The Art & Skill of Persuasion

Master the art and skill of persuasion. Designed for professionals working in both finance and other industries, where persuasion skills are essential.

Thoughtful exchange of words between two women near a window

A one-day persuasion course

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Download: Course Outline

Part One

What is Persuasion?

The basics
What do we mean by the art of persuasion?
How is this different from negotiation?
What makes a successful persuader
The qualities of a successful persuader
Influencing and persuading skills
Avoiding the risks of manipulation
Defining persuasion and influence
Principles of effective influencing skills
Self-belief, confidence & assertiveness
Push and Pull styles of persuasion – usually a mixture of both
The psychology of persuasion – the basics

Persuasion Skills Training Exercise: To be treated as fun and entirely optional. Persuading members of the group to do business with you in just one minute.

Preparing to Persuade

The importance of planning
How to build trust
Mocking Bird Theory
The importance of non-verbal communication, but keeping a sense of proportion
Having built trust, move on to developing rapport
Finding out what others want or need
Active listening
Intelligent questioning
Understanding the importance of perception
Appreciating how you perceive situations may differ from others

Exercise: Persuade a best friend to lend you their new dream sports car when they secretly think you are a reckless driver.

Explore What Others Want

How do we do this?
Setting clear objectives
Effective questioning techniques
Realise the values and motivations of others
Hone your listening skills to become better at persuasion
Overcome barriers to active listening
The identification of individual ‘filters’
Dealing with filters
The power of positive thought
Preparing for the persuasion discussion

Exercise: Getting a car fixed by a lazy and indifferent chief mechanic for a sensible price when your car has broken down and you are desperate to continue an urgent journey.

Communication Style

The range of styles
Choosing styles to meet the situation
Why your natural traits will always reveal themselves eventually
Learn the art of persuasion to respond, rather than react
Open, leading and closed questions
The Funnel questioning technique
Understanding values and how to persuade around these
Questioning techniques to understand values and build relationships

Exercise: Persuading a self-important boss to allocate the pay and bonus pool more fairly than just you and him/her.

Part Two

Overcoming Resistance

This persuasion skills course explores how to understand resistance
Why do people resist?
Overcoming resistance without compromising the values of others
Apply a practical 6-step Influence and Persuasion Model
Using FAB to match the needs gathered from customers
Dealing with conflict: handling difficult situations without emotions
Presenting your case with impact, taking the values of others into account

Example: Getting a colleague to lend you a member of staff who you need when they know you have a reputation for over-resourcing your area.

State Your Case Persuasively

Planning and preparation
Presenting at the right stage
Adopt strategies that work for you
State your case assertively and convincingly
Knowing the audience
Gathering the content
The 10/80/10 rule for structuring the presentation
Delivering a presentation

Persuasion Skills Training Exercise: Fun session - pick an object at random in the room, and persuade the rest of us to buy it from you in a minute or less.

Handling Objections

The most challenging for most of us
Identifying frequently encountered objections
The pre-emption of objections
Developing appropriate responses
Realising when to walk away
Dealing with failure well

Course Conclusion, Summary and Open Forum

Redcliffe Training’s persuasion skills course expert had a fast-track and successful career. This began at Lloyds Bank, where he quickly rose to a senior management position in the private banking and wealth management division.

He was then headhunted to join a merchant bank as a main board director, leading the risk management function. With over 40 years of experience in the UK banking and financial services sector, he brings a wealth of practical knowledge.

Since retiring, he has worked as a freelance soft skills training consultant and currently serves as an external Master Trainer at HSBC and Bank of China. He has delivered a wide range of soft skills workshops and has helped screen and assess trainers for soft skills capabilities. His expertise includes delivering train-the-trainer programs and creating tailored courses for clients of all sizes, from global corporations to small firms.

Comfortable working with participants at any level, from novices to seasoned professionals, his expertise also extends to Risk Management, Trade Finance, Regulatory Compliance, FCC & AML (Anti-Money Laundering), and Corporate, Private, and Retail Banking.

This persuasion skills training course is for professionals in finance and other industries where persuasion skills are critical. It is interactive, engaging, and full of practical exercises to ensure participants learn and apply the core techniques.

Here’s what to expect from Redcliffe’s art of persuasion course:

Increased confidence in your ability to persuade.
Enhanced personal persuasion skills.
A deep understanding of persuasive techniques and how to apply them.
Insight into what makes a successful persuader, with strategies to practise and develop these skills.
Techniques to build trust and rapport before persuading.
The ability to set clear objectives for persuasion, finding common ground and applying the right communication style for any situation.
Tools to overcome resistance and deal with difficult individuals.
How to present your case and handle common objections.
The acceptance that not every situation can be winnable. This includes how to handle setbacks with grace.

Mastering the powers of persuasion is essential for inspiring, driving, and influencing others. This persuasion course not only teaches you how to persuade but also boosts your confidence in applying these skills. With more than 28 years of experience, Redcliffe delivers effective, persuasive training.
The course trainer is a hands-on expert with vast experience. He has huge amounts of vocational experience, and he is well aware of the importance of persuasion.
A key component of this art of persuasion training is the director’s willingness and ability to impart both personal experiences and pass on good and bad examples of persuasion and influencing skills. This helps bring the course to life, makes it relevant and helps delegates to “hit the ground running” when they return to their daily work roles.
Having delivered this course to different organisations ranging from global giants to small firms, we are well aware of the nuances and requirements of different types of financial institutions. Whatever your background, we can help you.
In-person and online courses are interactive, with case studies that bring the concepts to life. Whether you're working in a large organisation or a small firm, we can tailor the content to meet your specific needs. Delegates rate our interactive exercises as highlights of the course.
Our results speak for themselves. Feedback for our persuasion skills training course participants has always been excellent.

This course is a must for professionals looking to improve their persuasion skills, regardless of experience level.

Whether you're a novice or an expert, this training will provide valuable insights and practical techniques to enhance your abilities. The skills taught are applicable across industries, making this persuasive course essential for professionals in finance and beyond who rely on persuasion in their roles.

Persuasion is a skill we all have, but many of us lack the confidence to use it in business settings. Nerves and self-doubt can interfere, but with practice and experience, anyone can improve this skill.

The essential difference between a good and an improving business persuader is practice and experience; nothing else. We all have the necessary x-factor, but it is tempting at times, out of frustration, to say “No, that’s not me.” But there are two crucial points to remember:

1) We all get our people skills in arrears, and it is only through practice and experience that we improve persuasion skills because we learn from our mistakes.

2) Outside of the work environment, we all use skill and persuasion all the time and without even thinking about it.

Some of us are naturally better than others, but if we had no persuasive skills, none of us would meet partners, raise a family or be able to organise social events in the real world.

Many people regard the “art of persuasion” as a difficult skill to master. But it doesn’t have to be. Practice and experience, followed by practice and experience, are the keys.

This enjoyable persuasion skills course is designed to be fun, interactive, and tailored to meet the needs of professionals who need to build relationships within their organisation. Whether you need to get colleagues on your side, encourage those in a sales or an account management role to be more effective, or to better manage difficult customers or situations, the skills learned in this course will help.

Persuasion skills training will leave you feeling empowered to persuade, reduce resistance to new ideas, and allow you to handle challenging situations with confidence. By practising effective communication skills and persuasion techniques, you’ll be better equipped to deal with difficult people and scenarios.

The trainer cites many real-life situations. He does so with humour, but the point is made abundantly clear!
The Role Plays were interactive and enjoyable.
The persuasion knowledge and techniques shared during the training were insightful, entertaining and relevant. Skills such as Push/Pull and Anchoring are techniques I can use with my internal stakeholders, such as Directors, management and budget holders. The breakout exercises further brought the skills to life and gave context in a scenario setting. The breakout exercise, which I was able to perform delivering back news, was very fun and enabled me to test some of the lessons I learnt that day.

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