The Half and Half Persuasion Technique from Shari Alexander

Who Is Shari Alexander?

Steve originally met Shari at Giovanni’s Archangel Academy. She’s a powerhouse of communication and a professional speaker with more than ten years of experience. Her audience tends to be in corporate America.

Spending most of her time with sales and marketing teams, she hasn’t been able to fully explore the entrepreneurial realm yet, although it’s a passion she’d like to pursue.

When coaching clients, Shari focuses on persuasion skills. With her help, clients are able to become more compelling when they speak, especially when it matters most. She teaches influential communication skills and specific techniques that she has learned from literally the world’s best influencers.

Some of her mentors have been CIA field operatives, hostage negotiators, con artists, and even pickup artists. In her career, she has also had the opportunity to learn from trial attorneys who have amazing win records across the nation. From them all, she learned how to be persuasive when it really counts.

The individuals she has learned from use their skills in what can literally be life or death scenarios, so they are proven tactics that she is able to adapt and pass on to situations in sales and marketing. As you can imagine, these persuasion techniques transfer over very well.

The Half and Half Technique

One of Shari’s favorite techniques is known as the half and half technique.

The person you are trying to influence is known as your “influential partner”. That’s important because influence is a partnership. You cannot persuade a wall — someone has to be there with you in order for persuasion to work.

Shari explains that, if your influential partner agrees with the premise of your sentence (the first part of your discussion), they are more likely to agree with what follows that premise.

She says that the easiest way to get them to subconsciously say, “I agree with that,” is by using identifiers. Think about how they see themselves in order to better connect with them.

Here’s an example: You might say “Steve, as an entrepreneur…” He’s going to instantly agree with that sentence because he is an entrepreneur. It’s basically an equation where if he’s this (an entrepreneur), he also agrees with this or that (whatever follows).

Your full sentence may be, “Steve, as an entrepreneur, I’m sure that you can see the great value in being influential under high-pressure situations because that can affect your bank account, right?”

He might think, “Yes, I do see that as an entrepreneur.” Otherwise, it might make him less of an entrepreneur if he doesn’t. All of that thought process happens in a split second’s time, subconsciously.

Shari says using a job title is the quickest way to make that connection with someone and get them on the same page as you. But, that’s the surface level connection. She works with her clients to dig deeper.

Digging Deeper to Convince Clients

Surface level connections are easy to make but digging deeper can make a conversation even more effective. Shari helps her clients get to the core of the person they’re speaking to so that they can make a real, human connection.

Pulling on deep pain points or fears is effective. So is looking for something they see about themselves, like if they’re trustworthy and loyal. These are things that can be called on and emphasized in the discussion to make your conversations that much more persuasive.

In reality, anyone can become an effective negotiator, it just takes practice and knowing the right techniques to apply.

To listen to this podcast: Shari Alexander

Website: Shari Alexander

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