Success Advice
7 Powerful Ways Successful People Persuade Their Way to the Top
Have you ever wondered how successful people always have their way? When they speak, everyone listens. If they have a request, they meet ZERO resistance. Whatever they do, there’s always a crowd to cheer them on.
You can’t attribute it to good looks; not every entrepreneur out there looks like Bradley Cooper or Brad Pitt. You also can’t blame wealth. Some of the most successful people came from poverty. They built their business through sheer effort and work ethic.
So how? In my investigation, I found one common thread: they know how to persuade. They know what “hot buttons” to press to make people act. This is a highly complex skill they mastered to win businesses, create a tribe of fans, and live the 1% life. If you want to be successful, you need to learn how to persuade…because in this world, you’re either the persuader or the persuaded.
The 6 Principles of Persuasion by Dr. Cialdini
Dr. Robert Cialdini’s best-selling book, Influence, became the “go-to” book for influence and persuasion. In his book, he explains the 6 principles of persuasion:
- Reciprocity
- Commitment and consistency
- Social proof
- Authority
- Liking
- Scarcity
Below you’ll see how successful people put these principles into action:
1. They shift your paradigms
A paradigm is how you look at the world. It’s what you perceive as normal or standard. You don’t expect it to change, you believe “this is how things should be.” Now, here comes a person who shifts your paradigm and opens you to a new world where everything is bright, easy, and fun. You’re instantly hooked! And then he constantly supplies you with “aha” moments and epiphanies.
Once your paradigm shifts to theirs, this person becomes your thought-leader, your head-honcho, and the big guy. And we all know we’d do anything for a person we follow, admire, and respect. Hot button pressed: Authority
2. They side with you to fight your enemies
Nothing bonds more than having a common enemy. If a person helps you defeat an enemy, not only will you thank them, but you’ll be grateful for their existence. The enemy doesn’t even have to be a person, it can be a struggle, a challenge, an event, a pain or frustration. Hot button pressed: Liking
3. They confirm your suspicions
We want confirmation about what we want to believe, not just want we currently believe. I know it’s kind of sad, but this is how most of us think. That’s why when an expert finally confirms our suspicions, we latch on to them in a heartbeat. We don’t even think about it. Why? Because we love telling people “I told you so!” We feel superior. The thoughts and opinions we secretly held are now validated and just like #1, the person who confirms our suspicions becomes our thought-leader. Hot button pressed: Commitment
4. They encourage your dreams
The world is full of naysayers. Most of them are losers who haven’t done zilch in their life. They just throw rocks at people who are attempting to transcend mediocrity. Successful people are encouragers, they’re teachers and they want other people to succeed. They don’t bash other businesses or call people names, they elevate all the people around them. That’s why people love to be around them. They have a proven track record of success and are willing to share it to anyone who listens. Hot Button: Consistency
“Since 95 percent of the people are imitators and only 5 percent initiators, people are persuaded more by the actions of others than by any proof we can offer.” – Robert Cialdini
5. They justify your failures
“Every mistake, failure, accident, and misfortune that came your way is not your fault.” You know that’s not true, yet, you want it to be true. You want to shift all the blame to someone or something else.
This is the mentality of 99.9% of the population. If you want to succeed, eliminate this attitude NOW. If you don’t, you’ll always have the *victim mentality* preventing you from succeeding. Once you erase it from your system, tap into this fact to persuade people around you. Successful people always found creative ways to justify a person’s failures without lying or being unethical. Hot button: Reciprocity
6. They want you to belong
Ever since we were born, we wanted to belong. We want to be accepted, to feel safe, and be cared for by a community. Each of us longs for this either consciously or subconsciously.
This need goes back to our ancestors. Back then, if you were kicked out of a tribe you were good as dead. No one is going to protect you against the tigers and have your back while you rested. That’s why we desperately want to belong.
Successful people know this all too well. That’s why they give this as a reward for buying their product, promoting their cause, or anything they want you to do. You’ll finally belong if you do anything he/she says. Hot button: Social Proof
“We like people who are similar to us. This fact seems to hold true whether the similarity is in the area of opinions, personality traits, background, or life-style.” – Robert Cialdini
7. They’re protective of their time
The more limited edition a product is, the more value it has. For example: rare baseball cards, luxury cars, 5-star hotels, 5-star restaurants…the list goes on and on. The same goes with successful people, you can’t get ahold of them quickly, you have to go through hoops, talk to “their people” before you can even request a meeting.
Yet you still do this and desire to grab their attention because you know it’s valuable. Some of them are actually doing this to protect their time. Some are doing this to position themselves as scarce, because the less you have of them, the more you want them. Once they decide to give you their attention, you’re all eyes and ears. Hot button: Scarcity
By doing these 7 things, you’re triggering the 6 principles of persuasion. As you can see, it’s not that hard to do. With a little bit of research and focus, you can persuade ANYONE on the planet. You don’t even have to do all 7, pick one and use it over and over again. You’ll be surprised how effective these methods will be.
Out of the 7, which do you want to apply today? Comment below!
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How to Alter Your Business Approach With Technological Advancements
Keeping up with technological trends has become a challenge for almost every business owner.
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.
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