Unlock Your Power of Persuasion
Refine your communication skills by learning to harness your emotional intelligence with one of the UK's most acclaimed management training courses.
What gets in the way of developing and holding on to new communication skills are old habits of thinking and speaking. Even if the advice is very good the reason why it rarely sticks are the mental habits people inevitably revert to, especially under pressure.
Unlearning those old habits and internalising a more effective and lasting approach to communication needs more than a short course of lectures on how to do it.
What makes this training stand out is the exceptional support through one-to-one coaching sessions and continuous feedback. Changing behaviour is not an easy task as old habits are hard to break.
With a 40-year track record we can help you cultivate practical skills, and build your confidence to so you can successfully navigate real-world challenges, ensuring lasting behavioural improvements.
Join thousands of participants getting results
"What I love about this course is that I didn't just learn about the topic, this course is about ME. I'm confident I can reliably use my new skills, even when under pressure".
A Project Manager At A Tech Company
"A lesson for life! The power of effective communication is incredible when one masters the skills "listening with empathy" and "speaking assertively"
A Project Quality Engineer
Well-known companies who have used this course again and again, over many years
This course is designed to help you become a more effective communicator and negotiator, and to help you understand how to create a persuasive argument and influence people's decisions. This will help you not only with your clients, but also with your managers, colleagues and anyone else who's cooperation is necessary for you to be successful.
You will learn a set of powerful emotional intelligence communication techniques so that you can manage difficult conversations, handle challenging situations, build relationships and set firm boundaries.
The goal of this training is to equip you with the tools they need to build strong, lasting relationships in your professional life, although because these skills are so transferable many clients report vast improvements in their personal relationships as well.
This is a skills development rather than just a theoretical programme, so the emphasis throughout will be on you taking turn after turn, practising your skills, while receiving feedback and coaching about your effect on others.
In your coaching sessions you will be helped to practise dealing with the kinds of situation you find challenging, again and again, until you are confident you can do it successfully.
We'll combine practical, hands-on experience with video replay and analysis and discussion of the principles involved to help you gain both skills and understanding. Special attention is paid to your individual training needs, so you can practise your skills in real-life situations that you have to handle at work.
That's why as well as your place in a small group, this training includes a generous amount of private and confidential one-to-one coaching sessions online, spread over several months, ensuring an exceptional level of support. This will ensure the changes you make are sustained over a longer period of time and any obstacles are overcome. Choose between online training available worldwide, or in-person face-to-face courses in the UK.
For a list of upcoming course dates (for online coaching and face-to-face training), the locations of the next 3-day public courses in the UK and pricing Click here.
This initial coaching session serves as an introduction to the "Skills with People" course, allowing you to understand the course's relevance and effectiveness for your specific needs before committing to it.
Are you looking to become more effective at influencing and persuading your peers, colleagues, subordinates, managers, clients or customers?
Learn two crucial emotional intelligence skills for getting the best out of others, so you can communicate and negotiate to get the results you need.
Build rapport, read body language, establish trust, and use persuasive language to influence decisions and achieve your goals.
Learn to use persuasive techniques, including the power of the pause, and assertiveness to become a more successful leader and manager.
With a combination of face-to-face training, and one-to-one online coaching develop your confidence to build a stronger persuasive reputation at work.
For more than 40 years this persuasion skills training course has proven to be one of the most highly acclaimed. Over the years we've had thousands of managers and professionals through our hands. Many have said it's one of the best influencing skills training courses they ever attended. We have helped our clients develop their skills so they can communicate more effectively, and succeed in both their personal and professional lives.
Influencing and persuasion skills training has become an increasingly popular way to supplement traditional hard skills training work. But how do you know if influencing skills training course is actually any good? The most important way to determine if a training course is effective is to look at its results.
Topic |
Benefit of this Influencing and Persuasion Training |
Training Objective |
This whole training course has been designed to help you develop the skills you need to influence and persuade others, in order to reach your goals and become more effective in your interactions with people. |
Skills to Learn |
You'll learn to hone your emotional intelligence, giving you the confidence to listen attentively, and to speak assertively without going too far. As you master these skills, you'll gain a better grasp of the dynamics of relationships, enabling you to be more demanding and assertive, handle objections and criticism without conflict, negotiate more effectively, and say 'no' without fear of damaging your reputation. |
Persuasion Techniques |
You'll learn what it takes to influence and persuade someone who is reluctant or resistant, including the role of hierarchy and power, the dynamics of persuasion, and the psychology of decision-making. You'll also develop an understanding of the different types of persuasive techniques, such as the use of logic, emotion, and storytelling, and when to use them. |
Emotionally Intelligent Strategies |
As well as this theoretical knowledge, you'll learn practical emotionally intelligent strategies and techniques that you can use to influence and persuade effectively. You'll be better at building relationships and trust, how to listen effectively, how to notice body language, and how to craft effective messages, how to read the other person so you can work out what they're thinking but not necessarily saying. |
Ethical Use of Influence and Persuasion |
You'll receive guidance on how to use influence and persuasion ethically. Other people are likely to resist your charms if they think they're being coerced or manipulated. You'll learn how you can be transparent and open about your intentions. Other people will find your honesty disarming and charming. |
Practice Opportunities |
This course provides you plenty of opportunities to explore, practice and apply the skills learned. You'll have lots of role-playing, simulations and one-to-one coaching that allow you to practice your skills in a safe environment. You won't finish with the coaching until you're satisfied you've got what you need. |
It is well-known that persuasion skills can be a key component in achieving success both professionally and socially. This particular training course enables you to gain the necessary persuasive abilities through understanding these vital skills, exploring through exercises so you can research and learn for yourself how to apply it effectively. The core goal of successful persuasion techniques is not just to provide facts, but to achieve results while also reaching an agreement from others using strong communication skills.
The role of Emotional Intelligence in persuasion gives you the ability to understand and use communication on both emotional and logical levels when interacting with others. This can allow for more successful efforts as a listener's emotions are taken into account during conversations. From active listening techniques like body language recognition, dealing with negative behaviour scenarios or building meaningful relationships - emotional intelligence plays a crucial part in developing effective arguments and negotiation skills.
Persuasion Skills have become an essential tool for many organisations today - as they allow top executives or team members to achieve common goals while utilising interpersonal relationships & maintain trust amongst employees or other stakeholders involved in particular actions. Written communication such as emails play an incredibly important role too - placing emphasis on responding appropriately so that parties feel valued during negotiations or workplace discussions where effective persuasion is required.
Might this London UK management training course significantly boost your ability to win friends and influence people?
You'll have a powerful set of influencing skills enabling you to persuade without being argumentative. Practising these skills will develop your emotional intelligence, and this will give you understanding and confidence to use your influencing skills when you most need them - when you're meeting resistance.
When people are resisting your persuasion, your success in persuading and changing their mind depends at least as much on how you listen to them as it does on what you tell them. This course will turn you into a very persuasive listener. It'll help you master the art of listening with empathy.
Persuasion is an essential skill to have in business, from developing meaningful relationships to getting team members on board with ideas. Research shows that it's not just the ability to influence others through persuasive arguments and negotiation skills; it's also the way we build trust and make people feel valued by actively listening and responding appropriately. Emotional intelligence plays a crucial part here - being able to identify listener's emotions as well as your own can help you craft effective persuasion strategies.
Active listening is also important for successful persuasion efforts; understanding where someone is coming from helps you bridge differences and find common ground, even if it means changing your point of view. It also demonstrates that you respect their beliefs and want to understand them better, which builds rapport and paves the way for more positive interactions. When paired with strong written communication abilities, these active listening skills can give top executives the tools they need to persuade employees fully commit to projects or ideas while taking best interests into consideration too.
Effective persuasion relies on an individual's ability to understand and respond appropriately to the emotions of others. By harnessing emotional intelligence, a person can build and maintain meaningful relationships and establish trust needed for successful efforts in persuasion. Emotional intelligence also aids in developing strong communication skills that are crucial when crafting persuasive arguments using facts, logic and reasoning skills.
Emotional intelligence entails being able to recognise one's own feelings as well as those of other people involved in the persuasion process, such as team members or top executives. It also involves actively listening and paying attention to listener's emotions, making sure they feel valued to increase receptiveness towards ideas being presented. This skill is important for leaders looking into convincing their employees or colleagues about particular actions for the best interests of the organisation or project at hand.
Building trust and understanding through active listening is essential before attempting any kind of persuasive argument if you want it accepted by your audience - particularly when trying influencing someone's beliefs too! Generally speaking, successfully conveying information will require careful consideration of others' points-of-view while seeking common ground upon which both parties can agree upon before fully committing each party's resources into achieving common goals. Research continues to show that ability to influence others through engaging ways increases with emotional intelligence; therefore this tool can prove invaluable when it comes time come up with effective arguments used during workplace negotiations or while sharing ideas with key stakeholders.
Persuasion skills are important for success in the business world. Having the ability to influence and convince others is essential to achieve success when it comes to achieving common goals or inspiring team members. To build strong persuasive skills, it's important to understand active listening and emotional intelligence, as well as how to use communication effectively and respond appropriately in different situations.
Negotiation skills are also key when it comes to persuasion, so a good understanding how best interests can be combined with those of another person can help develop successful efforts. It's also beneficial to think about why people will agree with an argument or idea logically and emotionally; this helps build a convincing argument that takes into account listener's emotions as well as their point of view. Research shows that written communication is just as effective for persuasion as other forms, so mastering both verbal and written communication is crucial for achieving success through persuasion tactics. However, it does depend on whether the reader is able to pay enough attention to what you've written. Verbal communication may work better as you'll have more opportunity to notice and flexibily react to other people's moods and responses.
Maintaining meaningful relationships by actively listening and sharing feelings can be actively transformative in terms of a person being able to influence and persuade someone else successfully. Building trust between two parties is paramount before attempting any sort of persuasive arguments; this allows people involved feel valued while bolstering self esteem which leads them towards positive interactions rather than negative behaviour towards one particular action proposed during workplace negotiations or amongst top executives discussing ideas within the office environment.
To us the terms influence,
persuade, win friends and influence people are alternative ways of talking about the same process. We make no distinction between influencing skills and persuasion skills. To us they all refer to the set of crucial communication and persuasion skills important for all managers and professional people need if they're to succeed in achieving their goals in the workplace. It was Dale Carnegie who famously coined the phrase, how to win friends and influence people, in the 1930s. Dale Carnegie training is still going strong.
The book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, is full of examples of persuasion, clear and helpful advice. His book is an enjoyable read.
The suggestions in How To Win Friends and Influence People arise from the kind of practical wisdom that resonates strongly with what most of us know from experience to be true about how to get on harmoniously and successfully with others.
For example, in the section entitled, How to win people to your way of thinking, he has a chapter on, You can't win an argument. In it he gives various pieces of useful advice which he boils down to one idea:-
Carnegie's advice on this particular issue and on many others he deals with in How to win friends and influence people makes good sense. The problem is, though, this kind of advice is hardest to follow just when it's most needed. The difficulty is habit. Most of our managerial and professional clients have a deeply ingrained habit - an almost irrisistable tendency to argue when someone they're trying to win round to their way of thinking resists persuasion.
That's why avoiding arguments is easier said than done. You may agree the advice is sound, but as soon as you find yourself under pressure back on the front line you're likely to forget the advice and revert to habit. To break the habit you need first to be able to spot it - catch yourself in the act - become aware of it. And you then need to learn by repeated practice and coaching to replace it with a different response, one which leads away from argument and towards mutual respect and understanding.
Here's another piece of advice from the same chapter of How to win friends and influence people :-
How could anyone disagree with this idea? But, again, easier said than done. What you'll get from us is help to actually break the habit of arguing. It's a hard habit to break. We'll train you to respond to resistance by listening with empathy instead of trying to persuade with reasoned argument. It'll need a lot of practice and coaching. But unless you do break the habit it's inevitable you'll revert. Our aim on this course is to help you permanently change your approach so that you can keep hold of the change when you're back at work under pressure.
The hardest part of how to win friends and influence people is responding to their emotional resistance - their unwillingness to go along with you. Sales people don't call negative behaviour resistance - they call it raising objections.
But whatever you call it, when people feel bad about something it closes their minds, switches off their receiver, makes them unreceptive to reason. Their resistance is driven by emotion. It's not their fault - it's how their brains are wired - a biological fact of life. You can switch their receive back on - but only by the way you listen to them, not by trying to reason them round to your point of view.
The trouble is, most managers and professionals rely on their powers of reasoning to overcome resistance. They know no other way. But when the underlying source of the resistance is emotional, trying to reason with people only gets you into argument, and the more you argue the more they resist.
The trouble with reasoned argument is it ignores people's emotions. Emotions that are ignored don't go away - they remain beneath the surface keeping the mind closed. On this course we'll help you develop another way of responding when you experience resistance, a set of influencing skills based on emotional intelligence. These powerful persuasion skills will replace your tendency to resort to reasoned argument with a much more successful way to win friends and influence people.
One of the key skills in this set is listening with empathy. When you actively listen to someone with empathy you encourage them to express their doubts and fears - in other words, their objections. Far from making people more resistant to persuasion, this is the fastest way to open their minds. As they express their feelings they rapidly calm down and become more open-minded, more receptive to persuasion.
But the trouble is the impulse to argue is usually very strong, and the idea of allowing - even encouraging - people to express negative feelings may go deeply against the grain. That's why we give you lots of practice and coaching. We'll help you break the habit of trying to persuade by reasoned argument by practising the skill of listening with empathy. Empathy is a very powerful way of enabling people to discharge their resistance harmlessly and open their minds to persuasion.
Here's a simple but effective method you can practise for listening with empathy in those moments when you sense you're meeting resistance. Below these quidelines is an example of a salesman using this approach to handling an objection:-
Objections don't have to be seen as negative things, regrettable obstacles in the path of making a sale, to be made little of, or got round, or even if possible avoided altogether. By using the influencing skill of listening with empathy they can be treated as valuable and necessary steps along the road to a sale, to be encouraged and brought out into the open:-
CUSTOMER (raises a serious objection): You let us down badly with late deliveries last month.
SALESMAN (instead of arguing or trying to make excuses, takes it on the chin, and listens with empathy): I fully accept what you say, and I greatly regret this has happened. I imagine it's made you lose confidence in us and want to look for another supplier.
CUSTOMER (letting off steam): That's true.
SALESMAN (more empathy): So to win back your business I imagine I'll have to make you confident it won't happen again. You'll need to be convinced we've taken the problem seriously, have found the cause, and have a reliable solution.
CUSTOMER (although he's still doubtful, his mind is beginning to open): That would certainly help.
SALESMAN (speaks frankly, but takes nothing for granted): I'd like a chance to convince you.
CUSTOMER: Okay, go ahead. We'd rather stick with who we know, provided we can trust them. But you'll have to be very convincing.
SALESMAN (continues being frank and open): Thank you. I'll do my best.
The salesman now swiches from listening to telling. But even as he does so he still pays very close attention to the customer to see how he's reacting. At the slightest sign of a frown or a raised eyebrow, or even a blank expression, he swiches back to listening and reflects:-
He does his best to address each concern to the customer's satisfaction. He ends up with, “Are you convinced enough to place another order with us?” If so, job done. If not, he goes round the cycle again, asking:-
Once more he does his best to satisfy the customer's concern, and then tries again to close the sale.
The other skill you need is speaking assertively. On this course you'll be able to master both of these crucial influencing skills.
A: I want you to ...
B: I can't because ...
A: Yes, but ...
B: I know, but ...
A: Yes, but ...
B: (digs his heels in and remains un-persuaded)
A: (not getting anywhere, gives up)
Notice the “yes buts”. Listen in to almost any meeting or discussion where controversial issues are being discussed, and you'll hear people saying “yes but” to one-another (or similar words). It's an argument. As they argue their frustration rises and they end up in a 'dialogue of the deaf'. This approach rarely helps you win friends and influence people.
A: (Listens with empathy instead of saying 'yes but') I get the impression your concern is ...
B: (Spontaneously lets off steam) Exactly!
A: (Speaks assertively) What's worrying me is ...
B: (Becoming more receptive) Mmm. I see what you mean.
This is much more persuasive. And it avoids argument. Argument raises the temperature, wastes time and jeopardises the relationship. Of course there may still be work to do before B fully agrees, but A has greatly increased his likelihood of success. He has responded to B's resistance not by arguing but by communicating by showing understanding and allowing him to let off steam and calm down. This has created a rational atmosphere of mutual respect and understanding. If you want to win friends and influence people this is the atmosphere you must create.
If you find yourself arguing, stop. You're much more likely to win friends and influence people if you learn to use empathy and assertiveness instead of argument whenever you meet resistance.
Here's Nicola, a member of the customer support team. She's trying to influence Hugo, manager of the software development department, in order to get the technical assistance her customer urgently needs. Instead of using the two crucial influencing skills she tries to reason with him. She's unaware that her argumentative approach is making it easy for him to refuse to cooperate:-
NICOLA: Hi, Hugo. I've got a customer with a software problem. We need to get it fixed as soon as possible.
HUGO: I'm afraid he'll just have to wait.
NICOLA: But he says he can't wait.
HUGO: I dare say. But I've no programmers free right now.
NICOLA: Can't you release someone? Its urgent.
HUGO: Sorry. Every customer says his need is urgent.
NICOLA: Yes, but how am I supposed to keep the customer happy if I can't get him the service he needs when he needs it?
HUGO: I don't know. My people can't be everywhere at once. They're fully stretched.
NICOLA: Maybe, but what am I going to tell the customer? He's not going to like it!
HUGO: You're not the only one with pressures!
Both Nicola and Hugo are doing the best they can, and with the best of intentions. But an unresolved stalemate like this doesn't bode well for the business. Let's see what difference it makes when Nicola uses a combination of empathy and assertiveness:-
This time Nicola uses the two crucial influencing skills, listening with empathy and speaking assertively , and this makes it very difficult for Hugo to remain uncooperative:-
NICOLA (assertive with empathy): Hi, Hugo. I need to talk to you. I'm afraid I'm bringing you another headache.
HUGO (likes her frankness): So what's new? Come in, Nicola. What can I do for you?
NICOLA (assertive): My worry is that one of our major customers has a problem with the software. And things are going to get very difficult if we delay fixing it.
HUGO (feels he, too, can be frank): Hmm. The trouble is, half my programmers are already tied up with customers, and the other half are committed to new software development.
NICOLA (empathy): I can see it's a very difficult balance you have to strike.
HUGO (her empathy wins his trust, and he lets off steam): Too damned right!
NICOLA (more empathy): And now I'm adding to the pressure on you.
HUGO (now, having let off steam in response to her empathy, he starts to soften and see things from her point of view): True, but I can see you're only trying to do your job.
NICOLA (assertive): What alarms me is that this customer carries a lot of weight in the business community. It could damage our reputation and that would be hard for us to recover from.
HUGO (she has almost brought him round, but he still puts up token resistance): They all say it's urgent. You don't think he's just trying it on?
NICOLA (firm and assertive): It's losing him revenue as we speak. I'm very concerned it'll hurt us in the long run if we delay.
HUGO: Okay, you've got yourself a programmer.
NICOLA: I appreciate it, Hugo. I'll keep you in the picture about the customer's feedback when the job's done.
Influencing and persuasion skills are crucial for personal and professional success, as they allow individuals to positively influence others, communicate confidently, and achieve results.
Improve your influencing and persuasion skills by developing effective communication skills, building trust and rapport, practicing active listening and empathy, framing convincing arguments and overcoming objections.
Overcoming objections is an essential skill for success in business. Below are some techniques that can be used to overcome objections:
By mastering these techniques, businesses can overcome objections and achieve greater success in sales and customers services-related tasks.
Improving your influencing and persuasion skills through training can lead to benefits such as improved negotiation, teamwork, leadership abilities, productivity, efficiency and personal relationships.
The ability to apply influencing and persuasion skills in various settings, including the workplace, personal relationships, and community involvement, is crucial for achieving success and creating positive outcomes.
In the workplace, effective influencing and persuasion skills are essential for achieving success. Here are some scenarios and examples where such skills can be applied:
In addition to using influencing and persuasion skills in the workplace, individuals can also apply these skills in their personal relationships and interactions. Here are some ways individuals can use their training to positively influence those around them:
By applying the techniques learned in influencing and persuasion skills training, individuals can improve their personal relationships and interactions with friends and family, leading to greater satisfaction in all aspects of life.
Community involvement and engagement is a critical aspect of applying influencing and persuasion skills in different settings. It allows individuals to connect with their communities, build relationships, and positively influence those around them. Here are some ways to apply influencing and persuasion skills in community involvement and engagement:
By applying influencing and persuasion skills in community involvement and engagement, individuals can build meaningful relationships, promote important causes, and make a positive impact within their communities.
Consider the course content, practical application and implementation, time commitment required and benefits of successful completion when choosing the right influencing and persuasion course.
The right Influencing and Persuasion Skills Training course can help business professionals achieve better results in both personal and professional life. The following are some of the course content and strategies that can help:
By choosing a suitable Influencing and Persuasion Skills Training Course that offers relevant content like the ones mentioned above can develop participants' knowledge base regarding effective influencing and persuading tactics that will result in better outcomes at work or in other areas of their lives.
Influencing and persuasion skills training is an educational program designed to enhance one’s abilities to persuade and influence others effectively, through effective communication techniques, active listening, body language interpretation, rapport building and other interpersonal skills.
Influencing and persuasion skills training can benefit anyone who has a need for persuasive communications in their personal or professional life, including salespeople, managers, team leaders, marketers, politicians as well as individuals looking to improve their negotiation or conflict resolution capabilities.
Some key topics covered in influencing and persuasion skills training include understanding human behaviour & psychology; recognizing different personality types; developing rapport with audiences; mastering active listening & questioning techniques; presenting information persuasively through storytelling & visual aids amongst many others.
The length of the course varies depending on the level of depth desired for the topic being addressed however typical courses last longer than a one day course and can span between 2-3 days but more advanced programs may require longer durations spanning weeks/months even years for students seeking further development into specific fields such as politics or legal negotiations etcetera.
Other information on this website relevant to influencing and persuasion skills?
You might find our page on communication skills relevant and helpful.