Some of the persuasive influences which operate in intrviews.

The Persuaslve Interview

Th persuasive interview is in many ways the most difficult to conduct successfully. This form most often occurs on sales situations that involve used car salesmen, encyclopaedia vendors, retail store clerks, real estate agent, and the like. But persuasive interviewing is by no means limited to the sales context; any one-to-one situation in which one member wants to produce a change. in the other involves persuasion. The purpose of the persuasive interview, then, is to change the interviewee's attitudes, values, or behaviours.

Many excellent works, such as that by Cronkhite, explore the process of persuasion, and we shall not attempt to duplicate their efforts. Rather shall simply review some of the persuasive influences which operate in intrviews.

Procedures

Planning: The first step in the preparation of a persuasive interview is an analysis of the individual to be persuaded. Typically this analysis must be done quickly and on the basis of relatively superficial characteristics. Research suggests, however, that even these characteristic can provide clues about the individual's persuasibility. Investigations of the relationship between sex and persuasibility have found that women are more interested in humanitarian issues than are men, are more susceptible to social pressure, and are more easily persuaded.

Educational attainment, often indicated by patterns of dress, also seems related to persuasibility. Well-educated individals have relatively more stable attitudes, but they too can be persuaded through provision of new infonnation. Studies of age and persuasibility have shown that willingness to take risks decreases with age and that this decrease produces inflexibility in buying habits, living style, and social and political attitudes. Older people tend to have more fixed religious beliefs and typically are less inclined and less able to evaluate complex persuasive appeals. Finally, studieds of persuasibility and socioeconomic status have shown people of higher status to be more conservative and resistant to persuasive appeals. Through a quick evaluation of the individual's characteristic, then we can make some judgments "about the types of appeals which might persuade her or him.

Beginning: The initial stage of the persuasive interview is the moment at which persuader and persuadee first meet. Burstein says this moment, for the interviewer, is the "point when his appearance, deineanour," and what he says will determine if he will have an opportunity to make an adequate presentation." Thus our concern here shall be the verbal strategies employed in the encoupter. Hatfield suggests two approaches which salespersons might adopt. The first, used when the customer seems not to be interested in a specific item, he terms the service approach, which is typified by the May I help you? opening. This approach, however, may convey disinterest on the part of the salesperson and tends to elicit a No, I'm just looking response, which stifles further interaction. To minimize these dangers, Hatfield suggests that somewhat unorthodox service openings be employedsuch as, Is anyone helping you? or Are you findirig what you need? On the other hand, the salesperson may employ the merchandise approach, in which some mention is made of the merchandise being examined by the customer.

We might begin by observing that, Pontiacs of that year are pretty hard to find, but this one's in great shape.