Persuasion – Page 4 – understand-culture

Citibank survey

A recent survey of Citibank branches in four countries (the United States, Germany, China, and Spain) was conducted to determine the most effective persuasion methods for employees to use in order to convince their colleagues to do a favor for them. All four countries had very different results.

The survey showed that Americans are more likely to be persuaded to help their colleagues if there’s something in it for them, or if they owe their colleagues a favor. They tended to ask questions like “What will I get out of this?” and “What has this person done for me?”

Germans, on the other hand, were more likely to be persuaded to help if the favor stayed within the rules of the organization. They tended to ask questions like “According to the official regulations, am I supposed to help?”

“Sell me this pen”

At some point during the life of every American they hear the figure of speech: “You sell yourself first, then your product or service.” The presenter needs initially to get the audience to accept them as interesting, motivated, experienced, as a person with expertise, worth listening to.

This is Leonardo DiCaprio in the 2013 Martin Scorsese-film Wolf of Wall Street.

It is the initial hurdle the presenter needs to overcome, the first yes to be gained. The audience needs to be convinced of the messenger before being convinced by the message. Otherwise audiences ask themselves “If the presenter isn’t convinced of himself, why should I be convinced?”

In amazon.com there are 226 results when searching for “sell yourself first.” On YouTube 37,900 videos are found. The bookstore chain Barnes and Nobles sells 24 books related to “sell yourself first” with titles such as:

Invisible to Remarkable: In Today’s Job Market, You Need to Sell Yourself as ‘Talent’, Not Just Someone Looking for Work…, Good in a Room: How to Sell Yourself (and Your Ideas) and Win Over Any Audience…, or The One Minute Sales Person: The Quickest Way to Sell People on Yourself, Your Services, Products, or Ideas—at Work and in Life.

Celebrity Endorsements

Celebrity endorsements help in the sale of many products in the United States. A famous person links themself personally to a specific product or service in an advertisement, explicitly or indirectly saying:

“I use this product. It is good. I like it. You will like it, too.” The hope is that potential customers will respond with “I like, respect, admire that celebrity. If it is good enough for them, it must be good enough for me. I‘ll buy.”

Golf champion Tiger Woods signed endorsement deals with General Motors, General Mills, American Express, Accenture and Nike. In 2000, Woods signed with Nike a 5-year, $105 million contract, which became the largest endorsement deal ever signed by an athlete at the time. Woods is frequently seen wearing Nike apparel during tournaments and has a building named after him at Nike headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon.

KISS

The acronym for “keep it simple, stupid” is attributed to Kelly Johnson, an engineer at the U.S. weapons company Lockheed. Although there are several other variations, the principle states that systems work best if they are kept simple.

Complexity should be avoided. Johnson had given a team of design engineers a set of tools, then challenged them to design a jet aircraft which can be repaired by an average mechanic under war conditions with these tools only.

There is nothing original about KISS, however. See the statement attributed to William of Ockham that “among competing hypotheses, the one that makes the fewest assumptions should be selected”; to Leonardo da Vinci that “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”; to Mies van der Rohe that “less is more”; and to Antoine de Saint Exupéry “It seems that perfection is reached not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away“.

Personal Branding

Personal branding is not new. People have always taken into consideration how they are perceived by those they are trying to persuade. It is natural that the marketing techniques used to sell products are being applied to selling a person, or a person’s skills, experience, value.

Books, seminars and companies advise individuals on how to best manage their reputation in the Internet. Google, Facebook, LinkedIn and other forums and communities exert influence on how people are perceived. Perceptions are personal and subjective. Branding means presenting the messenger in the most positive light.

See what books Amazon offers on personal branding.

Business Schools

American business schools offer degrees in business administration. The focus is primarily on analyzing quantifiable factors. The predominant subjects are finance, accounting, statistics. The methods are data-driven, structured and rigorous. The goal is to be as scientific as possible.

As of 2012 there were 662 business schools in the United States. Out of 436 schools reporting, over 168,000 students were enrolled in Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) programs in 2012 alone. From 2008-2009, 347,985 Bachelor’s degrees, 168,375 Master’s Degrees and 2,123 Ph.D.s were conferred in Business and Management. Many Americans believe in the the discipline of business administration.

Legal Case Method

The case method utilized in business schools is also used in American law schools. It relies on the principle that the most effective way to learn American law is to scrutinize judicial opinions which have become the law.

Law school cases allow students to discern a legal rule, prompting students to test their knowledge in simulated situations. This sensitivity towards facts and reliance on previous judicial rulings is deeply imbedded in the legal system in the United States.

Business Storytelling

Business Storytelling for Dummies. Author Karen Dietz. What does amazon(dot)com say about the book in order to promote it?

Learn to: translate data, facts, and figures into rich, captivating messages; harness the power of good storytelling to influence and motivate employees; effectively convey messages to buyers and funders; connect with your audience and drive your business to new heights; use storytelling to influence people and move them to action

Use stories to tap into their imaginations and translate sterile facts and stagnant case studies into exciting concepts they can identify with.

A Love-Hate Relationship

Americans have a love-hate relationship with theory. On the one side the U.S. has many world-renowned institutions of science and higher learning. Americans are proud of the great scientists and thinkers the country has produced.

On the other hand Americans are skeptical of theory, which for them is almost by definition a separation from reality, from experience. The more education a person has, the fear is, the more detached, impractical, and inexperienced they are.

The “ivory tower” is a figure of speech that describes a state of privileged seclusion from the facts and practicalities of the real world. Some intellectuals are often perceived to be living in an “ivory tower,” detached from real world experiences.

“Mark your man”

Typing “close the sale” in amazon.com led to 282,687 book titles. That tells us how much Americans in sales focus on that one aspect of a customer-supplier relationship. Typical titles are:

Secrets of Closing the Sale. Sales, The Science of Selling! Changing the Sales Conversation. Sales: How to Master the Art of Selling. Close the Deal! The Art of Closing the Sales!

“how to close the sale” led to 3.67 billion hits in Google. Selling in the U.S. is critical to success. Many Americans work in sales. They all have to know how to “close the sale” (or they go hungry).