The Art & Skill of Persuasion

• Mastering the Art of Persuasion and Influence is a critical skill for inspiring, driving and encouraging This workshop is designed to persuade delegates that they have what it takes and that only practice and experience are needed to reach “black belt” levels.
• Redcliffe has been established for more than 20 years and has a first-class reputation for delivering persuasion soft skills training.
• The course director is not an academic. He is a hands-on practitioner with huge amounts of vocational experience and is well aware of the importance of persuasion skills.
• A key component of the workshop 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 workshop to many 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.
• At the core of the workshop are several highly interactive and very enjoyable case studies to enhance the learning points. All delegates report that these are high points.
• We are always judged by our results which speak for themselves. The feedback received from previous delegates has always been excellent.

We have created this workshop to meet the specific needs of professionals working in both the finance and other industries where persuasion skills are essential. It is designed to be enjoyable as well as instructional and is full of highly interactive and stimulating exercises to illustrate each new learning point as it emerges.

• Grow in confidence and feel more empowered during the power of persuasion process
• Improve considerably your personal persuasion skills
• Be able to understand both the theory and practice of persuasive techniques and use the best combination to achieve optimum results
• Explore what makes a successful persuader and how to practice these skills
• Establish what qualities are needed and how to develop them
• Get to grips with preparing to persuade by building trust and rapport
• Understand the dynamics of Win-Win by appreciating what other people want
• Be able to set clear objectives when seeking to persuade
• Be able to apply the appropriate persuasive communication skills style, depending on the situation
• Discover how to overcome resistance and deal with difficult counterparties
• Be able to state their case persuasively
• Identify frequently encountered objections
• Finally, and importantly, accept that you can't win them all and sometimes you have to lose gracefully

The trainer had a highly successful, long and varied “fast track” career in Lloyds Bank which led him to a very senior management position in the bank’s private banking and wealth management division at an early age. He was then “head hunted” to join a merchant bank at the main board director level to head the risk management function. The trainer now has over 40 years of experience in the UK banking and financial services sector.

The trainer has been a freelance soft skills training consultant since retiring and is currently an external Master Trainer at both HSBC and Bank of China where he has delivered soft skills training on a wide range of topics. At HSBC he helped screen and assess both prospective and existing trainers for soft skills capabilities and has delivered train-the-trainer programmes. At the Bank of China he has designed and delivered successfully several soft skills courses. He has created and delivered soft skills training to a vast range of clients, from global giants to small firms and partnerships.

He is comfortable training at any level of seniority and experience, from “black belts” to novices. In addition to his soft skills specialism, his expertise includes but is not limited to Risk Management, Trade Finance, Regulatory Compliance, FCC & AML (Anti Money Laundering) and all aspects of Corporate, Private & Retail Banking.

Although we may not have convinced ourselves to believe it, we can all persuade and we all possess the skill of persuasion. The challenge most of us face is having the confidence and self-belief to succeed especially when we are required, instructed or expected to persuade formally or in a business environment. At that point, any nerves, lack of self-belief and even “stage fright” can intervene and cause us to perform poorly.

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 of frustration to say, “No, that’s not me” but there are two crucial points to remember. Firstly, 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. Secondly, outside of the work environment, we all use skill and persuasion highly effectively and without even thinking about it. Some of us are naturally better than others but if we had no persuasion soft skills, none of us would meet partners, raise a family or be able to organize social events.

Many people regard the “art of persuasion” as a difficult skill to master — but it most certainly is not and it doesn’t have to be. Practice and experience followed by practice and experience are the keys.

This enjoyable, workshop style course, has been designed to be fun and highly interactive. It has been tailored to meet the needs of professionals who need to build relationships within their organisation. Whether you need to get colleagues on your side, to encourage those in a sales or an account management role to be more effective, or to better manage potentially difficult customers or situations, we know we can help.

The Art & Skill of Persuasion webinar will empower you to bring the art of convincing people around to your way of thinking, reducing resistance to new ideas and eliminating conflict. You will learn how to build rapport more easily by utilising appropriate communication styles and practicing persuasion techniques for dealing with difficult people and situations.