There Are No Accidents: Using Superstition To Persuade by Kenrick Cleveland

Here's a great superstition from our culture: someone sneezes, we say 'God bless you'. Why? This started in the Middle Ages when it was thought that the devil would hop right into your body in moments when we were unguarded, as in the case of the sneeze. Saying these three simple words, 'God bless you', immediately after the sneeze, assured there would be no unfortunate demonic possession.

In the West there are many people who have triskaidekaphobia. This is responsible for many high rise buildings not having a thirteenth floor. In the East a similar superstition is tetraphobia, fear of the number four.

What about something as innocuous as walking under a ladder? This dates back early Christianity as the sides of the ladder and the ground from a triangle, the symbol of Holy Trinity. It was thought that when one walked through it, it violated the trinity and put you on the same level as the devil. Nowadays, no one really knows where this superstition came from and yet, people avoid walking under ladders without reason. Maybe it's wise to avoid walking under ladders simply because you might end up with a bucket of paint on your head but to believe bad luck will befall you? It's kind of a stretch.

An acquaintance of mine believes all religion is superstition. In my opinion, he's wrong, but I appreciate his perspective nonetheless as just another example of how frames surround everything we think about and do.

Superstition is defined as 'an irrational belief that an object, action, or circumstance not logically related to a course of events influences its outcome.'

Helen Keller once said that, "Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature.... Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." This is an example of how diverse we all are, and yet, we all believe in something irrational.

With all this information about superstition, how can we use our prospect's and client's beliefs (irrational beliefs, especially) to persuade them to buy or product or service?

But what I can tell you is that the more our world becomes unstable, the more people look for stability and look for ways to explain things. As a persuader, you have the ability to offer explanations, just the same way that they do to make sense out of their life.

So in the same way that people look for supporting reasons, even nonsensical ones, to explain their reality, and they look to assign blame, we can do the same.

'There are no accidents' is a great term born of superstition, that we can use to persuade or clientle. Especially if our prospects have had problems in the past, we can use this term to indicate that, 'Yes, you've had problems in the past (with your agent, adviser, etc.), but those problems are over now and we live in an infinitely wise universe where there are no accidents. You ended up with me for a reason.'

Is this true and verifiable? No. Absolutely not. But will you be called on it? Unless you're trying to sell my acquaintance, the cynic, who views the world through the frame that everyone is superstitious except him, I seriously doubt it.

By: Kenrick Cleveland Article Directory: www.articledashboard.com Kenrick Cleveland teaches strategies to earn the business of wealthy clients using persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in persuasion strategies.