When Attempting to Persuade, Less is More

by | Jul 18, 2024

When you’re trying to convince a recruiting prospect to see things from your perspective, you may think presenting as much evidence as possible will strengthen your case.

But, according to London Business School professor Niro Sivanathan, you’d be wrong.

For humans, receiving too much information interferes with our ability to process it.

Our minds deal with this by quickly sorting the input received into two types: diagnostic and non-diagnostic.

Diagnostic information is information of relevance to the evaluation being made.

Non-diagnostic is information that is irrelevant or inconsequential to that evaluation.

When both categories of information are mixed, dilution occurs.

It’s better to deliver a short, concentrated argument relating to the specific needs and interests of your recruiting prospect.

If you have 30 minutes to spend with a recruiting prospect, spend the first 20 minutes or more asking questions and learning about their specific needs.

Then spend the remainder of the time making just one point relating to the topic most important to your prospect.

As Dr. Sivanathan suggests,

Stick to your strongest point and resist the temptation of trying to best others with brute force.

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P.S. Do your recruiting dialogs with prospects seem to be falling a little flat?  If so, reach out to one of our coaches for some help in optimizing your messaging. What you’re saying and how you’re saying it makes all the difference. Schedule a free strategy session now.

 

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