sales-persuasion

name

sales-persuasion

description

Use when drafting or revising client-facing outreach (warm follow-ups, cold replies, proposals, LinkedIn notes, re-engaging a quiet thread, or handling an objection). Applies Cialdini and Pre-Suasion plus Chris Voss (negotiation), Jim Camp (non-neediness), Blair Enns (pricing), Neil Rackham (SPIN), Fisher and Ury (negotiation), and Challenger (insight selling), calibrated for sophisticated B2B buyers. Trigger on "write the reply", "revise this email", "make this more persuasive", "draft outreach", "follow up", "break-up email", "they said no", "not now".

Sales Persuasion

The send-time gate for every client-facing message. Lean by design: this file is the decision flow and the checklist. Depth lives in the reference files. Open the one you need, do not load all of them.

Decision flow (run every message through this)

1. Calibrate to the buyer (below).
2. Frame before you ask (pre-suasion). See references/principles-and-evidence.md.
3. Pick ONE principle or move, not a stack. Lead with a Challenger insight when you need urgency without scarcity. See references/moves-objections-cadence-channels.md and references/expert-playbooks.md.
4. Draft in your own natural voice (rules below). Use a template if useful: references/templates.md.
5. Run the pre-send checklist (below).
6. After it sends, note what worked so the approach keeps improving.

Calibrate to the buyer FIRST (the core rule)

Buyers are owners, operators, and executives: sophisticated, single decision-makers, high-trust, relationship-led. Stacking tactics backfires.

• ONE principle, applied subtly, under genuine value. Never reads as a pitch.
• Warmer relationship, lighter touch. If they have read Cialdini, obvious tactics trigger resistance.
• Safe: reciprocity, authority, liking, real social proof, genuine unity.
• Risky: hard scarcity, urgency, deadlines, visible commitment ladders. Use the substitutes (cost-of-inaction and friends) in the moves reference.

Non-negotiable voice rules

• "we" not "I" for build or delivery work, when a team delivers it. You own the relationship.
• Anchor to their ACTUAL last message, answer each point, do not iterate off your own prior draft.
• Lead with value before any ask. Frame the ask as receiving, not spending.
• Do not re-offer a demo they already saw and liked. Move them forward.
• Soft-ask: phrase the ask gently and as a choice, never a demand.
• No em or en dashes. Trim hard, they skim. No salesy filler ("just say the word", "if it helps", "worth your time", "I hope this email finds you well").
• Keep pricing out until they agree to start. Sign as a real person. Must not sound like AI. Read it aloud.

Pre-send checklist

• Re-read their last message and answered each point?
• Frames before it asks, leads with value?
• ONE principle, named, calibrated to a sophisticated buyer?
• Commitment anchored same-topic? Proof segment-matched and TRUE?
• Urgency as cost-of-inaction, not fake scarcity (reason-why on any real limit)?
• Incumbent validated, not criticized?
• One soft-asked next step, framed as a choice?
• If a follow-up, adds a NEW angle (not "just checking in")?
• Does EVERY line serve THIS reader? Cut anything that explains what they already know. A warm/known contact (or anyone who already has your proposal) does not need your category or product described back to them; give them only what is NEW or useful (their own decision criteria, an offer, a next step).
• Reviewed as a CRITIC, not a fan? Any self-review or "read it as the recipient" pass must flag weak/unclear lines, redundancy, jargon, and length, and pre-trim BEFORE recommending send. Never rubber-stamp. The reader should never have to ask "too long?"
• "we" where a team delivers? Zero dashes? No banned filler? Trimmed? Signed as a person?
• Passes the transparency test (still works if they knew the tactic)?

Reference files (open only what the task needs)

• references/principles-and-evidence.md: the 7 principles applied, pre-suasion, what the science actually supports, and the full ethics guardrail.
• references/moves-objections-cadence-channels.md: high-leverage exec moves, the objection-to-move map, follow-up cadence, per-channel guidance (email subject, LinkedIn, phone, voicemail, SMS), discovery questions, price framing, and internal-champion enablement.
• references/expert-playbooks.md: Dale Carnegie (warm rapport), Chris Voss (tactical empathy and objections), Jim Camp (Start With No, non-neediness and the pull-back), Neil Rackham (SPIN discovery), Blair Enns (expert positioning and pricing), Fisher and Ury (principled negotiation), Challenger (lead-with-insight), Robert Greene (Art of Seduction, attraction within the trust guardrail).
• references/templates.md: copy-paste scenario templates.

Sources

Synthesized from the primary works of Robert Cialdini (Influence, Pre-Suasion), Chris Voss (Never Split the Difference), Jim Camp (Start With No), Blair Enns (Win Without Pitching), Neil Rackham (SPIN Selling), Roger Fisher and William Ury (Getting to Yes), Dale Carnegie, and the Challenger Sale, calibrated for high-trust, single-decision-maker B2B sales.