Posted on: Monday, July 12, 2004
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AT WORK
Balance of logic, emotion has strongest influence
By Andrea Kay
Gannett News Service
Every time Brian, a financial consultant in Ohio, sits down with a prospective customer, he feels like a fake.
"I hate doing what they teach in our sales classes, which is to appeal to people's emotions," he says.
The facts should be enough, he rationalizes. "I'm telling the truth, giving them the facts they need. Why can't people just buy what I tell them?"
Markus, a manager at a company on the West Coast, also is perplexed by what he sees as illogical behavior.
He has a staff of 10 supervisors who are overloaded with work and, because of recent layoffs, fewer resources to get it done. When he got wind that they weren't letting their customer service representatives post for internal positions because they didn't want to lose them to other departments, he was livid.
"It was a stupid response," he said. "It's not the right thing to do, and it's hurting our business as a result. Why can't people just do the right thing?"
Brian and Markus may seem logical, but they're not being very smart. When it comes to influencing people, logic is only half the story. And if you're really being logical, you'll stop and think about how much emotion plays into how people react to whatever it is you want them to do.
"Our decision-making process relies on a mixture between emotion and its partner, logic," says Kurt W. Mortensen, author of "Maximum Influence: The 12 Universal Laws of Power Persuasion." But "you can't rely entirely on emotion until the logical side has been engaged," he says.
Logic appeals to our reason. And "reasoning is the process of drawing a conclusion based on evidence," he says, which can come as testimony, statistics, analogies and examples. When you use all four, you strengthen your position.
For instance, Brian could share an example of a client with a similar financial goal who purchased mutual funds as a long-term investment.
Too much data can overload people, however. You also need to win people's hearts by using emotion, the language of the unconscious mind, says Mortensen. "Emotion often outweighs our logic."
Markus did a good job of telling people what they needed to do for the good of the company. But he didn't pay attention to their emotional state — fear — and didn't get through.
"Emotions are the energy and very fuel of the persuasion process," says Mortensen. Without tapping into someone's emotions, your message has no strength. Before you address someone you want to:
Like Brian and Markus, most people would rather not deal with complex human emotions, Mortensen says, such as anger, patience, fear, shame, confidence, pity, kindness, contempt, indignation and envy.
But whatever your job, to get what you want while helping others get what you know they need, short of threatening, you will need to influence people. That will take a balance of logic and emotion.
Mortensen says it's about developing the ability to articulate logic that rings true while learning to use your human emotion radar.
Career consultant Andrea Kay can be reached at No. 133, 2692 Madison Road, Cincinnati, OH 45208 or andrea@andreakay.com.
