Sunday, March 11, 2007

Changing People's Minds by Communicating with Emotion

The way to move people to action is through emotion. Whether you want to change someone's mind or get them to take action on something they are already in agreement with. Emotion is the key. Think of emotion as energy in motion. People respond to emotion and make decision based on emotions and then justify their decisions with logic and rational arguments and then defend their decisions with supportive facts. So to change someone's mind you must give them both the emotional reasons and the rational arguments. This will require you to first uncover their true motivations, drivers, desires and wants as well as their needs. Communicating with emotion means using energy and enthusiasm to connect at all levels - mental, emotional and spiritual. Communicating with emotion means demonstrating your conviction in your position, argument or beliefs.
“The height of your accomplishments will equal the depth of your convictions.” - William F. Scolavino
You earn the right to ask questions if they are motivated by your sincere interest to understand other people and their situation. Then listen with your eyes. Yes, with your eyes...

  • 7% Verbal (Words only)
  • 38% Verbal (tone of voice, speed of speech, facial expressions, etc.)
  • 55% Non Verbal (Body language)

If you listen only with your ears you can expected to get 45% of the message at the very best, because the greater part of the information is emotional and is communicated through visually observable indicators like facial expressions and body language.
Great salespeople use emotion to connect and communicate with others, earn the right to ask diagnostic questions and listen with their eyes and hear with their minds.

"Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know.”