Joe PolishFounder of Genius Network and President of Piranha Marketing

The Power of ethical persuasion in sales.

28 Sept 2023 · 1 min

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Joe Polish opens by citing Dan Sullivan’s definition of selling: "selling is getting someone intellectually engaged in a future result that's good for them and then getting them to emotionally commit to take action to achieve that result." He emphasizes the crucial qualifier—"good for them"—and contrasts ethical persuasion (which helps people and advances humanity) with destructive uses of influence (examples given: unhealthy food, pornography, cigarettes, excessive drinking). Polish notes that many of history’s greatest world-advancers were powerful persuaders.

Chapters

My favorite definition of selling came from Dan Sullivan, where he said, selling is getting someone intellectually engaged in a future result that's good for them and then getting them to emotionally commit to take action to achieve that result. And when I heard that saying, I thought about that a lot. I was like, okay, the keyword is good for them, because you can get someone intellectually and emotionally engaged in a future result that kills them. Eat this crappy food, watch this pornography, guzzle this, you know, booze. I mean, there's smoke, this cigarette. I mean, there's all kinds of ways to utilize influence and persuasion in ways that are destructive. And there's all kinds of ways to do it in ways that are beneficial and help humanity. As a matter of fact, you know, the greatest people in the world that have advanced the world were powerful persuaders.