Persuading People Who Don't Want to be Persuaded
By Kevin Hogan, Author of Covert Hypnosis

There are some kinds of situations where/when people are very difficult to persuade. Others where they are too easy.

Each page of this article will reveal many secrets that no one wants to tell you because most of them are REALLY uncomfortable to think about. They make your heart race. They even bug me, and I'm pretty unflappable when it comes to human/consumer behavior.

Aside from dealing with these polarities...we'll also do one other thing...if you have kids I might be able to show you how to save their lives from deadly persuasion.

Today we find out how to persuade in those tough situations...and we take a look at the beliefs and behaviors that make people not only TOO persuadable but going past the redline and either being taken advantage of, or asking to be taken advantage of...

There are uncomfortable secrets here...and they have nothing to do with visualizing...these secrets all revolve around one of the laws of persuasion....

Who Pays More?

In the good ole USA, we know white women pay more for the same vehicle than a white man. (Interesting: Black men in America pay much more for the same car than their white counterparts and they pay dramatically more than black women. In all cases, best prices are obtained by white men.)

Two Factors Lead to More Sales

Astute salespeople recognize that women are not only looking at and buying cars more, they often don't have a grasp of pricing to the degree of their male counterparts. But there is more at work than pricing knowledge.

The other factor? Women want to make more important buying decisions in 2007 than they did in 1977. Those two facts tied together make for profitable deals.

Quick analysis for both sides:

When people feel some cultural bias, or that they are a minority... (for example, many women believe they are a minority, this is obviously not accurate, as there are a whole bunch more women than men in the United States, and for that matter in college and earning degrees...but it isn't the FACT that matters in decision making and behavior, it is the belief and the feeling that will influence people's behavior most)

In raw no BS english: Black Men pay more than Black Women by a lot. Black women pay a lot more than white women and white women pay a lot more than white men.

Car buying is typically either the biggest or second biggest decision a person makes.

You have people who have felt "disrespected" and as anyone will tell you, people are generally disrespected because of two things. Their behavior or their decision making ability. The disrespect can be real, perceived, both, it doesn't matter.

Thus you have definite internal belief system norms among various demographics, that are scary predictable. From a self-actualization/self-esteem/self-worth point of view, certain people MUST make a decision to buy a car and want to feel empowered by that decision.

I find it very hard to believe that a bunch of white guys are all that more intelligent than a bunch of black guys when it comes to cars. (Especially if I'm in the mix.)

It goes much deeper. It goes to The Self and how The Self believes they are SEEN by other members of their peer group. (I'll come back to this later. For now, let this be uncomfortable because this isn't just about gender or race...it gets more fascinating and more gritty.)

Want to know what happens when people have these feelings inside and what people of influence and those dealing with persuasive situations should do?

Tip for consumer: If you are not completely familiar with costs on vehicles, get in touch with someone who is and have them explain pricing, invoice, holdbacks and value retention...this is not a great time to let ego get involved. In fact, if you want to be smart, if you aren't a white guy, bring a white guy with you to the dealership. He's not smarter, he just gets a better price on the same car. Otherwise go by yourself and spend more, then write and tell me that you "got a really good deal."

There's a LOT of ego involved in buying a car.

Let me categorically state that I am egoless in this area. I have had my clock totally cleaned buying a car and that was not just one time. It was a number of times. That changed when I started reading Consumer Reports and Edmunds. (Thank you god) I don't know much more now, but I have access to information.

Tip for dealers: Your job is to optimize your knowledge of consumer behavior. As long as women are paying more for the same car, why aren't you marketing more to women? Your competitor is and he's cleaning up. Women's buying patterns alone account for a significant portion of the increase in car prices over the last decade.

Who Holds the Power?

Aren't car dealers evil? You know...having a quality position in Dante's Inferno?

No. Their business, with a few exceptions, is the same as anyone else's.

Your Uncle John is a mechanic there and your Aunt Jane is on the floor. They employ people and the car industry employs vast amounts of people.... If they don't sell cars at a high price, they have to let people go. That simple.....

What's "evil" (from the consumer viewpoint) is walking into the place not knowing what a holdback is and pretending to make a "decision" for your family. (M or F).....

The consumer COULD have all the control in car buying, but they almost always choose to give all their power to the dealer. It is a choice and it is an ego driven choice.

In some respects, life is a game.
In some respects, buying and selling is a game.

Whether you're selling or buying you might want to ponder that thought.

If Car Buying Were a Game

If buying a car were a game, what rules would be involved? How would you win? What would you need?

If you were selling a car, what rules would be involved? How would you win? What would you need?

And, for the seller, if you want to keep a customer, what will you do to win the future game?

So we know that women continuing to buy more expensive items is not going to be a factor or a persuasive difficulty. (And indeed all research bears this out.)

The Difficult to Persuade

However, there is a group of people who is the most difficult to change their behavior and persuasion is mostly resisted.

Who?

KEYPOINT: The person who is "addicted" to a product or could become addicted to a product, when told not to use that product, actually polarize and not only tend to buy the product, but use it, defend it, and evangelize it to others.

You tell them don't buy it and they buy it.

Again, who is this person?

They are the person who hears this...

* "Don't you go to that cult..." (The church down the street from yours.)

* "Don't look at that X on line..."

* "Don't do that behavior...."

* "Don't...."

Recent research breaks it all down to a very specific situation and how you can know what the person will do. Here it is...

The Anti-Sell

Some anti-smoking ads are simply ineffective, while others actually make youth more likely to light up. Fortunately, some are successful, and a new University of Georgia study helps explain why.

Researchers found that anti-smoking ads are most effective when they convince youth that their friends are listening to the ads. Otherwise, the ads appear to stimulate the rebellious and curious nature of youth, making them more interested in smoking. (Credit: iStockphoto/Mitar Gavric)

Hye-Jin Paek, assistant professor at the UGA Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, found that anti-smoking ads are most effective when they convince youth that their friends are listening to the ads. Otherwise, the ads appear to stimulate the rebellious and curious nature of youth, making them more interested in smoking. Paek and co-author Albert Gunther from the University of Wisconsin-Madison examined data from surveys of nearly 1,700 middle school students, and their results appear in the August issue of the journal Communication Research.

"Anti-smoking ads have the greatest impact on smoking attitudes and behavior when adolescents think that their peers are listening to those messages," Paek said. "And that makes sense because people are more likely to listen to what their close peers say rather than what the media says."

Evidence that anti-smoking ads have the potential to make youth more likely to smoke has been accumulating for the past five years. Paek and Gunther's study adds to that evidence and helps explain how anti-smoking ads can be effective.

How?

The researchers surveyed students in four middle schools about their exposure to anti-smoking ads and their intentions to smoke. They found that, overall, the more the students were exposed to anti-smoking messages, the more inclined they were to smoke.

The exception -- where exposure to anti-smoking ads correlated with a reduced intention to smoke -- occurred among students who said their friends were influenced by anti-smoking messages.

"Perception is sometimes more powerful than actual behavior," Paek said. "What we've found is that it doesn't necessarily matter how your friends respond to the ads, but how you think your friends are responding."

Paek said many health campaigns assume that anti-smoking messages have a simple, direct and strong impact on individuals. She said that by understanding the indirect route that messages often take, health communicators can design more effective ads.

Her results suggest that campaigns don't work by convincing individuals to avoid tobacco, but rather by helping change the social norms surrounding smoking. With that in mind, she said, campaigns should be designed for a sustained, multi-year effort.

The way the message is designed is critically important, too. Rather than using an authoritarian approach along the lines of "just say no," Paek urges health communicators to emphasize that most youth don't smoke, and for good reasons.

"Advertising professionals have only recently become involved in anti-smoking campaigns," she said. "We need to develop more sophisticated appeals."

THE SECRET - Appeal to a perception of a NORM you create in your ad/message and they will comply.

Or you can do what is politically correct and have a lot of people die of cancer...

About the Author:
Kevin Hogan is the author of Covert Hypnosis, a guidebook that Dr. Joe Vitale (star of "The Secret" movie) has said to be "the most powerful stuff I've EVER seen for selling, persuading, and motivating." Kevin is the nation's leading body language expert. He is a dynamic, well-known international motivational and inspirational keynote speaker, consultant and corporate trainer. He has trained persuasion, sales and marketing skills to leaders in the government of Poland, employees from Boeing, Microsoft, Starbucks, Meespierson, Auntie Anne's, Cargill, Pillsbury, Carlson Companies, Fortis, Great Clips, the State of Minnesota, 3M, The United States Postal Service and numerous other Fortune 500 companies. He recently spoke to The Inner Circle and at the Million Dollar Roundtable (MDRT) convention.


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