Facts… are the beginning of every losing argument.

-Tell them the facts and they will see your point of view

-If you present the facts the right way then they will vote for you

The problem with that is that all facts are filtered through someone’s current EMOTIONAL state of mind.

If you can change that state of mind then you can change how your ‘facts’ are understood and get them more likely to be accepted.

Let me give you a current example. The GOP presidential race.

“THIS IS NOT ABOUT POLITICS”

Trump is leading. Why? At this point he has offered very few facts about what he would do and more importantly how he would do it. What he has done is tap into the emotions of the people who are tired of politics as usual. Even with the mistakes he has made he continues to be popular while others would have fallen in the polls.

People who like him see him through a specific emotional filter. That filter leads their opinion and creates emotional bias that he can use in his favor.

On the other hand none of the other candidates have created that filter. Some have actually created a filter that taints everything they say even if it is a great idea.

Jeb Bush has a huge problem. Just his name has a lot of emotions attached to it. For some it is good emotions and for others it is bad. He is emotionally associated to his father and brother. Everything he says gets filtered through those emotions and he has done nothing to break that pattern of emotions. He has great facts, figures and even a few good ideas but… until he breaks the association he will just be seen as the same as them.

Again and again I have told sales people, politicians and business managers that people make decisions emotionally and THEN use facts to support the emotional decision they have already made.

If you can change that emotion you can change what people do and think. Then give them reasons to continue thinking that way.

This is what persuasion is all about. You create the emotional container for your presentation then fill that container with facts.

No matter how many facts you have you CANNOT create the emotions to support them. That is backwards thinking and a losing strategy.

This is why we teach things like anchoring. Creating the emotional container by getting someone into the right state is good. Then you have to make sure they associate your ‘facts’ with the correct emotional container. You do this by creating a push button control of the emotion you want them to feel and you push that button whenever you want to add something to that container.

That is what influence, persuasion, leadership and even negotiations are all about.

Want to know more.