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Yes, welcome to the biz communication show, I’m your host Bill Lampton the biz communication guy, many times on the biz communication show, I’m interviewing a guest having a very lively conversation with someone who has mastered business communication skills. Today, though, I’m talking with you directly, which I very much enjoyed doing. I’m sure that you have studied the art of persuasion, maybe you’ve taken courses in it, possibly you’ve attended seminars, and workshops, you’ve watched videos about it, you’ve learned many tips and strategies about boosting your persuasive skills. And yet, there’s always something else to learn. I mentioned that maybe you’d even taught persuasion I did, when I was teaching speech communication for several years, at the University of Georgia, and on the speech communication faculty. And I felt that I had a good basis in how to persuade people about your opinion about getting them to take some action or buying a product or whatever. Then I switched professions, I left academia, I said to some friends, I wanted to find out if some of those communication strategies that had been teaching in the classroom if they worked outside the classroom. And so I rather put it to the ultimate test, I became a professional fundraiser first for colleges and universities, and then later for healthcare spent two decades doing that, asking people to give donations very soon in that profession. I learned, however, that what had been teaching in the classroom about the steps to persuasion, and while they often worked, they were not the best method and asking somebody for a gift. So my supervisor who had been in their professional while taught me a three word formula for persuasion, applied to fundraising, which these words are almost magical. And I’ll give you an example. An example. And fundraising would be the older method might be the traditional method would be, you say, we hope that you will give us $10,000 For our campaign that’s direct. What my supervisor taught me and I use many years since and still do them and other circumstances, instead of saying, we hope you will give our we invite you to give us these three words, could you consider could you consider a gift of $10,000? The difference here, you see is that you haven’t asked them directly. There’s, there’s no even hint of coercion there. The decision is still up to that person. About that time when I was the development officer for that college, I’ll never forget somebody representing a local charitable organization, somebody I didn’t even know.
They’d gotten my name from somewhere. And they came into my office and they said, we’ve got you down for a gift of $100 to our charitable organization. Well, how do you think I reacted that, that put up a wall instantly? Because they were acting like I had no choice in the situation? So let’s apply that. Could you consider, let’s say, for example, that you and your staff are very tired of your supervisor, asking for for a staff meeting to be held every Friday afternoon at three o’clock, my gosh. You’re bone weary of work and bone weary of meetings by then? Well, there are a couple of ways you could handle this. One way would be to confront the supervisor and say, This just doesn’t work and we’re tired of this. Catch. You see where we’re worn out. We’re not paying much attention. We’re checking our watches. But now, instead, you say Could you consider, let’s let’s think about moving our staff meeting from mid afternoon on Friday to Friday mornings, the advantage there would be that all of us would be fresher, we wouldn’t be thinking about our upcoming trip out of town or dinner on Friday night. Wait, you’d have our full attention? Could you consider doing that? Chances are very good. If you took that approach, your supervisor would consider that. And then another one, I’m sure that you probably travel a lot professional AR, personally or both. And so sometimes when you get a hotel, a friend of mine suggested this, say to those at check in. We have arranged we have we have reserved our regular room. But you know, we’ve traveled a very long way. And we’re just wondering, is there a possibility? Could you consider upgrading us to a suite? After all, if you upgraded to a suite will feel so much more rested? For the presentations that we have to make tomorrow. You may not can do this, but could you consider doing it? In my travels, I’ve found that that works fairly well. I have a couple of more examples to give you after this message.
Do you wish you felt confident about getting? Do you wish you felt confident about giving? Do you wish you felt confident about giving speeches? Do you want to deal with difficult people constructively? And what about becoming more persuasive and sales? Then keep listening now to Dr. Bill Lampton, he spent 20 years in management, so he knows the communication skills you need for success. I urge you to call the biz communication guide today for a no call. But very valuable 30 minute discussion about your communication challenges. Call now. 678-316-4300. Again, that’s 678-316-4300.
All right, a couple of other examples that I would give you, maybe you’re a consultant, as I am, you have a contract with a client, the contract for that consulting period is drawing to an end. Do you just point blank say, Gosh, it’d be good if we can continue this? How about? Could you consider instead of us ending this month? Could you consider us going another three months? There’s so much more we could accomplish? Could you consider that they might think about it for a while. And they might even do what you ask there. And then another example. And this would be for people in the real estate business. You’ve shown them several houses. But you think what you’ve shown them is not quite right for them. And so you say to them? I know you seem to to really like this house we’re in right now. But could you consider looking at one more house that I have in mind for you? I think if you could consider looking at one more, that would work very well. Here again, could you consider we’ll open their mind to looking a little bit farther. These examples, I believe, have helped all of us see the possibilities of this rather indirect approach, which expresses your needs in a way that is not threatening. It’s not demanding is not coercive and is a wonderful way to move ahead and your persuasive effort. If you haven’t tried this before, I suggest that you put it to use and now that we’ve considered the topic for the day, I want to invite you to take a look at my YouTube channel. It’s listed if you go to the search bar and YouTube is listed as my name is listed, Bill Lampton PhD, pull up the channel, and then hit that subscribe button, you’ll have access to the current videos and also to videos that I’ll be producing in the future. Some of them solo presentations like this one. And some of them, of course, interviews for the business communication show when I have a guest. And then I invite you, of course, to go to my website, I’m the biz communication guy. So quite logically, my website is biz communication guy, not calm. While you’re on my website, take a look at my services for corporations and leaders. And then I want you after that, I encourage you, I invite you to give me a phone call. Number is 678-316-4300. And that phone call, we can discuss and the initial call introductory call will be no calls, no obligation, just an exploratory discussion of your communication challenges and problems and how I can assist you with them. So I encourage you to do that. And I invite you again to stick with us for future versions of the biz communication show either by video, our podcast encourage you to do that. Thanks again very much for being with me today. The biz communication guy bringing you winning words and ways for your business, so that you can boost your business with winning communication strategies. Again, thanks for being with me, Bill Lampton the biz communication guy
