Steps in the Persuasion Process

There are many ways to persuade others, although you will probably be most successful using a combination of several methods. Consider all approaches before you actually set the wheels in motion to go about persuading someone. Social psychologist William McGuire developed a six-step persuasion model. His six steps are:

  1. Presentation: You cannot persuade anyone of anything unless he or she is in the right place to receive the message, and at the right time.
  2. Attention: The person may be in the right place at the right time to read your proposal or see your presentation, but not pay any attention to it. They might be thinking of something else. You must get their attention if you are to have any hope of persuading them.
  3. Comprehension: If the person cannot understand your message, there is not much chance that he/she will be persuaded. The point is that you must use a message that your audience can comprehend. If you do not, your message may be technically perfect, but it will fail to communicate, and thus it will fail to be understood.
  4. Acceptance: If the person got the message, and understood it, but remains unmoved from his or her previous position, communication has occurred, but persuasion has not.
  5. Retention of the New Position: If your message has successfully persuaded someone to change their position, but has not been successful enough to make that person retain their new attitude over a period of time, for all practical purposes this attempt at persuasion has failed. It is not enough to get the message through. That message must be retained long enough for the desired action to occur.
  6. Action: If your message was remembered and you were persuasive enough for someone to retain a particular attitude but no action took place, then it was not successful or persuasive enough. You have been partially successful, but you may not have achieved what you set out to do.

Summary

To be successful, persuasion must accomplish all six of the steps:

  1. You must give your message to the audience.
  2. You must get someone to pay attention to it.
  3. The message must be understandable. People are more likely to read things they can understand. They will not come over to your side if they do not understand what your side is.
  4. Your arguments must be convincing.
  5. The audience must be willing to give in or to yield.
  6. They must remember their new attitude and be willing to act.
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