There are many tools and techniques to persuade anyone to do anything if they are unaware of the fact you are trying to do so.
We can use natural language techniques to help other people relax or to talk them around to our ways of thinking, such as the tone of our voice, the speed at which we speak, the words we use, and the way we use them.
We will go over the best ways to use language persuasion techniques below.
Powerful Persuasive Techniques
Persuasive techniques are tools or methods used to convince others to agree with an argument. Persuasive techniques are divided into three different categorizations.
- Cadence
- Speed
- Body Language
- Hypnotic Language & NLP
- Questions
- Elevation
Cadence
What is cadence according to a quick google search cadence of voice is a sequence of notes or chords comprising the close of a musical phrase. A simpler way of saying what cadence is is the tone of your voice and how your use your tone to highlight words in a conversation to press your point on a person.
You may have already noticed that our voices change when we become more emotional about something, usually the tone of the voice will rise when we become more emotionally aroused.
The next time you notice someone’s tone of voice change in a conversation or after you ask a question, you will know you have triggered something internally within them. This will give an idea of whether to back off or press for more information.
Another example of when people use cadence is when a parent or superior tries to emphasize their point. They will use a deeper voice tone with a more down inflection to get their point across.
If you want to try out using your own voice tone, then try this exercise.
Consider how the following sentence sounds with different words emphasized in bold.
- You’re making that up about me, I didn’t say any of that.
- You’re making that up about me, I didn’t say any of that.
- You’re making that up about me, I didn’t say any of that.
- You’re making that up about me, I didn’t say any of that.
- You’re making that up about me, I didn’t say any of that.
- You’re making that up about me, I didn’t say any of that.
- You’re making that up about me, I didn’t say any of that.
- You’re making that up about me, I didn’t say any of that.
- You’re making that up about me, I didn’t say any of that.
Using different tones to highlight certain points gives different meanings in conversation to the person or people listening.
Your voice tone will affect how the person receives your message. Most hypnotists will use their cadence to make their subjects relaxed so they can go into a trance.
Chris Voss uses a technique known as the radio DJ voice. This technique was used in high-stakes hostage situations in order to calm the hostage or terrorist in order to negotiate.
We highly recommend you read his book “Never Split the Difference” for a more detailed understanding of this technique and many more tools you can use in your daily life.
The key thing to remember about voice tone is that people in authority will use a downward tone to command or control.
When you hear the end of a sentence with a high upward inflection, this implies uncertainty.
A simple technique to speak with a deeper tone is to sit up straight and direct your voice down to your stomach. Try emphasizing certain parts of your speech that you want to highlight around people.
A cool tool we can use to persuade people is using our tone of voice. One to remember, I think.
Speed
When you speak with people, take note of how fast or slow they speak. This will give you an idea of how excited or relaxed they are.
Once we understand how excited or relaxed they are, we can start to mirror their speed to take them from an excited to a more relaxed state or vice versa.
This is a superpower that not many people know, yes, it takes time to develop, but it is achievable and one you should practice when out and about.
At the very least, try it once. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Body Language
Sixty percent of all communication is nonverbal, so we need to take that into account when using language techniques to persuade people. It’s over half of what we’re really saying.
When we want to persuade someone, we have to use open gestures, palms, legs, chest.
How movement is so important when you understand body language, you can use your newfound skill with language to have superpowers you never knew existed.
Hypnotic & NLP Language
It has become clear that while we may be using the term “hypnosis” to describe how we use language, most communication is to control the thoughts of others. All language is persuasive if you think of it in that way.
Words can either attract or distract people on an emotional, conscious and unconscious level. People use words in a way that feels natural to them without thinking about the words they are speaking. You can pick up their language or use of words and start to use them in your language to build rapport called mirroring techniques.
If you want someone to feel a certain way, you first need to capture their attention and lead them down a path you want the outcome to be.
For example, you could ask a question about a time they felt a certain way and then mirror that back to them. Tell them a story about a time you were in the same situation and how you managed to overcome the challenge and what tools and tactics you used in order to achieve the outcome.
Persuasive language techniques are a group of tools that help people to persuade others to support their point of view. Persuasive language is a type of communication that needs to be upbeat and supportive in order to convince people. The language should also have an emotional appeal for the person reading it.
There are many persuasive language techniques used in marketing, advertising, and other fields. In order for these techniques to be effective, they should be used with the right tone and context.
Questions
Use questions to persuade people into feeling what you want them to feel
In order to persuade people, you have to get inside their heads. What’s the best way to do that? Ask them a question.
The question you should be asking to persuade someone is called leading questions. Leading questions are great because they supply the answer or outcome you are looking for.
Some examples of leading questions are embedded assumptions, associated ideas, cause and effect, and agreeing with me.
Embedded Questions
By asking an embedded question, it presumes the outcome before they have processed the answer. For example, you could say to one of your kids, “You will be going to bed by 10 pm, right?”
Associated Ideas
Associated ideas are ways of linking ideas together before you ask a question. If you are trying to buy a new car from the main dealer you could say something like “Ford have said they will offer me 20% off my purchase if I can buy in cash” “What deals do you have a cash buyer?” Placing ideas before a question is a great way to tell the other person that you have more information about something.
You could always make up this fact before you ask the question in order to persuade the other person, we don’t suggest you do this but it is a way of getting inside someone’s head.
Cause And Effect
Cause and effect questions are ways of stating to another person if you do this then how will impact that?
For example, if you ask your colleague if you start that project, how will it impact the other projects you’re already working on? This will either highlight that they need to finish a project or that they have enough time on their hands to start a new project.
Agree With Me
Agree with me, questions are questions that get the other person to agree with you. An example of an agree with me question would be “If that comment was made to your face you would be upset also?” Another example would be “You agree that the cost of living is rising super fast”?
The above leading questions are how we persuade someone to agree with us or to think about what we want them to. They are language tools and techniques that most people won’t see coming unless they’re trained.
Metaphors or Story Telling
Telling a story has been used to persuade since the dawn of time. It’s how our ancestors passed on knowledge and how we evolved into what we are today. Telling stories is the way humans communicate. They allow us to share information, gain new perspectives and connect with others in a personal way.
Think about the Bible or Quran, which are full of stories and metaphors on how to live a good life according to God. Both books are full of hidden messages that can be interpreted in a variety of ways, as we have found out.
We to can use metaphors to persuade people to do things we want them to do. A story is basically a vehicle for building pictures in the minds of others and within that story, we can use embedded commands to persuade listeners to our way of thinking.
The way this works is the consumer’s mind is distracted and following the plot of the story subconsciously is free to take in all the information, in effect, we have bypassed the critical factor of the consumer in order to embed our commands covertly.
For example, you could tell a story about the last time you were on vacation and your outcome was to have someone relax using a story to disguise your embedded commands..
You could tell them about the time you went to the Caribbean when you arrive at the airport the moment the automatic doors open that when you become more relaxed. “You sit back and enjoy every moment of it, knowing you don’t have to do anything at all other than relax and enjoy the ride” “You become more relaxed when the doors open to the plane. As you get closer to the hotel, you feel a weight being lifted from your shoulders. You know you are going to have a great time and really start to feel relaxed”.
Embedded commands are a great way to pepper into any story and to persuade a person to get the outcome you want.
Presupposition Language
A presupposition is a statement that contains an assumption that needs to be true or not. If we’re going to understand what the sentence means, we need to accept the presupposition as true.
The words left out important details of the topic. These structures, when used properly, are one of the hardest linguistic patterns to spot in natural conversation.
Presuppositions are statements or questions
Who was at the party? Presumes there was a party in the first place.
Who has the most money here? Presumes they have money on them.
Did you watch that documentary? I presume you had a TV and were home.
When you hear back from us, there will be opportunities for you to talk. Please let us know if you would like a callback.
Presumptuous language can be used to persuade someone or embed thought in their mind that something was that way in the first place, we can use the technique when we want to imply something or refer to something that may not be factually true or to bypass their thinking in the first place.
Final Thoughts
There are many ways to persuade people into our way of thinking.
There are many ways to language techniques persuade people into believing in our way of thinking. One way is using a logical argument, which is a sequence of statements to support the conclusion.
Another way is by using emotion, which can be done through storytelling or testimony from others. Another way is by emphasizing words in our speech to highlight what we want them to understand.
Like with anything, it takes time to learn these tools and techniques and you will have to practice them daily until you can embed them in your natural language.
There are some great books on persuasion out there, so you should definitely check them out. If you would like to learn more about persuasion, check out our blog over here.
