The Art of Woo: Using
Strategic Persuasion to Sell
Your Ideas
Mario Moussa, Ph.D., MBA
Co-Director, Wharton Strategic Persuasion Workshop
Senior Fellow, Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, The
University of Pennsylvania
[email protected]/267-549-6694
Goals
Establish the strategic persuasion framework
Research studies, concepts, stories and
examples.
Practice structured self-reflection.
Build a “checklist.”
Identify action steps.
2
How do you woo?
Woo is a relationship-based selling
process essential to leadership.
Now more than ever, good working
relationships are important to your
leadership success.
Even top-performers constantly
focus on improving their game.
Leadership is about the specifics.
“The tongue is the only tool that gets sharper with use.”
3
Coaching makes the best better.
Coaching in pro sports
considers the teaching
model naïve. It holds that
few people can achieve
and maintain their best
performance on their
own.
“Details create success.”
“The great challenge in
performing is listening to
yourself.”
Source: Atul Guwande, New Yorker, October 3, 2011
4
Two success factors
Self-Awareness
Situational Awareness
5
“Some of my most challenging negotiations
involve the people I work with.”
6
EQ or IQ?
• Earn as much as five times more.
• More effective than the disciplined
technical expert.
• IQ?
Not Important
Important
Very Important
Sources: Harvard Professor Lawrence Katz, quoted in “The Populist Myths on Income Inequality,” David Brooks,
New York Times, 9/7/06; Daniel Pink, A Whole New Mind.
7
Build “social capital.”
Higher social capital (measured as
more connections outside their
division) = Average of 15% more
earning power than those with
lower social capital.
Seen as having better ideas.
Enhanced performance:
31% more were evaluated as
“Far Exceed Expectations”
43% more were promoted to a
higher rank
Sources: Ronchi, D., Cross, R., & Burt, R.
8
Organizations are political.
95% of all organizations
are political to “some”
extent. Nearly half are
political to a “very great”
or “fair” extent.*
Political skills: strongest
predictor of
performance ratings,
outstripping by far both
intelligence and
personality traits.
Politics = the ability to sell ideas
* Sources: “How Frequent is Organizational Political Behavior,” Wickenberg & Kylen; “Political Skill at Work”
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Formal authority has limits.
“When you run General Electric, there
are 7 to 12 times a year when you
have to say, ‘you’re doing it my way.’
If you do it 18 times, the good people
will leave. If you do it three times, the
company falls apart.”
Big decisions require, on average,
consultation with twenty people. Little
decisions require consultation with
eight.
Will power is a limited resource.
Source: Jeff Immelt quoted in Joe Nocera, “Running G.E., Comfortable In His Skin,” NYT, C1, 6/9/07.
10
Silos are psychological.
Functions: “Recurring conflict is
inevitable”:
Time horizons: short or long.
Rewards: financial or professional.
Relationships: formal or informal.
Rules: strict or loose.
Business/Industry cultures.
Are you BP?
“You are ten minutes late for your ‘Good
Samaritan’ Lecture!’
“The most successful companies
extended their efforts beyond changing
existing structures and systems.”
Sources: Organization and its Environment, Lawrence and Lorch; Managing Across Borders, Barlett and Ghosal
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Here are your choices.
Influence
Persuasion
Negotiation
NEGOTIATION
NEGOTIATION
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Tune into the right channel.
A. Authority (emphasis on using formal position or rules)
B. Rationality (emphasis on using reasons)
C. Vision (emphasis on organizational goals, purposes, and aspirations)
D. Relationship (emphasis on liking, similarity, and reciprocity)
E. Interests/Incentives (emphasis on using trades and compromises)
F. Politics (emphasis on managing perceptions and building consensus)
Adapted from influence research conducted by David Kipnis and Gary Yukl, and other sources.
13
Self
Organization
14
Leadership reflection.
What is one small adjustment you can make in your communication
style (e.g., focus more on vision or relationships) to enhance your
effectiveness as an executive?
What are the situations in which it is most important to make this
adjustment?
Notes:
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
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Five Star
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Bono
Wooing is a four-step process.
1. Survey your situation: What is my idea, and
how is it better than the alternatives? What
are your goals? What are the biggest barriers?
Who are the influencers? What is your
“stepping stone” strategy?
2. Remove the barriers: Relationships,
Credibility, Beliefs, Interests, Styles.
3. Make your pitch: Use PCAN. Make your
message memorable.
4. Secure commitments: Target key individuals.
Use nudges. Manage the politics. Create a
“snowball effect.”
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Survey Your Situation and
Remove Barriers
Influence the
influencers.
20
Target people who live in different
“cultures.”
A restructured group at a bank
included three practices:
business process reengineering,
information technology, and
database management.
Conflicting assumptions about
the work:
Business process -- highly
defined 6-step engagement
methodology
IT: one-off, flexible, and
customized approaches
Value differences becomes
labels for the “other” group:
inflexible vs. inattentive to
deadlines.
Solution: Find “Tom,” who works
with both groups and
understands how to bridge
differences.
Source: Rob Cross
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Practice strategic relationshipbuilding.
Prepare
Build trust
Ask for favors – reciprocity
Trump and his lawyer
Make an effort to be friendly
Ben Franklin
Match styles – similarity
Apologize if you break it
“Slight attentions often bring back
reward as great as it is unlooked for.”
Meet face to face when the stakes
are high
Parsons and Icahn
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Set your goals carefully.
Types of goals:
Idea-polishing—Asking for input: no agreement
required!
Access—Requesting an introduction to an
influencer.
Attitude—Looking for the “Hmm, good idea!”
response.
Authorization—Getting approval and even
resources to take the next step.
Endorsement—Seeking active support in public or
behind the scenes.
Decision—Securing formal sign-off.
Implementation—Embedding your idea in policies
and procedures.
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Credibility: It depends.
Expertise
Competence
Trustworthiness
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Listen.
25
Take your time.
Jody Thompson and Cali Ressler
26
Cognitive perspective-taking
“If there is any secret to success, it
lies in the ability to get the other
person’s point of view and see
things from that person’s angle as
well as your own.” —Henry Ford
Historical studies: Lenin vs.
Trotsky, Castro vs. Che Guevara,
Robert E. Lee vs. Ulysses S.
Grant.
“People make their decisions based on what the facts mean to them,
not on the facts themselves.”
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Urgency!
Bring the outside in.
Behave with urgency everyday.
Find opportunity in crises.
Deal with NoNos.
Image from: Google Images
Source: Kotter
29
Leaders need situation awareness.
Newell needed:
• A sharp marketing focus. (Galli
was a top sales person at
Black&Decker, rising to lead its
global power tools unit.)
• Strong cost cutting measures
executed swiftly in order to
absorb Rubbermaid. (He had
cut costs aggressively at
Amazon.)
• Executive drive (He was known
as a hard-charging type.)
Image from: Wall Street Journal
“I felt speed was essential.”
- Joseph Galli
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Persuasion Styles
Self vs. Other
More Self-Oriented
Higher
DRIVER
Lower
COMMANDER
More Other-Oriented
PROMOTER
Volume
CHESS PLAYER
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Leadership reflection
What is one small adjustment you can make in your persuasion style to
enhance your effectiveness?
What are the situations in which it is most important to make this
adjustment?
Notes:
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
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Debrief: Five Star
Five Star Debrief
How did you present your perspective on the program?
Did any metaphors, images, or analogies work
especially well?
Are there credibility issues?
What are the pluses and minuses of a compromise?
What are the pros and cons of escalating the issue by
taking it back to the senior team for another vote or to
the private equity owners?
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Communication
Are you tapping?
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Do they understand?
Vision:
Strategic Goal:
Become the service provider of choice in our region.
Build the leading organization serving our region distinguished
by the quality of its services and by its market coverage and
financial strength.
Strategies:
Optimize performance of core businesses through a
concentrated focus on developing market leadership and
broadened geographic market coverage.
Strengthen business portfolio and aggressively manage
financial position.
Develop expert and experienced staff within organization.
Maximize value of fundraising through regional strategies.
Advance quality of services through initiatives that apply
standardized approaches.
Advance regional market position through strategic
partnerships.
Taken from actual strategic plan, with slight changes to disguise identity.
37
Simplicity
“If you have a simple
problem, you can offer a
simple solution. But most
organizational problems are
complex. So you either
simplify the problem and offer
a solution, or embrace the
complexity and do nothing”
-- adapted from Dan Ariely
Source: NYT, October 17, 2010, Week in Review
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Think PCAN +.
• Problem – A short, concise
statement that defines the problem
your idea solves (or the need it
addresses).
• Cause – An explanation of the
cause of this problem or need.
• Answer – Your solution (or
answer) for the situation.
• Net benefits – A summary of why
your answer is the best available,
all options considered.
Source: Ch. 7, The Art of Woo
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Secure Commitments
The Psychology of Commitment
Cognitive Dissonance
Consistency Principle
“Nudges” and “Choice
Architecture”
Sources: Cialdini; C.A. Kiesler; Thaler and Sunstein
41
Build relationships that matter.
•
There are often gaps in collaboration and knowledge sharing among
functional specialists.
•
When the ROI potential is positive, create value by spanning silos.
•
By identifying specific areas where gaps exist,
you can:
• Build trust and enhance credibility.
• Create through meetings and teams a
shared language and beliefs.
• Locate pockets of expertise and “go-to”
experts for critical knowledge.
Source: Rob Cross
42
Be a “choice architect.”
The “flu shot lecture”
“Look right!”
43
Source: Nudge
Create pull.
44
Promote positive behaviors.
What lies behind “resistance”:
Lack of clarity
Exhaustion
Situational factors
Put healthy foods like broccoli
at the beginning of the line.
Give healthy foods more
descriptive names (“creamy
corn”)
Offer more than one choice of
healthy foods.
Encourage the use of trays.
Decrease the size of bowls.
Use fruit bowls.
45
Source: Brian Wansik, Mindless Eating; Switch
Start with small steps.
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Practice.
Pick an idea you want to sell.
Stage the opening minutes (3 mins.) of a crucial
meeting.
De-brief the discussion: how effective was the framing?
Capture specifics about words, analogies, values,
etc.
Re-frame your idea if necessary.
47
Generate positive momentum.
Planning Fallacy/Bias.
Neuroeconomics: Planner (“Cold”) vs. Doer (“Hot”).
Will power: Radishes and Cookies.
Self control is a limited resource.
Can you force behavior change?
Sources: Nudge; Switch; Wansik
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