Effective persuasive selling techniques for novice Car Sales Agents in Tacloban

City

Submitted By: Yvon C. Montefolka (MM), and Jennifer B. Alde (MPE)

Rationale

               In human communication, persuasion is intended to influence and convince

others of implementing principles, ideals, and even attitudes. It is result-oriented that

drives the receiver to act or to believe the sender with the use of captivating words and

sentences. Persuasion is also a broad concept that covers numerous activities and that

is apparent when it comes to the marketing area.

In the field of entrepreneurship, persuasion is a vital tool that entrepreneurs

should have to make the buyers utilize their products especially since competition in the

world of business nowadays is highly prevalent. To have a good quality of products isn’t

enough to be able to sell them but to have effective persuasive selling techniques will

result in a good number of sales. Hence, it is significant for entrepreneurs especially

novice Car Sales Agents who are in Tacloban City to know effective persuasive selling

techniques.

Persuasion is not a new discussion at all and there is numerous existing

knowledge about persuasive techniques nowadays when it comes to marketing various

products in different fields of business. However, the information about suitable and

effective persuasive selling techniques when it comes to those who are still a novice in

automobile selling is limited as of now. Being a salesperson in the business world does

not only imply being knowledgeable about the product or service they are offering but

one needs to have the skills and confidence to communicate with each customer in the
way that they understand. Each client or customer is unique and a good persuasive

technique that suits them must be used by the agent to have a good sale.

Therefore, conducting this research study by identifying at least two or three

different effective persuasive selling techniques will help those novice Car Sales Agents

gain more knowledge about the suitable persuasive techniques they will need to

improvise their selling skills. In addition, this study will also contribute to the field of the

automobile industry’s marketing strategy.

Research Context

               Automobile Companies here in Tacloban City deal with different customers

every day, that’s why they provide various pieces of training for their novice Car Sales

Agents. However, after a few weeks or months of a novice Car Sale Agent’s training, it

will still depend on him/her on how he/she can create an effective technique in

persuading clients. In addition, the availability of reading materials or studies about what

are the suitable and effective persuasive selling techniques that they want to know and

acquire are still inadequate.  

Statement of the Problem

               This research aims to determine at least two or three different effective

persuasive techniques that can be used by the Car Sales Agents who are still a novice

in Automotive Industry here in Tacloban City.

Research Question

1.) What are the techniques used by experienced Car Sales Agents in persuading their

clients based on Keraf’s theory of persuasion?

 1. Rationalization

2. Identification

3. Suggestion

4. Conformity

5. Compensation

6. Projection

7. Displacements

2.) Which are the top 3 effective persuasion techniques?

3.) How will this research study contribute to the automobile marketing industry?

Framework of the Study

i. Theoretical Framework

This research is anchored on discourse analysis and Gory Keraf’s Seven Persuasive

Techniques, both examines the aspects of persuasive communication. From well-

crafted political campaigns to a sale agent simply persuading a customer to buy the

product such as automobile. This study highlights the various ways to conceive effective

persuasive techniques.

Originally, discourse comes from Latin word "discursus" which means "conversation"

and "speech". Discourse is usually defined as language beyond the sentence. The

meaning of the sentence is not literally but implicitly stated. Also defined as a branch of

linguistics study which is concerned on the study of language in text and conversation

(Nordquist, 2019).
 Discourse analysis is also referred to as the study of language which is used and

arranged inside the cultural and political context as a place where the discourse occurs.

It is concerned with how people use language in text and context and people's actual

utterances. It analyzes written, vocal, sign language use or any significant semiotic

event. Discourse analysis appreciates the language or discourse, it is not simply a

device for producing and transmitting meaning, it is a strategy which people use

purposely to try to create a particular effect especially in persuading (Holloway, 2010).

Discourse analysis takes a significant role in persuasive communication since it is not

only concerned with the language and its meaning but also to some elements in

communication such as how, who, what and when language is used. Discourse analysis

is committed to an investigation of what and how persuasion is used (Osisanwo, 2015).

Gory Keraf developed the seven techniques of persuasion. These are the

rationalization, identification, suggestion, conformity, compensation, projection and

displacement. Rationalization is the use of basic mind process to give a justification for

a certain problem (Sagala R. , 2017). The sale agents need to know about the

customer's belief, attitude and needs to be able to give statements that will prove and

justify the quality of the product. Identification means recognizing the circumstances

(Lumen, 2019).

The sale agents have to analyze the customer and the situation accurately. Aspects

like their age, job, gender should be considered. This technique is important for the sale

agents to be able to promote the products easily. Suggestion is an attempt to persuade

people. Suggestion is usually in a form of speech or in words (Greenberg, 2006).

 The implementation of this technique can be shown by a sale agent promoting

products with conviction or with powerful voice. Conformity is the technique of

persuasion in which the sale agents will have to adapt the point of view of the target

customer to be able to present more about what the customer needs or wants.

Compensation is an act or the result of an effort to find a substitute to something that

the customer previously encountered. It is a process of finding an alternative way in

order to move away from unintended condition (Israni, 2020).

A sale agents will utilize this situation to convince people that they can get the other

thing and that is when promoting the product comes in. Projection is a technique which

presents the advantages or benefits of the product to show its uniqueness from others.

Displacement is a process of displacing an intention or something which faced an

obstacle with other means. In other words, displacement attempts to take the mind off

an emotion and avert it to a new object.

Literature Review

The literature review of this study discusses various books, periodical and journal

articles related to our research topic.

A key role in business is to persuade people to understand your viewpoint and agree

with you, whether you are selling a product or relying information. Knowing how to

convince people of your perspective is a valuable skill. You can experience positive

outcomes, such as increased sales and the trust of your costumer, by using the power

of a persuasive strategy (Williams, 2018).

In this era globalization, the ability to persuade other people is needed. It can be

seen from some phenomenon: many big tourism instances try to persuade the people to
visit the tourism that they manage. The ability to persuade or convince the people is not

easy; it uses a skill or a set of techniques to make other people believe the speaker or

sale agent which is called persuasive techniques. These techniques influence other

people or a group to take a certain action. Persuasive techniques have some areas to

be investigated such as politics, advertising, social, and also in selling (Sagala R. ,

2017).

There are seven methods of persuasion, according to Gory Keraf: identification,

suggestion, rationalization, conformity, compensation, projection, and displacement.

The first tactic is rationalization, where the salesperson simply needs a few assertions

as evidence to support the product's excellence and provide this support. This tactic

uses the truth as a foundation to persuade others to accept the salesperson's claims.

This is a tactic that may be employed to persuade people that what is being stated is

true. The salesperson should first understand the customer's demands, as well as their

attitude and beliefs. For instance, "you, as my customer, should not hesitate in buying a

car because I can assure you that it will give you ease for your daily transportation" is

one of the rationalizations a salesperson may use to persuade a consumer (Rambe R.

S., 2017).

In identification, the sale agent has to analyze their customers and the situation

accurately to avoid conflict situations and hesitant attitude. In other words, identification

can mean to whom the sale agent was addressed. This technique makes it easier for

the sale agent to sell their products that are sold in accordance with the criteria of

potential buyers. Attendees could be consisted of men, women, or both; or consisting of

parents, youth etc. By identifying the customers, the sale agent will be able to show

variety of products to showcase to the customers easily.

The third technique, which is the suggestion, is an effort to persuade or

influence people to accept the certain conviction with ought giving a principle or logical

belief to the persuaded people. It can run smoothly if the sale agent has the ability to

master the language of selling or advertising. The sale agent usually gives suggestion

by words and intonation. The series of words that are attractive and convincing, with a

tone full of dignity can allow the audience to be affected. The sentence which is used is

about giving the advice to the listener or solution of a certain problem. The process of

suggestion, however, such as direction that involves getting the customer to accept the

product without thinking an idea, belief or action, for example: in the beauty

advertisements, the words which are used such as “as a woman, self-care is needed”.

The fourth technique in persuasion is the conformity. It is a desire or an action

to make something similar with something else. In selling, it is a way of thinking to adapt

or adjust the sale agent with the customer’s condition. It involves attitude taken by the

sale agent to adapt him or her with the condition (circumstances) or to do action for not

arising strained situation. Conformity is usually considered as an action that will bring

positive influence up to progress. 

The fifth technique in persuasion is the compensation. In persuasion, the sale

agent can push the customer to do an action that is wanted by the sale agent through

convincing them that they have the ability to do what the sale agent has done. 

The sixth technique is the projection. It is a technique to make subject become

the object. If someone is asked to describe somebody whom he hates, he will try to
describe a good thing from himself. A mistake that is done by somebody shifted the

mistake to other people and said that he has it. So, projection is a technique which

presents the advantages and disadvantages of the products to show the differences

with other. 

The last technique in persuasion is the displacement. It is a technique that

attempts displacing an intention or a matter that faces obstacles with the certain

purpose or intention which also displaces the emotion of original affection at the same

time. In this persuasion technique, the sale agent will try to convince the customer to

divert an object or a particular purpose to another purpose. This technique also requires

the sale agent to use the usual language that is acceptable to the public in order to

displace the rude language that can discriminate (Gurning R. S., 2017).

Persuasion is the process of changing or reforming attitudes, beliefs, opinions or

behaviors towards a predetermined outcome through voluntary compliance. If the

persuader will properly implement the strategies of maximum influence, he or she will

persuade others not only to want what they want, but also to be eager to do what the

persuader wants. Note that persuasion is not the same as negotiation, a term that

suggests some more degree of backing down or meeting in the middle. Rather than

compromising, as in negotiation, effective persuasion will actually convince the

opposing party to abandon their previous position and embrace yours. It influences who

you are and how you, as a person, will impact the message. This includes whether you

are viewed as a trustworthy and credible. Persuasive strategy is also an ability to incite

others to act in accordance with the suggestions and deals you have posed (Zilar, 2010)

.
 It is an art of influencing the mind of the listener and hence it should be done with

great care. It may therefore be defined as “an effort to influencing the attitudes, feelings

or beliefs of the others or to influence action based on those.” It is a communicative skill,

which enables a persuader to present his point of view to the receiver or listener and

induce the receiver to act accordingly (William, 2020).

The art of persuasion, or effective influencing abilities, may be mastered to

enhance sales, communicate with influential groups of people, and boost self-esteem

via creative expression. Transparency and honesty are essential for effective

persuasion and influence. True persuasion doesn't try to deceive the audience; instead,

it offers a foundation of information that the target audience may utilize to make a

decision (Tucker-McLaughlin, 2017).

It is stated on Harvard Business Review that persuasion is a process of

projecting one's entire set of beliefs and convictions onto another for the

acknowledgement of arguments or agreement of business case. Persuasion is making

the people believe that it is in their best interest so that they will internalize the

message. Ultimately, it is the ability to tap into someone's emotions and reach the

deeper subconscious decision-maker within that person (Martin, 2010).

Indeed, a powerful tool for all the businessmen nowadays, including the car sales

agent in an automobile company. It was stated that there are various persuasive words

and phrases that every salesperson uses to attract the customers. "Advantage" is one

of the words that sale agents use to convince their customers to purchase the certain

product. "Amazing" is also a word those hundreds of sale agents and advertisements

are using to convince their customers because it triggers memories of amazement and
joy that a customer wants to feel over and over again. "Fix" and "ease" are the words

that attract 95% of the customers since most of the people today want a little bit of ease

on their daily life, and sale agents are using it convince their customers (Rosa Isabel

Rodrigues, 2021).

Successful customers’ communication is the foundation of all sales. The most

effective persuasive salespeople called "Heavy Hitters" naturally speak in the language

of their customers. The three fundamental principles, drawn from sales linguistics, can

help one to be more persuasive salespeople: every customer speaks in his own unique

language, successful salespeople build rapport through harmonious communication and

finally, connections (MARTIN, 2006).

There are three imperatives that a sale agent can use to help him in persuading

a customer. First, to understand that customers speak unique languages. Top sale

representative uses that tactic to have a successful negotiation with their customers and

convince them. Second, to build rapport through harmonious communication and lastly

is to persuade people through personal connections. 

It was also discussed in the same article that; sale representative must persuade

even before they present. Sales professionals know that customers make their

purchase decision before they ever speak to a sales representative. That is increasingly

true in areas of business: the decision is made before the meeting. Meaning,

salespeople need to gain commitment from their customer in advance of their

presentation to be more convincing (Scotti, 2017).

Another article also stated that top sales reps are using persuasive language.

Highly successful salespeople deploy tiny persuasive language techniques to sell more.
Some of these techniques are subtle; they are barely perceptible such as "I" and "we". It

is just a small switch, yet those first two-person language types create completely

different dynamics in one's sales conversation (Orlob, 2018).

It was also explained in business insider article that in any company, sale

representative would usually convince their customers with just the use of the basic

persuasive words as their strategy. The first persuasive word is "you". It is already

proven that addressing them with their names can make the customers excited about

what the sale rep got for them. "Free" is one of the most common words that 97% of the

salespeople in the public or even in any supermarket would use to attract some

customers since they know that the word "free" is another trigger word for most of the

customers. "Because" is another persuasive word that customer would love to hear.

Every customer wants to know what the sale representative is selling for them

and once the sale representative begun to say the word "because" plus the reason why

they should buy the product, it will automatically convince the customers to purchase

the particular product. Instantly, a word that can be considered as ease, or that can offer

them an ease into something they want to do once they buy an item (DeMers, 2016).

Asking question, though not often mentioned in persuasion, but another strong

technique in convincing the customer to buy a certain product. As it was mentioned in

the journal entitled RIM tailing, there are two types of questions—the open-ended and

the close-ended questions. The former is one that asks for more than a yes or no, or

more than making a choice from limited alternatives. Questions like, what are the

customers looking for or what they want to buy for coming in the store are examples of

an open-ended question which is useful in welcoming customers. Consequently, the

close-ended question may come in this kind of questioning, if the salespeople may help

the customers to make their purchase experience becomes easy. Using the question

might possibly lead the customer to instantly answer the salespeople “No”—which gets

the latter the chance of servicing the customer because salespeople are well aware that

the people are coming into the store for a reason. When the reason is to consider

making a purchase, the open-ended question opens the door to let sales staff discover

how to best complete the sale (Regan, 2022).

Methodology

The methodology contains the tools and techniques that employed in this

research. This enables the research process to be tackled systematically in drawing the

right conclusions.

Research Design

This research is qualitative and will be using discourse analysis and Gory Keraf’s

theory. This is deemed fit as it examined the persuasive techniques used in automobile

companies of Tacloban City. Discourse analysis, according to Celce-Mursia and

Olshtain (2014), is minimally the study of language in use that extends beyond

sentences boundaries which entails a more cognitive and social perspective on

language use. 

The researchers will conduct an observation to gather data by conducting an in-

depth interview with the experienced Car Sales Agents. In this research, the data were
presented using words and were focused on the answers of the experienced Car Sales

Agents. The researchers used the discourse analysis approach in analyzing the data.

Data Source

The data source will come from the 10 experienced Car Sales Agents in

Tacloban City whose experience vary from different automobile companies. Employing

field notes, audio recordings from interviews, the researchers will be able to obtain the

needed information which will be subjected to data reduction. 

This research will be conducted within Tacloban City as the researchers will

gather 10 experienced Car Sales Agents from three (3) different automobile

companies. 

Data Gathering Procedure

Since this research will examine the verbal aspect of persuasion, the researchers

will interview the experienced Car Sales Agents on how they convinced their previous

clients to buy or avail their cars. The researchers will use a smartphone to audio-record

the whole interview on each participant. Following on that, the researchers will

transcribe the recorded interview and proceed to data analysis. 

The whole in-depth interview will possibly last for 5 non-consecutive days and the

details will be the following:

Day 1. Search for venue and creating invitations - We will look for an ideal public

place where we can conduct the interview and accommodate the participants with free

snacks and free mobile load as their reward for participating in our research. We will
then design and print a formal invitation with a specific time and date on it so we can

distribute the copies to our participants.

Day 2, 3 and 4. Inviting the participants - The researchers will go to the malls

and three different automobile companies to invite those are experienced Car Sales

Agents to participate in our research.

Day 5. Conduct of recorded and in-depth interview - On the said time and date

on from our invitation, we will then proceed into the interview. Since we are only

composed of two researchers, we will divide the 10 participants into 5 for each research

and proceed to a recorded in-depth interview.

Data Analysis: Discussion

Anchored on discourse analysis and based on Gory Keraf’s theory on seven

persuasive techniques, the data were thoroughly analyzed. Discourse analysis

approach was used since it investigates what and how language is used (Osisanwo,

2015). The seven categories of persuasive techniques in this theory are rationalization,

identification, suggestion, conformity, compensation, projection and displacement.

Rationalization is providing a justification of a certain problem, identification is

recognizing the circumstances, suggestion is promoting products with conviction,

conformity is adapting the point of view of the customer, compensation is finding an

alternative to avoid unintended condition, projection is presenting the benefits of the

product and displacement is taking the mind off an emotion and averting it to a new

object (Rizka, 2016).

 After the data collection, the researchers thoroughly analyzed the audio-

recording of the gathered data. The data were analyzed using the discourse analysis

approach. First, the researchers conducted an in-depth interview with experienced car

sales agents here in Tacloban City. We analyzed how they used the persuasive

strategies commonly used by experienced car sales agents on their previous clients by

allowing them to recall their previously convinced clients as they answer our questions.

Second, the researchers determined how these experienced car sales agents appeal to

the customer using Keraf’s seven categories of persuasive techniques. Third, the

researchers categorized the techniques of persuasion used by these experienced car

sales agents using the theory of persuasion by Gory Keraf. Lastly, the researchers drew

conclusions based on the results of the analysis.

Results: Categorized Persuasive Techniques by Experienced Car Sales Agents

  Based on the observation conducted, the strategies that were commonly used by

experienced car sales agents to persuade their clients were: (1) rationalization, (2)

suggestion, (3) projection, and (4) conformity.

1. Rationalization - One of the categories proposed by Gory Keraf. It is the use of

basic mind process to give a justification for a certain problem (Sagala, 2017).

Seven out of our ten respondents who are experienced car sales agents picked

rationalization as their first and common step when persuading their previous

clients. However, it doesn’t have to be a “problem” but mostly a “situation” that

they need to justify to their client because getting their own vehicle is beneficial.
 2. Suggestion - One of the categories proposed by Gory Keraf. This is an attempt

to persuade people. Suggestion is usually in a form of speech or in words

(Greenberg, 2006). Experienced car sales agents implemented this technique by

a conviction or with powerful voice and according to them, they use this as the

second step in convincing their clients and consider this as one of the vital

techniques.

3. Projection - One of the categories proposed by Gory Keraf. This is an attempt to

persuade people. It is a technique which presents the advantages or benefits of

the product to show its uniqueness from others. Respondents considered this

technique to be vital too as it is also involved into their day-to-day bases as sales

representative. According to most of our respondents, selling cannot be done

without projecting what you sell and how vehicles or cars can ease one’s

transportation.

4. Conformity - One of the categories proposed by Gory Keraf. It is a technique of

persuasion in which the sale agents will have to adapt the point of view of the

target customer to be able to present more about what the customer needs or

wants (Israni, 2020). According to most of our respondents, they need to listen

first to their client’s needs and wants before they can create a projection and

suggestion as conformity plays a vital role too when it comes to persuading

clients.

Conclusion
 Not all persuasive techniques apply to all marketing fields and that is the gap that

our research aims to fill in. Therefore, by asking experienced car sales agents in the

field based on their knowledge and experiences in persuading their clients, we were

able to identify four of suitable persuasive techniques that can be used by the novice

car sales agents. Appealing to the clients is of significance as well whether it is through

logic, emotion, credibility, or time. By using the right techniques in appealing to the

customers depending on their preferences, the car sales agents have a greater chance

of making the clients buy their product. A persuasive technique, when proven effective,

is used as a technique by other sales representative to achieve their goal which is to get

the customers to buy their products.