Effective Persuasion

What is persuasion and why is it important as a business tool?

The definitions of persuasion are:

"the action or process of persuading someone or of being persuaded to do or believe something." Or a means to persuading someone to do or believe something".

So why would persuasion being an effective business tool? 
As persuasion is an art or skill  which is generally linked to selling skills, having the abililty to approach your customers, using the knowledge to talk features, benefits, value add of this proposition, overcoming any objections, to get buy-in for the proposal/project.

The skill of persuading someone is linked to personal credibility, the more credibility and trust you have with a colleague, manager, client the more ability you will have to persuade and influence that persons decision.

As credibility is generally governed by the head, trust is generally governed by the heart, persuasion is generally governed by the feet or action.  The more we can persuade and influence others the more power HR professionals will have to shape policy, procedures or ensure favourable treatment from clients and management teams concerning business objectives and organisational success.  Therefore, HR professionals not only need to effective communicators but also persuasive ones.

This abstract was taken out of the HRINZ HR Advantage Course run by Kris Cooper which covers topics such as  how to build, trust, credibility, persuasion and influence within your business for HR professionals. 

HR Tool Kit:

• Dealing with Difficult Employees