Today I’m going to talk about the most persuasive sentence in history, at least in my opinion.
This is from a guy called Blair Warren who is one of the best persuasion gurus on the planet. Over the years I’ve learned a lot from his teachings.
The sentence that he’s created is one of the most persuasive ones you will ever hear:
“People will do anything for those who encourage their dreams, justify their failures, allay their fears confirm, their suspicions, and help them to throw rocks at their enemies.” – Blair Warren
I’ll get into exactly why this is the most persuasive sentence you will ever hear. But first, let me let me ask you something.
Have you noticed something about this sentence? You might notice that at no point does this provide an opportunity for you to talk about yourself or your products.
This is not about you – it’s is ONLY about your audience.
This is about your market and that’s because your audience don’t really care about you. They only care about themselves, and what you can do for them. It’s an uncomfortable truth.
And that’s ok because when you use this correctly, it puts you in a really positive position. It lets you deliver awesome value to your audience, and actually help them with their problem in a meaningful way.
This is how you become the trusted adviser that we’re supposed to be.
By removing the focus away from you and your achievements, and moving it on to your audience to focus on their needs, you will be able to align yourself with them more effectively.
Table of Contents:
Encourage their dreams
So why should you encourage people’s dreams?
Well, people need a belief in something and they need to feel that its possible to achieve their dreams.
When you tell them “yes it’s possible, and you can do it too”, you’re giving them something valuable – on a very deep emotional level that influences and changes their self-image.
When you do that, when you can change someone’s self-image even just a little bit, they will look to you because that kind of validation is addictive.
It’s your job to help your audience understand that they can achieve their dreams.
Justify their failures
Why should you justify their failures? People don’t really want to take responsibility for their mistakes.
So if you can give them a scapegoat or give them something else to blame then it means they don’t have to blame themselves.
And again, that emotion is addictive.
Allay their fears
Next why should you allay their fears?
Let me ask you something.
Think about a time when you were worried about something, or you were afraid and someone told you not to worry about it.
That probably didn’t mean much to you, and you probably didn’t look to that person for reassurance again, right?
They unintentionally minimised you feelings.
So instead of telling our prospects to not worry, it’s our job is to listen to their fears, accept that the fears are real and help them to work through those fears.
And maybe you have had the same fears too, and managed to overcome them. That’s another way to deliver value to your audience.
Confirm their suspicions
Why should we confirm their suspicions?
Simply put, people just want to feel right – they want to feel justified they want to be able to say to themselves “I knew I was right!”.
If you can help them to feel justified they’ll bond with you a lot quicker than someone who tries to tell them they were wrong.
Throw rocks at their enemies
The last thing is to help your audience to throw rocks at their enemies.
If you can discover an enemy that you both share then it’s just it’s a sign that you share the same values, on a subconscious level
Having a common enemy you will also help you to build rapport.
But let me say this; if you’re gonna find enemies in your marketplace then I wouldn’t pick on individuals.
I would encourage you to pick on ideas and values instead.
This prevents you from appearing like a bully or damaging people’s business.
Find something wrong with your industry and attack that.
Chances are whichever flaws or problems exist in your industry your potential customer will probably already feel like that is their enemy.
Tap into resentment that already exists, instead of trying to create new enemies.
Using these 5 persuasive insights
There you go, the most persuasive sentence in history, as I see it:
“People will do anything for those who encourage their dreams, justify their failures, allay their fears confirm, their suspicions, and help them to throw rocks at their enemies.” – Blair Warren
Consider all of these insights, really do think it over and how each one applies to your industry.
Think about how you can inject more of these into your sales pages, blog posts, podcasts.
And when you do, I can almost guarantee that when you do, you will receive a better response from your audience as a result.
They will see you as someone who is on their side, and you might even become their champion.
When you have all of these five points spread throughout your overall message, you can use it to deliver more value to your niche. And that ultimately helps people see that you are the person they really need to be listening to.