Strategic Persuasion Quotes

Try to rally up as many people as you can with as much information as you can to try to get it to appear in front of the right people in the organization who are the decision-makers to greenlight the project.

When (an advocate) is not thoroughly acquainted with the real strength and weakness of his cause, he knows not where to choose the most impressive argument. When the mark is shrouded in obscurity, the only substitute for accuracy in the aim is in the multitude of the shafts.

I am not proposing to replace war with peace. I propose to replace war with a smarter fight. A fight using other instruments, more intelligent instruments to convince people not to use drugs.

First, President Reagan was not enthusiastic. But I built up a relationship with him in other areas and then persuaded him that this was important to us and to me, and that we had to at least be in the process of looking at this seriously.

You don't always have to chop with the sword of truth. You can point with it too.

Being right doesn’t mean you win. You win by establishing credibility, a relationship, and trust.

To invoke solely the weaker arguments and yet triumph is an art worth more than a hundred thousand drachmae.

Power is getting things done without having to demonstrate that you can bulldoze it through. I'm most effective when I've studied an issue, when I can make a credible argument, and then bring people along.

If you watch the news, you see politicians use human vulnerabilities to get in and earn people's trust.