Persuading Neutral And Uninterested People

• Undecided people need a leader to follow.
• Use lots of credible evidence, but avoid information overload.
• To persuade uninterested people, first gain their attention!

Neutral people neither support or oppose you, and therefore provide a good opportunity to test your persuasion skills.

Actually, you should find these people quite easy to persuade. As they usually have some understanding of the issue you are talking about, and normally require just a little clarification and evidence to win over.

Undecided people also tend to be undecided in life. I discussed this point earlier in an article about personality types and persuasion.

The main point was that undecided people are not leaders, they prefer follow other people, to let someone else take charge.

What they really need is for you to make the decision for them, in a way that makes it seem they made that decision.

Persuasion Strategy

To start persuading a neutral person start by stating the benefits of your proposal, and link these benefits to particular interests they may have.

So in other words, how does what you are offering directly benefit the person you are trying to persuade? What’s in it for them?

Limit you main points to 2-3 clear and compelling messages. Make them simple, easy to understand and back them up with credible evidence. For best effect, use examples that are already familiar to them, and which they can relate to.

To create emotions in your listener use personal experiences, stories, analogies or metaphors to create vivid images in their mind and alter their emotional state.

To understand why this is important, please see this article on the importance of emotional states in persuasion.

Avoid Information Overload 

Be careful not to saturate a person with information. Too much information will reduce the impact of your message, and make it harder for the person to remember everything you have said.

Also, if this information is perceived as being biased or unfair, then your credibility will be damaged and people will be less likely to believe what you say.

Emphasise Advantages And Disadvantages

Don’t forget to point out the downside of not accepting your proposal. If you want, you can use the fear technique to enhance persuasion.

Make sure they realise that if they don’t do what you propose, they will lose out or experience a misfortune of some kind (this does not mean threatening or blackmailing a person).

Altogether, if you present your proposal in a way that will satisfy their needs and benefit them, you should find this group relatively easy to persuade.

Just remember to create those emotional states, as those will influence how a person thinks and therefore the actions they take.

Persuading Uninterested People

Persuading uninterested people can prove to be quite difficult, because if a person doesn’t care about what you have to say, they will not listen to you and so you will be unable to persuade them.

To persuade an uninterested person you therefore first need to grab their attention, motivate and energise them so that they will want to hear what you have to say. This can be done by telling an interesting story or stating a fact that shocks them.

Make Them Care 

Once you have gained their interest, the next step is to make them care about what you are saying, by showing them how it directly affects them.

Usually the fear tactic works well with this group of people, as if they feel they are in danger or have something to lose, they will be much more willing to give you their attention.

Finally support your proposal with 2-3 compelling facts that are supported with credible evidence.

Again, remember to emphasise the negative consequences of not following your recommended action, and stress how your proposal will benefit them. These benefits will be most effective if they address a particular concern or need the person has.