Connect with us

Success Advice

The Payoff of Paying Close Attention

Analogue marking is a powerful tool for persuasion

Published

on

Image Credit: Unsplash

When someone is telling a story, which parts of the story do you pay most attention to? Beyond your awareness, you are likely to be unconsciously directed by the speaker to pay closer attention to specific areas of the story — the spots where they place emphasis.

The storyteller may raise their voice, move their hand, or use a different tone for the most critical parts of their story, and this usually gets our subconscious attention. In fact, the same principle applies to the written word.

You probably noticed the word “parts” in the first sentence of this article since it is bolded. In the world of neuroscience, we call this emphasis analogue marking, and it’s a strategy that’s important to use in your day-to-day interactions as you become a better persuader.

Making the Subconscious Conscious

As a listener, you can benefit from bringing analogue marking into your conscious awareness. Some speakers analogue mark without realizing it, and it’s highly beneficial to pay attention to their cues. A memorable example is from a story about Milton Erickson, as a student, before he founded the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis. 

Apparently, during a series of lectures, Erickson paid special attention to the moments when his professor changed his tone, placed greater emphasis on certain details, and repeated himself. Many students would simply have heard the subtle changes in delivery without thinking further of their importance. 

Erickson made note of these changes in emphasis and, as part of his exam preparation, he only studied the specific material the professor had analogue marked.

After the exam, the professor confronted Erickson, accusing him of cheating. It turns out he had achieved an exceptionally high mark. That was how well Erickson was able to read his professor by understanding and paying attention to his use of analogue marking. 

He essentially knew which specific material would be on the exam based on how his professor had delivered the material. Erickson turned over his notes to prove to the professor that he had simply followed the teacher’s own unconscious cues. 

Essentially, Erickson was reading the professor’s “tells,” just as one would read an opponent during a poker game.

Erickson had a special talent for paying close attention to people. If you’d like to enhance your skills in this area, rest assured that active listening can be improved with practice. In time, you will consciously notice things that previously were only available to you on a subconscious level.

To begin, pay attention to:

  • Gestures and body language
  • The volume at which the person is speaking
  • The tone the person is using
  • The cadence of the person’s speech

The more that you practice paying attention to these subtle communication signals, the better you will be at identifying and making use of them. Eventually, you’ll become better at consciously leveraging your own style of analogue marking, which is a valuable persuasion tool.

Using Analogue Marking in Persuasion

Remember, you can analogue mark to place greater emphasis on some of the information you’re communicating and draw your audience’s attention to it. The same tactics apply as with learning to be an active listener. 

That is, you can analogue mark by changing your tone, increasing or lowering your volume, slowing or quickening your speech, or using a gesture. As any skilled orator will tell you, using an analogue mark is best done subtly. Even small changes will greatly impact people’s interpretation of your words.

Ask Questions Intentionally!

The questions that you ask yourself and others send the imagination on a quest. It’s all about understanding the usually subconscious implications of the kind of question you ask. For example, consider the difference between these two questions:

  1. Why are you dissatisfied?
  2. What would make you feel satisfied?

Ultimately, these questions engage and guide the imagination in very different directions, although one may initially think they have a similar intention. The first leads the listener’s imagination on a quest to search for supporting evidence around being disappointed. The second engages and guides the imagination in the direction of searching for fulfillment. 

We can also add another layer by applying analogue marking to our questions (as you see with the words that are bolded above) to further increase our influence at a subconscious level by emphasizing the desired state.  

Searching for an objective answer to a question? Start by finding a neutral way to phrase the question (or ask in several different ways). Keep in mind that, unlike a scientist, as a persuader you are intentional, rather than objective. You’re always working towards moving someone from their current state to the desired state. 

So, if you want someone to feel more satisfied, you’ll increase your influence by asking the question that sends their imagination on a search for satisfaction. You can also utilize analogue marking to highlight the instruction to feel satisfied

By phrasing and delivering the question this way, you are instilling thoughts in the other person, guiding them to feel more satisfied, empowering them to reframe their experience in a more positive way. Over time, these small, subtle changes in your language will add up.

Think, Act, Do

Analogue marking is a powerful tool for persuasion because it helps shift someone’s mindset, moving them towards the desired state, even when they are unaware of what you are doing. By paying more attention to other people’s subconscious analogue marking, you will set them in motion from thinking to then acting in the desired manner. 

Stephen McGarvey is an international speaker, an expert on persuasion and influence, and the founder of a boutique consulting firm, Solutions In Mind. He assists corporations and audiences around the world in solving difficult communications problems by guiding them on an engaging, fast-paced, fascinating journey inside the unconscious mind. His new book is the USA Today and Wall Street Journal #1 Best Seller  Ignite a Shift: Engaging Minds, Guiding Emotions and Driving Behavior (Morgan James Publishing, July 2022). Learn more at solutionsinmind.com.

Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Success Advice

How to Alter Your Business Approach With Technological Advancements

Keeping up with technological trends has become a challenge for almost every business owner.

Published

on

altering business approach
Image Credit: Midjourney

Technology’s evolution has impacted everything, and business is no exception. Keeping up with technological trends has become a challenge for almost every business owner. Entrepreneurs unable to do so are being wiped out of the market.

There is no doubt that AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) have taken over the business world. These technological advancements are impacting decision-making, success percentages, and other entrepreneurial aspects.

Adapting to these developments is integral to business success. Let’s explore how you can accomplish these milestones.

Embed the strength of AI and ML.

AI has modified business operations in major ways. For instance, companies have employed bots for customer support. These bots go through an effective learning process via Machine Learning before being able to answer like humans.  

Bots can also perform detailed data analytics and make business moves with high success percentages.

ML is used more for the analysis of data chunks and generating successful predictions. This simply means that business owners do not have to worry about large-scale financial losses. 

In terms of deployment and usage, a reputed company like Netflix employs machine learning for decision-making.

Blockchain is increasing the count of business opportunities

Tampering of financial transactions is quite common and causes severe monetary damage to customers. With the rise of digital payments, this risk has increased. 

Blockchain is used to elevate your experience for monetary transfers. It combats penetrating events to extract confidential customer information. 

Most business sectors are using block chain but finance and supply chain management sections have a higher count. These two corporate sections have several monetary deposits and withdrawals taking place. 

In terms of percentage, approximately 72% and 5% of finance and supply chain firms have implemented block chain successfully.

Dedicate Yourself to Continuous Learning and Individual Development

You invest in learning some of the very important skills, including digital marketing, financial management, and how to gain customers as an entrepreneur.

You need to set up your knowledge base about doing business on Coursera and Udemy with the basics that are necessary for the business, building further by networking with experts through webinars.

Besides, Agile methodology will introduce elasticity to your company: this review and feedback system with further correction regularly will allow for enhancing efficiency and promptly reacting to the market.

Developing key skills to achieve goals

Running a business successfully is not only about having niche/domain knowledge. Business owners need to have communication / soft skills as well in addition to niche information.

Here are some key technical/domain-related areas that business owners should have a strong grip on.

Data Storage on Cloud: These days, companies do not store their data on physical servers. Therefore business owners should know how data is stored/edited/removed/updated via AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and other platforms.

Data Analysis/Interpretation Qualities: These days, data is as precious as gold. Business owners with data analysis abilities make correct predictions. As a result, their ventures grow in volume.

Development/Coding Knowledge

Programming knowledge gives business owners an edge whether the application is developed in-house or outsourced. It assists in getting updates deployed and handling application underperformance without getting professional support every time.

Hacking proof framework

There is no benefit of having an advanced automated system if can be penetrated. Successful business owners have above-average knowledge of cyber security and hacking attempts. They are able to choose top-notch anti-hacking software without much of an ambiguity.

Communication Abilities/Soft Skills

Here are some key communication qualities that business owners should have:

Communication/Conversation: Business owners should use to-the-point sentences in both written and oral communication.

Issue Resolution Abilities: Business owners should be able to drill down to problems and solve them. This is done successfully only if an entrepreneur has in-depth business domain knowledge.

Agile Implementations

It is mandatory for business owners to have knowledge of iterative/agile models. With such a competitive environment, it is impossible for business owners to succeed without adopting an agile framework.

Create a productive well-crafted Business Strategy

A productive business venture starts with a clear vision. The first factor making a business successful is the idea behind it. It helps with endless growth and combating competition successfully. Katherine Philips once mentioned that business goals are inevitable if goals are set concretely.

  • Goals should be based on smart achievements instead of complexity. Focus on the value that each one of them adds. 
  • Business objectives should not be vague. Key indicators should be constructed to measure the success/failure of each milestone.
  • Be realistic when setting goals. Do not aim at impossible milestones since they can be demotivating.
  • Milestones/goals need to be time-bound. Set a completion deadline for each one of them. 
  • Business goals should not be alien. Owners can think out of the box but not be obsolete / unrelated.

Create a productive well-crafted Business Strategy

Business owners cannot succeed without having a network. Some tips help in this case. Attend conferences and professional gatherings to connect with other entrepreneurs.
Here are some other related points business owners should pay attention to.

  • Attend meetings and conferences to stay updated with trends and meet business owners who already have well-set ventures. This helps in enhancing the learning curve of new / growing entrepreneurs.
  • Being a part of business communities/groups is very productive. When one shares opinions and discusses decision-making tactics, it helps in preventing errors and enhancing success rate.
  • Even the most experienced business owners have mentors as learning never stops. Take part in mentorship programs so there is an assurance that you are following the correct roadmap.

Conclusion

There is absolutely no doubt that business dimensions have evolved with technological advancements. Successful entrepreneurs have grabbed these changes in due course of time and continue to evolve. On the other hand, people following old paths and conventional steps fade out of competition. In a nutshell, keep an eye on the processes and practices you follow as these factors decide success rate.

Continue Reading

Success Advice

Understanding the Power of Yes and No: How to Create Boundaries For Success

These words have a significant impact on how our success unfolds

Published

on

Creating legal boundaries
Image Credit: Midjourney

The two smallest yet most powerful words in life, “Yes” and “No,” have a big impact on our growth on both personal and professional levels. In addition to affecting the choices we make every day, these words have a significant impact on how our success unfolds. (more…)

Continue Reading

Motivation

From Couch Potato to Go-Getter: A Step-by-Step Motivation Plan for Everyone

By understanding what motivates you, you can turn your dreams into reality

Published

on

How to be motivated
Image Credit: Midjourney

Are you tired of feeling like a couch potato? Do you want to transform your life and become a go-getter? You’re not alone! Many people struggle with motivation, but the good news is that change is possible. (more…)

Continue Reading

Success Advice

10 Micro Financial Habits for More Wealth and Peace of Mind

The World Economic Forum still reports that half of U.S. adults lack financial literacy

Published

on

micro financial habits
Image Credit: Midjourney

You’ve heard about developing financial habits, but what about micro-financial habits? Micro habits are the tiny things you can do every day with minimal effort that, together, transform your future. (more…)

Continue Reading

Trending