive.  The main reason is because spam commands our attention with no return on the investment.  The message demands we do something, generally a preventative act to ensure we don’t get bothered again, i.e. we need move the message to the junk folder, flag it as spam or delete it.  This all takes time and it detracts from our day not adds value to it.

The question for you this week is,

‘Are your persuasive appeals becoming akin to Human Spam’?

When you send an email, make a call or speak up in a meeting do people zone out?  Do they become disinterested?  The reason this is important is because you do not want to be seen as Human Spam.  While it is obvious, for our purposes Human Spam is someone who makes irrelevant requests or takes up the time of others with no net return on the invested time.

We can generally group this into the following categories:

Not the Decision Maker:  This can happen when you target the wrong person with your request.  If the Decision Maker has a high level of power but no interest in what you proposing you are consuming their time.  You become an unsolicited distraction and one they would prefer to avoid in the future because they label you Human Spam.

Not prepared:  Perhaps worse that targeting the wrong person is getting time with the right person and wasting it.  Being unprepared, winging it, and generally presenting a poorly formed message will see you being labelled as Human Spam.  You command attention but for no real return on effort.  This can see the Decision Maker become annoyed and perhaps even resentful because of your approach.

Not focused:  Being focused is critical when conveying a message.  It needs to be clear and concise with an obvious call to action at the end.  If your messages are confusing, longwinded and generally confusing – yep you guessed it – Human Spam.

Not adding value:  If you are not adding value, but are simply regurgitating the same old information, spinning it in the same old way, or perhaps using a new spin but on the same old information; you are not adding value for the persuadee and hence become labelled as Human Spam.

Malingerer:  The person who seemingly has nothing better to do but take up the time of others.  They are a social parasite, not unlike a leech, gorging themselves on the time and energy of their victim, for their own benefit and self-gratification.

All of the above lead to disinterest and in persuasion, disinterest is death.  If your persuadee is disinterested they will not be open to your ideas, they will not be interested in taking on the hard yards and putting in the effort required to get behind you and your request.  Instead they will see you as taking up valuable space in their day and label you and/or your idea as Spam.

The problem is, once labelled as Spam, it is a very tough road back.  Many Decision Makers are time poor and they do not appreciate people taking it unnecessarily.  Therefore if you are a Human Spammer they will avoid you in meetings, conversations and perhaps more generally in everyday interactions.

Implication for you

Before sending that email or making that phone call, before putting your hand up in a meeting or adding your opinion, ask yourself

“Is what I am about to say going to add value?” 

If you feel that what you about to say will perhaps take up the other person’s time with no net benefit to them or your relationship with them – don’t say it!

I first heard of Human Spam from branding specialist Sally Hogshead and she said

“Every time you communicate, you are either adding value, or taking up space”

I loved it.

What do you want be known for?  Do you want to be the person who adds value or the one who takes up time unnecessarily?

Ultimately your intention is not the test here.  The perception of the persuadee is what matters.  If they see you or what you say as not adding value, you are just taking up space.

Self-edit.

Stop talking.

Do more research.

Come back when you can inform, inspire and help them to improve their situation.

Attention is a finite resource.  Don’t ask for it unless you can do something with it!

 

 

 

The post Are You Human Spam appeared first on Social Influence Consulting Group.

Persuasion Techniques: Desensitizing Your Message

Sometimes it can be difficult to get people to do things that you know would actually be good for them. We’ve all run into this situation before, and probably tried to come up with ways of gaining their cooperation to no avail. This can be quite frustrating, but fortunately there is a way you can solve at least some of these problems. It has to with desensitizing the message you’re trying to get across to them.

This persuasion technique involves minuscule, gradual changes that produce a much larger change overtime. Lets pretend that you have a rather stubborn child that sits far too close to the television screen whenever he’s watching a program. You know that it’s not good for him to do that, and have told him that a number of times, but despite all of your efforts he continues to do this. That’s where this desensitization persuasion technique comes in. Everyday before your child gets settled to watch TV, you could move his chair a few inches away from the television. Such a small change would become difficult for him to notice, and before long you’ll have the chair positioned an appropriate distance away from the TV and he wont even know the difference.

Of course, just like most persuasion techniques out there, it’s not going to work every time. He might notice that the chair is farther than it was to begin with before you’ve it moved back far enough. However, even if he does notice it, he’ll most likely just move it closer and proceed to turn the TV on. You can then start over using the same technique in smaller incumbents (maybe just one inch at a time) to minimize the chances of him figuring out what you’re up to even more. If he does call you out on it…at least you tried.

You may also find this persuasion technique useful if you’re trying to get someone to start eating healthy. In this case, you would continue to make the healthy(or at least semi-healthy) meals that you would normally prepare, while throwing in a few extra healthy ingredients in small portions. They may or may not see it, but even if it is noticed, they may go ahead and eat it anyway since it’s such a small amount. Once again, you would gradually increase the amount of this new ingredient until they’re eating enough of it to reap the benefits it has to offer. This method even incorporates some aspects of the repetition technique that I discussed yesterday. When you’re increasing the doses incrementally, you’re also exposing them to the new ingredient on a consistent basis, and like we talked about yesterday, the more you’re exposed to something (especially if you’re exposed to it subconsciously) the greater the chances are that you’ll end up liking it.

These are just a couple of many instances this persuasion technique could be applied. Remember, the smaller you make your incremental changes, the more likely it will be that what you’re doing will go unnoticed. This technique wont work all of the time, but when it does, you’ll be glad you knew how to use it.