What to Say When Things Get Tough: Business Communication Strategies for Winning People Over When They're Angry, Worried and Suspicious of

Chapter 1

THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE ART

To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful.

—EDWARD R. MURROW,AMERICAN BROADCAST JOURNALIST

 

Implementing the strategies you’ll need to win over angry, worried, and suspicious people involves a mixture of art and science. In this book, we’re going to focus mostly on the art: how to tell a story; how to weave your messages into responses to difficult questions; how to use verbal and nonverbal cues to build trust and credibility; how to avoid traps and escape from them if you fall in. One of the messages I hope to drive home is that communicating in tough situations is in large part a performance, similar to what a singer does on stage ...