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Instructor’s Manual to Accompany

BUSINESS COMMUNICATION Developing Leaders for a Networked World (2e)

By Peter W. Cardon

Chapter 10:Persuasive Messages

IM 10-1© 2016 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.

Teaching Note

Hello Fellow Instructor,

In this chapter about persuasive communication, you’ll find that I’ve incorporated more types of persuasive messages than traditional business communication textbooks. I’ve also included a deeper discussion of psychological principles related to persuasion.

Having tried many approaches to teaching persuasive communication and talked to dozens of instructors over the years about their experiences over the past decade, I’ve found that business students face a few basic obstacles to improving their persuasiveness. First, they often don’t appreciate that change usually takes a long time and rarely occurs without attention to workplace relationships. They sometimes assume they can change minds with a single written correspondence. Second, their instincts are often to enter argumentation mode, assuming they can win over the other side with strong and forceful positions. They’ve often been trained in this approach or observed this approach in mass media.

This chapter gives us an opportunity to emphasize the need for personal credibility and the role of managing workplace relationships during the persuasion or change process. I encourage you to discuss credibility and relationships at every chance for this topic. I believe the students will respond well to you sharing your own experiences about the time and attention needed to persuade others in an organizational context.

Please contact me anytime – to share your experiences, your ideas, and your reactions.

Best of wishes,

Peter W. Cardon, MBA, Ph.D.Associate ProfessorCenter for Management CommunicationUniversity of Southern California

Email: [email protected]: @petercardonFacebook: facebook.com/cardonbcommWeb: cardonbcom.com


Chapter 10 Summary and PowerPoint Notes

SLIDE 10-1

SLIDE 10-2

This chapter covers the following topics: the relationship between credibility and persuasion; components of persuasive messages; tone and style; internal and external persuasive messages; mass sales messages; and effective and fair persuasive messages.

SLIDE 10-3

LO10.1 Describe the relationship between credibility and persuasion.LO10.2 Explain the AIM planning process for persuasive messages and the basic components of most persuasive messages.LO10.3 Explain how the tone and style of persuasive messages impact their influence.


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LO10.4 Create compelling internal persuasive messages.LO10.5 Compose influential external persuasive messages.LO10.6 Construct effective mass sales messages.LO10.7 Evaluate persuasive messages for effectiveness and fairness.

SLIDE 10-5

While credibility is critical to all business communications, its importance is heightened for persuasive messages. By definition, persuasion implies that you are communicating with someone who does not think or feel the same way as you do. So, your goal is to help your audience members identify with and find merit in your positions. If they question your credibility, they are unlikely to carefully consider your ideas, requests, or recommendations. Persuasion is becoming more difficult as we live in a time of increasing mistrust. Michael Maslansky, one of the leading corporate communications experts, has labeled this the post-trust era (PTE). In this chapter, we sort through some of the basic principles of persuasive writing and identify effective strategies for the PTE.


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Persuasion involves extensive planning: analyzing your audience to understand their needs, values, and how they are influenced; developing your ideas as you wrestle with the complicated business issues at hand; and creating a message structure that most effectively reduces resistance and gains buy-in. Many effective business communicators spend weeks and months learning about their target audiences, gathering information, and piecing together persuasive messages.

SLIDE 10-7

Dr. Robert Cialdini, a marketing psychologist, has spent his career studying how people are influenced in business and marketing environments. He has identified six principles of persuasion: reciprocation, consistency, social proof, liking, authority, and scarcity.Reciprocation is a principle of influence based on returning favors. As defined by Cialdini, “We should try to repay, in kind, what another person has provided us.Consistency is based on the idea that once people make an explicit commitment, they tend to follow through or honor that commitment. In other words, they want to stay consistent with their original commitment.


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Social proof is a principle of influence whereby people determine what is right, correct, or desirable by seeing what others do.Liking is a principle of influence whereby people are more likely to be persuaded by people they like.

SLIDE 10-9

Authority is a principle of influence whereby people follow authority figures. The number of celebrity endorsements in advertising is evidence of how authority can impact persuasion.Scarcity is a principle of influence whereby people think there is limited availability of something they want or need, so they must act quickly.

SLIDE 10-10

Most people justify their business decisions based on the soundness of ideas, not feelings. Savvy business communicators, however, understand the importance of injecting emotion into their persuasive messages. While they appreciate the place of reason in business and consumer decisions, they understand that resistance to ideas, products, and services is often emotional. Conversely, they are aware that their target audiences often possess strong emotional attachment to competing ideas, products, and services. Thus, effective communicators find ways to appeal to the core emotional benefits of products, services, and ideas.


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Some components of persuasive messages are: Gain attention. Raise a need. Deliver a solution. Provide a rationale. Validate the views, preferences, and concerns

of others. Give counterpoints (optional). Call to action.

SLIDE 10-12

Most business writing is direct and explicit. It is direct in that you begin with a main idea or argument and then provide the supporting reasons. It is explicit in that nothing is implied; statements contain full and unambiguous meaning. When you write directly and explicitly, you help your readers understand your message and you show respect for their time.

SLIDE 10-13

Compared to other business messages, persuasive messages are somewhat more indirect and implicit. They are sometimes indirect in that they provide the rationale for a request before making the specific request. They are sometimes implicit in that the request or some of the rationale for the request may be implied. In other words, sometimes the reader needs to read between the lines to grasp the entire meaning. Implicit statements politely ask people to act or think differently. Also, explicitly stating some types of benefits is considered poor form—for example, matters of financial or career gain in internal persuasive requests.


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See Table 10.1 for examples of attention-getters that Haniz might use for some of her communication tasks concerning marketing initiatives at Horizon Credit Union.

SLIDE 10-15

The tone for persuasive messages should be confident and positive, yet at the same time avoid exaggeration or hype. This can be tricky! You will no doubt need to make some trade-offs. The more confident and positive you make your message, the more you risk being perceived as pushy or exaggerated. As you reduce confidence and positivity, you risk your product, service, or idea being perceived as weak or unexciting. One benefit of asking colleagues to read your persuasive message before you send it is that they can help you decide if you have achieved the right level of confidence and positivity without sacrificing believability.

SLIDE 10-16

Creating messages that speak directly to customers and colleagues requires that you use language that helps your customers and colleagues feel the product, service, or idea is just for them. One of the primary strategies you can use to personalize persuasive messages is your selection of voice—either you-voice, we-voice, I-voice, or impersonal voice (as introduced in Chapter 2). Table 10.2 offers guidance on choosing the appropriate voice.


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One of the primary strategies you can use to personalize persuasive messages is your selection of voice—either you-voice, we-voice, I-voice, or impersonal voice (as introduced in Chapter 2). Table 10.2 offers guidance on choosing the appropriate voice.

SLIDE 10-18

Another method of personalizing a message is to make your statements tangible. In a business communications context, making the statement tangible implies that the readers can discern a message in terms that are meaningful to them. This allows the reader to sense the impact on a personal level. You often can achieve a tangible feel by combining you-voice with specificity. See Table 10.3 for examples of messages that Haniz is working on for the credit union.

SLIDE 10-19

In persuasive messages, you have somewhat more license to write creatively. Focus on using action-oriented and lively words to achieve a sense of excitement, optimism, or other positive emotions. Use strong nouns and verbs to add to the excitement of the message. Across the entire message or thought, the action-oriented and lively language should emphasize a central theme. See Table 10.4 for examples from documents Haniz is working on for two of her projects.


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As you display more confidence in your idea, product, or service, you can more effectively influence your audience. Effective persuaders provide compelling and simple reasons for action. They should show confidence in these ideas, as illustrated in Table 10.5, again with examples from two of Haniz’s projects. Emotionally, the writer’s confidence allows the audience to gain confidence in the message.

SLIDE 10-21

Effective persuasive messages avoid statements that may be perceived as pressure tactics. Hard sells are increasingly ineffective in a PTE, especially in written format. Compare Haniz’s less effective and more effective persuasive statements in Table 10.6, all of which you will see again in her messages located later in the chapter.

SLIDE 10-22

Avoiding superlatives gives you the best chance of persuading your audience. Consumers perceive a too-good-to-be-true statement as an attempt to convince them of “the merits without making a rational argument.” Such statements are ineffective “because they suggest an inherent bias that ruins the integrity of the communicator.” Table 10.7 highlights the kinds of phrases that are increasingly ineffective with today’s skeptical consumers.


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Table 10.8 contrasts messages from Haniz’s projects that persuade with and without exaggeration.

SLIDE 10-24

Internal and external messages contain many common elements. Nevertheless, internal and external persuasive messages differ in some ways (see Table 10.9). Internal messages more often focus on promoting ideas, whereas external messages more often focus on promoting products and services. Also, internal persuasive messages tend to be slightly more direct and explicit, and they tend to be based on logical appeals. In contrast, external persuasive messages tend to be slightly more indirect and implicit, and they tend to be based on emotional appeals.

SLIDE 10-25

Christine, with the help of Haniz, constructed a letter to warm board members to the idea of adding new financial products and using more online and social networking tools to better reach younger members. In the less-effective message (see Figure 10.2), Christine is generally positive. However, she shows little confidence in the new ideas. The message generally contains short, dull, and nontangible comments.


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Even if you are not in a marketing position, you may participate in developing mass sales messages—messages sent to a large group of consumers and intended to market a particular product or service. In Figure 10.10, you can see a mass sales message that Haniz and her colleagues created to promote the credit union’s auto loans. In this message, the central selling theme is price. Better Horizons Credit Union’s auto loans cost less than dealer financing.

SLIDE 10-27

A secondary benefit of mass sales messages is that even when consumers do not respond with immediate purchases, these messages can raise a company’s brand awareness. Consumers may keep the company in mind when making a purchase at a later time.

SLIDE 10-28

Most effective sales messages contain a central sales theme. Like other messages, sales messages are strongest when they contain a coherent, unified theme that consumers can recognize quickly. Your colleagues and the clients who know you will grant you a window of 30 seconds or so to provide your main point, but recipients of mass sales messages may give you only a few seconds. Thus, your sales message should stick to a single, recognizable theme that resonates within seconds.


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Always carefully review your persuasive messages, particularly because almost all of them will be high-stakes communications. They can potentially provide you with more professional opportunities and enhanced credibility, or they can close off future opportunities and diminish your credibility. Likewise, because you are a representative of your organization, your persuasive messages may raise or decrease customer loyalty, revenues, and brand value.

SLIDE 10-30

Persuasive messages can be intentionally designed to manipulate colleagues and customers. In a business communications context, manipulation involves attempting to influence others by some level of deception so you can achieve your own interests. You may be tempted to use manipulation to elevate your career, get a bonus for exceptional performance, or pad your ego for being right. By applying the FAIR test, you can avoid sending persuasive messages that manipulate others. This is especially important in the case of sales messages because any misrepresentation of your product or service is unethical.

SLIDE 10-31

Use Figure 10.14 as a guide as you discuss with your colleagues whether your persuasive messages are fair.


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After studying this chapter, you should understand the following topics: the relationship between credibility and persuasion; the components of persuasive messages; tone and style; internal and external persuasive messages; mass sales messages; and effective and fair persuasive messages.


Suggested Approaches and Solutions to Learning Exercises

In these suggested approaches and solutions, you’ll find key points to look for in students’ responses.

10.1 Chapter Review Questions (LO 10.1, LO 10.2, LO 10.3)

A. Persuasion is needed only when others question you, your organization, your products or services, and/or your ideas. In other words, you need to persuade only when a gap in trust exists or when your audience doubts your credibility. Students should be rewarded for explaining the nature of the post-trust era and how various persuasive strategies build trust and enhance the writer’s credibility.

B. Applying personal touch shows that you value others and understand their needs. Most people are more likely to be persuaded when they know you care about them individually. Tangible statements show that the message focuses on the needs of the audience. Action-oriented language provides excitement and enthusiasm for your products, services, or ideas. Expressing or otherwise showing confidence helps audience members sense the value of a product, service, or idea. Offering choice is a crucial strategy in the post-trust era. Colleagues, clients, and customers expect to have choice and are likely to dismiss products, services, or ideas that feel like hard sells. Finally, positivity helps gain attraction to products, services, or ideas for their merits rather than the deficiencies of competing products, services, or ideas. Students should be rewarded for explaining other ways in which tone and style build trust.

C. The AIM planning process for persuasive messages involves extensive planning. Understanding your audience involves carefully identifying their needs and wants, understanding how they best learn and process information, and understanding which methods of influence most impact them. Developing your ideas carefully means that you understand your products, services, and ideas thoroughly—their relative advantages and drawbacks compared to competing products, services, and ideas. Setting up your message structure involves ordering an attention-getter, a need, a solution, a rationale, appreciation, counterpoints, and a call to action. Students should be rewarded for providing concrete examples and elaborating on various principles (such as Cialdini’s principles of influence). They should also be rewarded for making distinctions between direct and indirect persuasive messages and between internal and external persuasive messages.

10.2 Applying Key Terms (LO 10.1, LO 10.2, LO 10.3)

Reward students for thorough and accurate summaries and relevant examples.


This works well as a group exercise in class. You might consider assigning various terms to different groups.

10.3 Communication Q&A Discussion Questions (LO 10.1, LO 10.2, LO 10.3)

A. Adams emphasizes listening as a way to get to know candidates, clients, and their respective positions and goals. She further stresses that the goal of listening is to make the other person feel not only heard but also understood. She also listens to the style of the people she speaks to and tries to match it. She does not specifically address the level of her efforts, but her examples make it clear that she expends a great deal of energy listening to others.

B. Crafting a short pitch is more time intensive than a “data dump” because it involves listening for concerns and making only the points that best address them. This requires discipline, perceptiveness, and preparation. Adams believes that a person making a pitch should not talk too much and can make shorter persuasive statements by listening and identifying the needs of the other person. Student responses about the application of these principles to their own projects will vary. Reward students for carefully constructed and nuanced responses that are self-reflective and goal-directed.

C. In several of her responses, Adams stresses the importance of understanding the other person’s position. She listens carefully to look for unmet needs that she can address by mentioning the strengths of the candidate or position she is promoting.

D. Student responses will vary. Reward students for carefully constructed and nuanced responses. Also, reward students for self-reflective and goal-directed comments.

10.4 Should You Use Persuasion Sparingly? (LO 10.1, LO 10.3)

Students should be rewarded for thorough and clear reasoning about their views. Ideally, they will refer to principles in this chapter, such as addressing needs and using counterpoints, and to principles from other chapters, including credibility, emotional intelligence, and teamwork.

10.5 Character and Persuasion (LO 10.1, LO 10.7)

Students should be rewarded for thorough and clear reasoning about their views. They should be rewarded from explaining their views in terms of the credibility model in this book as well as well-justified conceptual frameworks of their own.

10.6 Analyzing a Sales Message (LO 10.6)

Responses will vary. Reward students for carefully constructed and nuanced responses. Also, reward students for providing specific and valuable recommendations.


10.7 Analyzing the Better Horizons Promotional Message (Figure 10.6) (LO 10.5)

Responses will vary. Reward students for carefully constructed and nuanced responses. Also, reward students for providing specific and valuable recommendations.

10.8 Persuasion Self-Assessment (LO 10.1, LO 10.2, LO 10.3, LO 10.7)

Responses will vary. Reward students for carefully constructed and nuanced responses. Also, reward students for self-reflective and goal-directed comments.

10.9 Selling an Idea to the Better Horizons Board (LO 10.4)

Students should be rewarded for carefully constructed messages that apply the principles of persuasion from this chapter.

10.10 Promoting the Financial Planning Cruise to Better Horizons Credit Union Members (LO 10.5)


10.11 Writing a Sales Letter for the New Better Horizons Special Rewards Card (LO 10.5, LO 10.6)


10.12 Creating a Message to Promote Joining a Student Club (LO 10.4, LO 10.5, LO 10.6)


10.13 Writing a Sales Letter for Your Computer Store (LO 10.6)


10.14 Writing a Sales Letter for a Credit Union that Targets University Students (LO 10.6)



10.15 Writing a Sales Letter for a Bank that Targets University Students (LO 10.6)


10.16 Persuading University Students to Start a Retirement Account (LO 10.5, LO 10.6)


10.17 A Message Do-Over for a Persuasive Message to a Colleague

Responses will vary. Reward students for carefully reasoned and justified evaluations of the existing message. Students should be rewarded for carefully constructed rewrites that apply the principles of persuasion from this chapter.

10.18 A Message Do-Over for a Sales Message

Responses will vary. Reward students for carefully reasoned and justified evaluations of the existing message. Students should be rewarded for carefully constructed rewrites that apply the principles of persuasion from this chapter.

10.19 Review the “Commonly Misspelled and Confused Words” section in Appendix A. Then, rewrite each sentence to make any needed corrections.

A. We want your advice on the effects of this monetary policy. B. She said the team lacked complementary skills, which was one reason for such low morale.C. Your order is all ready, so please pick it up sooner than 6 p.m.D. His key insight was that the new policy had no effects at all.E. This initiative will ensure that all employees will not lose their retirement options.F. It’s okay to accept credit cards. (no change needed)G. The principle behind this guideline is that we trust our employees.H. Since she’s already accepted the offer, let’s proceed as if she’s a current employee.I. We provided complimentary items to all attendees except for employees.J. Please appraise her performance and then send her advice.


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