The Art of Woo: Using Strategic
Persuasion to Sell Your Ideas
Mario Moussa, Ph.D., MBA
Co-Director, Wharton Strategic Persuasion Workshop
Senior Fellow, Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, The
University of Pennsylvania
moussa@moussaconsulting.com/267-549-6694
Why Woo?
• Even experts constantly focus
on improving their game
• Woo is a relationship-based
selling process.
• Now more than ever, it is
important to hone your
relationship-building skills by
reflecting on the assumptions
that drive your work-related
behavior.
2
Two success factors.
 Self-Awareness
 Situational Awareness
3
“Some of my most challenging negotiations
involve the people I work with.”
4
The Five Barriers: You and your idea.
Relationships
You
Why
should I
pay
W
attention to
you or your
idea?
Credibility
Beliefs and
Values
Interests
Your Idea
Channels and
Language
5
Professionals who have the skills to build “social
capital” are top performers.
•
Higher social capital (measured as
more connections outside their
division) = Average of 15% more
earning power than those with
lower social capital.
•
Seen as having better ideas.
•
Enhanced performance:
• 31% more were evaluated as
“Far Exceed Expectations”
• 43% more were promoted to a
higher rank
• 51% less left the company
Source: Ronchi, D., Cross, R., & Burt, R. Unpublished studies and consulting work.
6
EQ or IQ?
• Earn as much as five times more.
• More effective than the disciplined
technical expert.
• IQ?
Not Important
Important
Very Important
Sources: Harvard Professor Lawrence Katz, quoted in “The Populist Myths on Income Inequality,” David Brooks, New York
Times, 9/7/06; Daniel Pink, A Whole New Mind.
7
Collaboration involves “cross-cultural” communication.
Source: Deborah Dougherty
8
What is corporate culture?
Language
Behaviors
Beliefs
Strategies, goals, vision and mission
statements
How the company is organized, how
people do their work, what norms govern
behavior
Taken-for-granted beliefs, perceptions, thoughts
and feelings about how to run a successful
business
Based on Schein, Edgar H. The Corporate Culture Survival Guide. Jossey-Bass Publishers: San Francisco, 1999.
9
Organizations are political.
 95% of all organizations
are political to “some”
extent. Nearly half are
political to a “very great”
or “fair” extent.*
 Political skills: strongest
predictor of
performance ratings,
outstripping by far both
intelligence and
personality traits.
Politics = the ability to sell ideas
* Sources: “How Frequent is Organizational Political Behavior,” Wickenberg & Kylen; “Political Skill at Work”
10
Especially on boards, formal authority has limits.
• “When you run General Electric, there
are 7 to 12 times a year when you
have to say, ‘you’re doing it my way.’
If you do it 18 times, the good people
will leave. If you do it three times, the
company falls apart.”
• Big decisions require, on average,
consultation with twenty people. Little
decisions require consultation with
eight.
Source: Jeff Immelt quoted in Joe Nocera, “Running G.E., Comfortable In His Skin,” NYT, C1, 6/9/07.
11
What language do you speak?
A. Authority (emphasis on using formal position or rules)
B. Rationality (emphasis on using reasons)
C. Vision (emphasis on organizational goals, purposes, and aspirations)
D. Relationship (emphasis on liking, similarity, and reciprocity)
E. Interests/Incentives (emphasis on using trades and compromises)
F. Politics (emphasis on managing perceptions and building consensus)
Adapted from influence research conducted by David Kipnis and Gary Yukl, and other sources.
12
Self
Organization
13
Your toolbox.
Influence
Persuasion
Negotiation
NEGOTIATION
NEGOTIATION
14
Bono
Wooing is a four-step process.
1.
Survey your situation: What is my idea, and how is
it better than the alternatives? Who are the decision
makers and influencers? What is my “stepping
stone” strategy?
2.
Remove the BRICCs: Beliefs, Relationships,
Interests, Credibility, Channels.
3.
Make your pitch: Use PCAN (because meaning
matters). Make your pitch memorable.
4.
Secure your commitments: Target key individuals.
Manage the politics. Create a “snowball effect.”
16
Survey Your Situation and Remove
Barriers
Influence the
influencers.
18
Target people who live in different “cultures.”

A restructured group at a bank
included three practices: business
process reengineering, information
technology, and database
management.

Conflicting assumptions about the
work:

Business process -- highly
defined 6-step engagement
methodology

IT: one-off, flexible, and
customized approaches

Value differences becomes labels for
the “other” group: inflexible vs.
inattentive to deadlines.

Solution: Find “Tom,” who works with
both groups and understands how to
bridge differences.
19
Source: Rob Cross
Practice strategic relationship-building.

Prepare

Build trust


Ask for favors – reciprocity


Trump and his lawyer
Make an effort to be friendly


Ben Franklin
Match styles – similarity


Apologize if you break it
“Slight attentions often bring back
reward as great as it is unlooked for.”
Meet face to face when the stakes
are high

Parsons and Icahn
20
Set your goals carefully.
• Types of goals:
• Idea-polishing—Asking for input: no agreement required!
• Access—Requesting an introduction to an influencer.
• Attitude—Looking for the “Hmm, good idea!” response.
• Authorization—Getting approval and even resources to
take the next step.
• Endorsement—Seeking active support in public or behind
the scenes.
• Decision—Securing formal sign-off.
• Implementation—Embedding your idea in policies and
procedures.
21
Credibility: It depends on your context.

Expertise

Competence

Trustworthiness
22
Listen.
23
It takes time to change beliefs.
Jody Thompson and Cali Ressler
24
Driving change at Newell Rubbermaid.
Newell needed:
• A sharp marketing focus. (Galli
was a top sales person at
Black&Decker, rising to lead its
global power tools unit.)
• Strong cost cutting measures
executed swiftly in order to
absorb Rubbermaid. (He had
cut costs aggressively at
Amazon.)
• Executive drive (He was known
as a hard-charging type.)
Image from: Wall Street Journal
“I felt speed was essential.”
- Joseph Galli
25
Career advice about organizational culture & politics.
 Work with it when you can: “You need to
look for the informal power of the
corporation, not necessarily the way the
organization looks.”
 Think politically: “Establish allies with the
real movers and shakers in the
organization because that’s the way you
will be the most successful.”
 Pay attention to beliefs and values:
“You can never succeed on your own.
Make things in a way that’s acceptable to
the norms and values of the corporation
that you work in.”
Linda Hudson, BAE Systems
Source: NYT, 9/20/09, “Corner Office”: interview with Linda Hudson, President of land and armaments group at BAE.
26
Cognitive perspective-taking.

“If there is any secret to success, it
lies in the ability to get the other
person’s point of view and see
things from that person’s angle as
well as your own.” —Henry Ford

Historical studies: Lenin vs.
Trotsky, Castro vs. Che Guevara,
Robert E. Lee vs. Ulysses S.
Grant.
“People make their decisions based on what the facts mean to them,
not on the facts themselves.”
27
Communicate Simply and Memorably
What is this person trying to say?
Here’s how a well-known executive answered a question about his plans
for a potential merger:
“Forgetting the business logic and the price, there will be options
down the road there, I would answer your question about capable
and that we weren't really quite capable yet because our army
was doing all the other stuff we had to do, particularly the systems
conversions. The army will be capable to do other stuff sometime
next year, which is reasonable. Doesn't mean we will.”
29
Are you tapping?
Source: Made to Stick—Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
30
Simplicity.
“If you have a simple
problem, you can offer a
simple solution. But most
organizational problems are
complex. So you either
simplify the problem and offer
a solution, or embrace the
complexity and do nothing”
-- adapted from Dan Ariely
Source: NYT, October 17, 2010, Week in Review
31
Define the problem: “Eat a healthier diet.”

Chronic and preventable health conditions, such as
obesity and type 2 diabetes, account for the vast
majority of U.S. medical costs.

One-third of the U.S. population is obese, and twothirds are overweight. In terms of dollars and cents,
the price tag for this problem is enormous.
According to one study, the annual direct health
care costs associated with obesity in the United
States are $80 billion.

Goal: Motivate your staff to eat a healthier diet.

Define “eat a healthier diet.”
Sources: Population Health: Creating a Culture of Wellness; Switch
32
You are what you buy.
 18%
 35%
33
Think PCAN +.
• Problem – A short, concise statement
that defines the problem your idea
solves (or the need it addresses).
• Cause – An explanation of the cause of
this problem or need.
• Answer – Your solution (or answer) for
the situation.
• Net benefits – A summary of why your
answer is the best available, all options
considered.
Source: Ch. 7, The Art of Woo
34
Align your evidence with the situation.

Data-based statistics
 Should Yahoo run ads next to news stories?

Specific examples
 Abraham Lincoln: “Never ask an argument to
do what an illustration can do more easily.”

Direct experience: demonstrations and tangible
objects.
 Should Intel invest in a new semiconductor
chip?

Personal testimony
 Should you take the medicine recommended
by your doctor?

Social consensus
 “Everybody knows . . .”
35
Make your message memorable.

Make it vivid – Use physical and mental
pictures.

Use demonstrations and symbolic
actions.

Put your heart into it.

Tell a story.

Personalize it – Use your own experience.

Make it a puzzle.

Build bridges with analogies and
metaphors.
?
Source: Ch. 8, The Art of Woo
36
Persuasion Styles
Self vs. Other
More Self-Oriented
DRIVER
Lower
COMMANDER
PROMOTER
Volume
Higher
More Other-Oriented
CHESS PLAYER
37
Secure Commitments
The Psychology of Commitment.
 Cognitive Dissonance.
 Consistency Principle.
Sources: Cialdini; C.A. Kiesler
39
Mind and Body: What you say vs. what you do
 Planning Fallacy/Bias.
 Neuroeconomics: Planner (“Cold”) vs. Doer (“Hot”).
 Will power: Radishes and Cookies.
 Self control is a limited resource.
 Can you force behavior change?
Sources: Nudge; Switch; Wansik
40
Change the situation = behavior change.
 How do you get people to eat less?
 What lies behind “resistance”:
 Situation
 Lack of clarity
 Exhaustion
Source: Brian Wansik, Mindless Eating; Switch
41
Be a “choice architect.”

“Prime” commitment by walking through next steps.
 The “flu shot lecture”

Make the “ask.”
 “You’re going to ask him for the order, right?” (consistency principle)
 If the answer is no, then explore what lies behind the answers:
conflicting beliefs or interests, lack of similarity, etc.

Have another credible person hear the commitment (social pro
pressure).

Exploit the “mere-measurement” effect.

Promote easy-to-repeat habits. Habits are the “enormous fly-wheel of
society.”
 “Look right!”
Source: Nudge
42
Take advantage of “positive deviance.”
“I enter a patient's room to take care of
her trach (breathing tube) and to provide
suctioning. Her son states, "Watch Miss
Denise." Of course I feel like I am on
camera. When I am finished, he comments
to his mother:” Did you notice what she
does that the nursing home personnel is
not doing? She is washing, using gel,
gloves and she uses gel again when
completed
"Once you find deviant behaviors, don't tell people
about them. It's not a transfer of knowledge. It's
about changing behavior. You enable people to
practice a new behavior, not to sit in a class
learning about it.” -- Jerry Sternin
Source: Sternin, Jerry and Robert Choo. “The Power of Positive
Deviancy,” Harvard Business Review, 2005.
He states to me that everyone who has
been involved in his mom's care from ICU
to GMF, on 2 different admissions, are the
best and that ALL employees wash, gel
and have gloved EVERY TIME and that
maybe people from our team should go to
the affiliated Nursing Home and teach
them.”
43
Create pull by focusing on the interests of the
right people.
Handwashing in hospitals —
triangulating to create pull
The problem. Failure of hospital
workers to wash their hands between
patients is by far the biggest cause of
infections that patients pick up in
hospitals.
The intervention. Patients were
taught the risks and instructed to ask
doctors, nurses and others: “Did you
wash your hands?” They received
stickers and buttons as prompting aids.
The result. 57% asked caregivers
(90% asked nurses; 32% physicians.)
Soap use rose 34%.
Source: LDI Issue Brief, Volume 7, No. 3, Nov. 2001
44
Securing commitment to your ideas: the action-oriented
approach

Using “priming”: Express your idea in the simplest terms that describe
highly specific behaviors. (Buy 2% milk vs. eat a healthier diet.)

Shape the context: Make it easy for others to take a small step and
become develop new habits. Over time, habits become commitments.
(Use smaller popcorn containers.)

Align your idea with ongoing activities and interests: Use “pull” rather
than “push.” (For example, ask patients rather than physicians to
promote hand-washing. When you can, highlight “positive deviant”
behaviors in which people are already engaging.)

Build momentum: Create a “political base” for your idea. (Ressler and
Thompson built support among managers and employees.) Produce a
“band wagon” effect so that it is hard to say no.

Win support before using formal authority: “Lock in” agreements only
after you have secured commitments.
Source: Ch. 9, The Art of Woo
45
Start with small steps.
46
Use woo.
1.
Survey your situation: What is my idea, and how is
it better than the alternatives? Who are the decision
makers and influencers? What is my “stepping
stone” strategy?
2.
Remove the BRICCs: Beliefs, Relationships,
Interests, Credibility, Channels.
3.
Make your pitch: Use PCAN (because meaning
matters). Make your pitch memorable.
4.
Secure your commitments: Target key individuals.
Manage the politics. Create a “snowball effect.”
Raise your
perspectivetaking IQ.
Which barriers
are the biggest?
What is your
pitch?
How do you create
momentum?
47
Is this rocket science?
48