Persuasion Without Thought
There’s a bumper sticker I saw recently that stated, “Don’t believe everything you think.” Ironically, I found this oddly thought provoking. Something about it resonated with me. There’s something to the idea that thinking is a tiny bit overrated.
Wikipedia defines thought or thinking as: a mental process that grants beings to model the world and to deal with it effectively according to their objectives, plans, ends and desires.
According to C.S. Lewis there are three levels of human thought. The first level is ‘will’. The will contains everything that is real and factual. These thoughts influence your day to day actions and are usually influencing you on a sub/other-than-conscious level.
‘The intellect’ is the second level. The intellect consists mainly of your conscious thoughts and decisions and includes things that you’ve studied, academics, and other true and verifiable information.
And the third level of thought is fantasy. It’s the most random and often makes very little sense at all. It is most active in kids and artists but even non-artistic adults have the potential for rich fantasy lives. For persuasion purposes, we are most likely to have the ideal advantage dealing with the will and fantasy aspects of our prospects and clients as these are the most malleable and less entrenched in “reason”. For example, with the fantasy level, we can create pictures for our prospects which they will internally experience of what their life will be like once they are involved with our product or service.
When we give our prospects and clients images or a “fantasy” of what we’ve to offer them, we’ve got them already partially invested in having or owning or participating in our product or service. This can be done simply by saying, “Picture yourself as having reached X. . .” or “What will it look like when you have Y?” and fill in the X and Y with their highest criteria. For extra power, look to their orientation — whether they’re towards or away from in the way they view the specific item at hand. Tailor your language to go in the same direction.
The will is also an interesting area to work with in terms of persuasion. We all like to think we have strong or solid wills, and this might be true for some of us. I know I am not someone who is easily swayed or influenced and I believe my students and clients, in part because of the work we do together and the information and material they’ve learned in MaxPersuasion, are not easily moved either. However, most of the world doesn’t have this information and that’s a distinct advantage as we learn how to unlock the minds of our affluent prospects and clients.
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