Persuade

5Facilitating Action

“If you are not moving closer to what you want in sales (or in life), you probably aren't doing enough asking.”

– Jack Canfield, Chicken Soup for the Soul

Now that you have laid the groundwork, you are ready to move on to the final step of the Four-Step Process of Influence and Persuasion: Facilitating Action. No matter how much groundwork you have laid, getting the other party to act, to do what you want, is often the hardest and scariest part. Without this last part, our efforts are not rewarded, not to mention no one likes to hear no. As a result, in this chapter, you will learn various tactics and tips to increase the likelihood that people follow through.

Facilitating Action

As we have noted throughout the book, influence and persuasion are involved in nearly every interaction we have with another person, such as when you are deciding which movie to see with a spouse, convincing your kids to go to bed, asking a colleague for help on a project, seeking additional budget from a boss, or making a presentation to a large audience. If you take a step back and review these examples, along with any others you can think of, you will see they are similar to sales. Yes, we said the dirty word: sales. We feel, as does Daniel Pink, in his book To Sell Is Human, that all of these influencing situations are you selling your ideas.⁴³ You are convincing the other party to buy your concept. Though many of you reading this book are not “in sales,” you are, in fact, ...