“Sell me this pen” is the last thing Jordan Belfort’s character says in The Wolf of Wall Street, before the movie ends. It also is a gateway to understanding some of the basic psychology behind persuasion.
Selling the pen is only a misdirection; the real goal is to understand how to persuade Jordan that he needs or wants this pen.
The skills that help you sell the pen to Jordan are the same that helps you convince your family to watch the movie you want to watch or direct an argument to the merits of your proposal. Through persuasion, you convince people and move their viewpoints to your side of the field.
Persuasion is a skill that is easily responsible for some of the best ideas in the world. If you wish to leverage this skillset to your advantage, it’s important to acclimatize ourselves with a basic toolkit.
Some key ideas to have in your persuasion toolkit are:
- Build a relationship. Active listening simply means to listen – to really, carefully listen – to your audience. Understand their perspectives and their background. By doing so and by meaningfully responding to their questions and engaging with their ideas, you are more likely to be liked by the audience. Further, being open to their ideas and accepting of their criticism also opens a reciprocal relation between you and the audience.
- Know the audience thoroughly and understand how they perceive value. Taking the example of selling a pen, understand how Jordan might view the pen. Is it a status symbol, or is it purely functional? Does he buy the pen himself? What are his views on handwritten, personal notes? These are some questions that will help develop a granular understanding of what is needed to persuade the audience to buy the product.
- Finally, both the above ideas are key to gaining trust and faith. Persuasion involves finding an emotional or instinctive hook, and then finding what makes the other parties want to align with you or your product. Knowing how to approach your audience and listening very carefully to their wants and needs is an important way to gain their trust, allowing you to persuade them towards your viewpoint.