High Skill Rollers 2: Persuade

[alex_greene]

The second in an occasional series looking at the sort of Travellers whose primary skill is rated 4, 5 or higher. This time, it's Persuade.

People with certain skills are bound to attract money, status and power far more than others. Deception can con people out of their money, Gambler can earn it through games of chance, Broker is all about making a profit through trade; and of course Travellers with various high levels of skill, from Gun Combat to Profession, whose mastery of those skill sets is acknowledged, can earn a lot of money from their assignments.

Persuade is different. Persuade is the skill of motivating other people to do what you want.

Persuade is the skill of being able to create a desire in the other person's brain, and then offering the persuader's products and services as the solution to that artificial desire. Persuade is the skill of telling the other person that the desire has always been there, and that you're only drawing the other person's attention to it.

Certain qualities mark the top persuaders.

Belief
The core of Persuade skill is being able to believe in the product or service, to believe in the other person - and most of all, to believe in oneself. If the Traveller does not believe in what he is talking about, that is not Persuade skill being used but Deception skill.

Enthusiasm
From belief stems enthusiasm. Persuaders show their passion through their speech, their actions and their words.

Knowledge
Persuaders must be confident in being able to back up their words with knowledge. In Traveller, this takes the form of at least one relevant skill at level 1 or above. The higher the other skill, the better.

Empathy
What does the Persuader think is important to the other person? Persuaders step into the other person's shoes, in order to better sell what it is they are trying to sell to the other person. High Persuade skill means that the Persuader is more aware than most of how others might feel in the circumstances and what might be said or done to convince the other person to change their minds, perhaps by presenting benefits that outweigh any fears.

Persistence
Persistence is also key - being able to apply pressure, politely and with empathy, to convince the other person that the product, service or choice is the right way after all. The empathy provides the sense of balance between being magnetic and tempting and being pushy and domineering.

Energy
Energy fuels enthusiasm. Energy is a powerful convincer, sweeping the other person along.

Consistency
Everything the Persuader does or says is important. Everything counts. A powerful persuader must be consistent. If the Persuader is trying to persuade someone to keep their promises, then the Persuader must always keep his. If the Persuader tells the other person that he will call back within ten minutes - he must call back in nine minutes.

These seven qualities - belief, enthusiasm, knowledge, empathy, persistence, energy and consistency - mark the Master Persuader as a force to be reckoned with. It would be rare to find a Persuader who is short of money.

 

[-Daniel-]

When I read this list, I can't help but think of a missionary or cult leader. Someone who is 100% sure they have divine right. Then they set about to persuade others to join and follow their way of thinking. Someone who offers hope and redemption in some form or another. I do not mean a con artist either. This list you present would fit a religious leader who does believe, and I think would need to, in order to fit the consistency element of your list.

Anyway, quite an interesting read. Thanks for sharing.

 

[FreeTrav]

I could also see a not-quite-top persuader being a salesman - he wouldn't need to necessarily have both Belief and Empathy, though it's likely that he does have one or the other. Consistency, as described here, isn't really necessary for the salesman, though it would be for the account manager - who might have become an account manager because he had the consistency, and was able to bring in repeat orders.

Another place where these qualities can be useful is for the recruiter - the best recruiters I've known have, in fact, possessed all of the qualities, including Belief, both in the sense that they Believed that Serving Is Good, and that {insert service name here} Is The Best Service To Be In.

As far as the Persuader not lacking money, that actually depends on the Persuader's goals - for example, most of the Church of Scientology's [non-celebrity] recruiters are actually signatories of the infamous 'billion-year contract' of the 'Sea Org', and basically work for nothing more than room and board - and in some cases, that's less than what convicts get. But they don't actually care (unless/until they become disillusioned with the Church). (But this could be considered to fall under -Daniel-'s "missionary" or "cult leader".)

 

[alex_greene]

I'm actually saving the cult stuff for the dark side of Persuade, which will be three or four skills down the road.