Nobody Washes a Rental Car!

In the persuasion process, it's simply not enough to explain something in a way that you understand it; you must explain in such a way that the other person understands it in the way you desire them to.

Otherwise, they are left with their original belief, and nothing has changed.

Several years ago, when President Bush attempted to persuade people of the need to privatize Social Security, his attempt didn't just fail, it failed miserably. And by the way, this has nothing to do with whether you live in a blue state or red state, or what your own views are on this administration, or Social Security, or anything else -- it's purely about how the point was communicated.

So, why did it fail? Two huge reasons - in my opinion only, of course - were that his explanation was based on a premise that is somewhat difficult to understand, and that the way he explained that premise was totally "unmoving."

He said, "We need to move back to an "ownership society."

An "ownership society." What does that mean to most people? Pretty much nothing; it's just a term, a concept, two words put together.

Oh, there were some explanations of the benefits of an "ownership society," but certainly nothing gripping or inspiring. Only those who had studied the issue would have understood what he meant, and many of them already agreed with him.

To most people, "Ownership Society" is vague; not concrete.

It paints no picture, there's nothing to grasp onto there with emotion. (And, since people act on emotion, that's a huge part of the persuasion process.) Because of that, each individual will interpret the phrase based on their own belief system.

The term didn't create a connection with people - and neither did the president's message

The president left the meaning of the term totally to chance.

In essence, it was up to everyone listening to define the term based on their own belief system. Because of this, the term didn't create a connection with people - and neither did the president's message.

What could President Bush have done to frame his position in a way most people could understand and emotionally grasp it?

Perhaps he could have used the well-known economist's phrase, "Nobody washes a rental car." When we don't own something, we don't tend to treat it as well as if we did own it.

Once when I was at an airport, I decided to find out if that saying was true (which, I suspected it was). I approached the two women behind the counter at a popular rental car agency, told them I was doing some research, and asked (in such a way as to not give away the response I was looking for), "What percentage of people would you say bring back their rental car washed?"

They laughed. They laughed some more. They continued to laugh.

I thought, "Hmm, maybe it's my smooth delivery." :-) It wasn't. They said they were continually amazed at how horribly the customers treat their rental cars. One woman added, "People would never treat their own cars this way."

Exactly! And most people intuitively understand that.

And if the president had used that kind of word picture, perhaps more people would have felt compelled or moved in some way by his message.

In the persuasion process it's important to present your point in a way that allows your listener to clearly understand your point in the way you choose it to be understood, and to grasp it in such a way that the odds of change are vastly improved.

To do this effectively, first make sure to use a correct example, and then paint easy-to-grasp pictures that allow people to genuinely understand the concept you're explaining.

Bob Burg of Burg Communications,Inc is author of EndlessReferrals: Network Your Everyday Contacts Into Sales, Winning Without Intimidation and The Success Formula. Check out his full line of books, ebooks and CDs from which everyone can grow and prosper at his online store. Bob also publishes a wide-acclaimed free weekly ezine, Winning Without Intimidation. Subscribe here.

Bob is co-author of the newly-released book: The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea, which is currently taking America by storm.

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