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Persuading Others: Commanders of Attention, or Magnetizers with Robert Cialdini, Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing, Arizona State University, Author, Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade
We can direct people’s attention to a particular concept that will be consistent with the strength of our message, and therefore make them more likely to pay attention to that strength ahead of time. They’ll be in a state of mind that puts them in a place that prioritizes that particular strength that we have.
The Self-Relevant
There are certain kinds of information that draw attention by themselves that don’t require a communicator to do that. One, of course, that does that is self-relevance. One of the things that people pay attention to is anything that’s related to them. So, we should be sure in any message that we send to include implications for their current circumstances, their current challenges, their current goals, that will keep them focused on that information.
One of the things, for example, that a lot of business organizations or communicators make is that they will give let’s say prospects a list of testimonials from others who have decided in favor of this communicator or this company’s products or services. The communicator makes the mistake of letting his or her ego get in the way of which of those testimonials they put at the top of the list. Very often it’s the one that the communicator is proudest of. This big company that decided to use our products or service. Or this recognized opinion leader who has spoken about us in a positive way, and those are the things that go at the top. Very often what the audience that we’re trying to deal with is looking for is not the reputation of the person who is the testifier, but how comparable the testifier’s circumstances, business circumstances are to their own. They’re interested in hearing from somebody just like them that this product or service worked.
The Unfinished
Another thing we can do to hold attention is to present our message as a mystery story. We began with a puzzle, how could it be that after only 18 months in business our product has skyrocketed to popularity? And now we’ve got people paying attention who want to know the answer to the mystery in order to be released from it. There’s this thing in psychology called need for closure. We need to have closure on the questions and puzzles that are entertaining our mind at the time. And we will stay focused on the information until we get that closure, until we get that resolution.
In order to solve a mystery, we all know, you have to understand the details. So now all of those what may seem like small or boring details of our message those are the things that people still want to pay attention to because they’re going to need to know those things to solve the mystery.