A Secret Persuasion Handbook, or, Would You Push the Button?

In order to write one of my next books (Buying Trances: A New Psychology of Sales and Marketing, to be published in 2007), I read hundreds of books on sales, marketing, psychology, and persuasion. Many of them you already know. Some you don’t. Here’s one I bet you probably never heard of but should go get today:

Secrets of Libertarian Persuasion: Discover the keys to opening people’s hearts and minds to liberty by Michael Cloud.

This is from The Advocates for Self-Government Bill of Rights Press. Whatever you think of politics, I think you should get this book. It shares persuasion methods I’ve never heard of before, but are heart-felt and powerful. For example:

The “Would You Push the Button?” technique seems incredibly revealing for helping people see for themselves their own thinking process. As Cloud points out in his brief but readable book, people aren’t convinced of anything unless they convince themselves of it. So, you play into that human trait. You ask the button question to find out what people really think.

In some cases, they will talk themselves out of their own position once they hear their own views spoken out loud.

In other cases, they give you something to work with to deepen the discussion.

The way it works is this:

Simply ask, “If there were a button in front of you, and by pushing that button you could completely remove/repeal/end (fill in the blank), would you push the button?”

After they respond, you can ask why questions to further explore their reasoning.

Cloud also suggests asking follow-up questions such as, “What would be the best benefits?” and “How would things be dramatically different?”

Cloud’s examples are in the world of politics, of course, but what if we borrowed the method (which he says he learned from Leonard Read) and use it in self-growth or selling situations?

An example might be:

“If there were a button in front of you, and by pushing that button you would never be unhappy about anything ever again, would you push that button?”

Or another example might be:

“If there were a button in front of you, and by pushing that button you could remove all your objections to buying this book right now, would you push that button?”

Secrets of Libertarian Persuasion contains many other short but powerful methods of persuasion. It’s also written well, is breezy reading, and makes you think.

It also contains wonderful stories. One of my favorites is about IBM founder Thomas Watson telling a struggling writer the secret to success. Watson says –

“Double your failure rate.”

I suggest you get this book.

See www.billofrightspress.com

Ao Akua,

Joe
www.mrfire.com

PS — Scott York and I will be hosting a free teleconference call on Wednesday, August 30th, at 8 pm Central to explain www.yourbusinessbody.com and the $150,000 challenge. We’ll also answer your questions. Call will last about 30 minutes. Mark down the following:
When: Wednesday, August 30th, 2006.
Time: 8:00 p.m. Central (9:00 p.m. Eastern)
Phone Number: (641) 297-7200 code 383547
Note – All you pay is long distance phone charges. The call is limited to the first 100 people.