PRDV217: Introduction to Sales

At the gas pump, on eggs in the grocery store, in the examination room of your doctor's office, everywhere you go, advertisers are trying to persuade you to buy their product. This form of persuasion used to be reserved for magazines and television commercials, but now it is unavoidable. One marketing research firm estimates that a person living in a large city today sees approximately 5,000 ads per day. It is easy to assume that our over-exposure to persuasion makes us immune to its effect, but research demonstrates that we are more susceptible than ever. Advertisers have gotten even better at learning exactly the right times and places to reach us by studying different audiences and techniques.

We also encounter persuasion in our daily interactions. Imagine you stop at a café on your way to school, and the barista persuades you to try something new. While enjoying your espresso, a salesperson tries to persuade you to upgrade your home Internet package. Later, while walking across campus, you observe students enthusiastically inviting others to join their organizations. Within 30 minutes, you have encountered at least three instances of persuasion, and there were likely others emanating in the background unbeknownst to you.

Amidst being persuaded, you were also actively persuading others. You may have tried to convince the Internet salesperson to give you a better deal and an extended contract, and later persuaded a group of friends to enjoy a night on the town. Persuasion is everywhere.

Source: Lumen Learning, https://courses.lumenlearning.com/publicspeakingprinciples/
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