Business People
Anyone involved with the operation of a business has a strong need to persuade. Business itself is about getting other people to reach agreement on one issue or another. Not only do you have salespeople and the marketing department, which are involved with persuading the members of the community to purchase products and services, but you also have employee managers who need to persuade employees to do their job correctly and work well together. There’s also those involved in human resources, who are responsible for persuading job applicants to honestly provide relevant information and to accept the terms of employment.
Teachers / Counselors / Coaches
As we mentioned earlier, anyone needing to impart information needs to persuade the student that the information as valuable, valid, and easy to understand. Many times this boils down to persuading the students on your expertise in the subject area and your qualifications to teach. Other times it is simply a matter of communicating that information in a way that is both entertaining and instructive.
Counselors and life coaches require powerful persuasion skills, as you may be persuading your clients to change who they are on a fundamental level in order to change their approach to life. And because you earn more money when you can help more people, you need to persuade your clients to refer people they know to you when appropriate.
Community Leaders
Ministers, government officials, public speakers, and leaders of charitable organizations are in the business of persuading their followers to think, believe, and act in a unified manner that benefits the whole community. Even laws are ineffective if the public is not persuaded to obey them. The threat of prison time is only one method of persuasion, and one that should be used only as a last resort.
Private Individuals
Even if you don’t fit into any of the other classes of persuaders, you will still need to gain the cooperation of other people. You may want to persuade your friends to accept your choice of entertainment for the evening. You may need to persuade an attractive stranger to go out on a date with you. You may need to persuade your spouse to compromise on an issue that has been a source of unrest in the household. You may need to persuade your kids to accept their responsibilities and grow up to be productive members of society. And you’ll definitely need to know how to protect yourself from others persuading you.