Rhetoric exists in all facets of life whether or not we choose to recognize it. It was not until this course that I realized the extent that I use rhetoric on a daily basis.
The best example I can draw on is from my experience working in the non-profit industry. Non-profit is an entirely different sector of the work force; not only in the sense that what we do directly benefits a certain audience or cause, but because non-profits have to create and fund their own budgets. Whether this is done through fund raising, grants or other endowments, a non-profit organization is constantly searching and scrapping for ways to maintain or increase the funds that come into their organization. Without these money-generating techniques, a non-profit organization would collapse and cease to exist.
The organization that I work for is a national non-profit dedicated to improving the lives of youth impacted by HIV/AIDS and other life challenges. My current focus right now is successfully generating $40,000 worth of auction items for our annual fund raiser. This $40,000, along with the other funds raised, will help run our summer camps and other advocacy programs for our kids.
When I first started working on this task, I didn’t realize that rhetoric and persuasion would play such a vital role in acquiring over $40,000. But over the course of two months and after entering this course, I realized a few different ways of how I could incorporate the basic principles of persuasion into getting what I wanted.
First, I learned to play on our donor’s emotions. As manipulative as it sounds, I began to feel morally okay with the concept as I paged through Aristotle and Heinrichs and realized that manipulation is just another form of persuasion. A majority of the funds that I acquire are through cold-calling. By putting together a brief script detailing what a donor’s funds do for our children and capturing my donor’s attention right away, I can easily play on their emotions. A donor is much more willing to donate money when I tell them how their donation will help send a child infected with HIV/AIDS to a summer camp where he or she can experience freedom from judgment. In addition, playing on a donor’s emotion is as simple as pulling from past experience. I used the 2007 spreadsheet to contact previous donors, and simply let them know how appreciative I was of their past donation, and how I hoped they’d be willing to be that generous again. Not only was I complimenting them, but I was persuading them to donate again. I equated this to Mr. Abignale’s speech to the Rotary Club in Catch Me If You Can. Just like he made the audience feel all warm and fuzzy, so did I in order to capture the emotion and persuade my audience.
The art of persuasion can easily go unnoticed to the untrained eye, but is an important technique to master if one chooses to enter the competitive work-field. By tweaking a few of my habits regarding persuasion, I’ve been successful in pulling in over half of our donation goal in the last month. Hopefully I’ll continue to master these rhetorical techniques so I can acquire the rest of the funds and keep my job!
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6 comments:
In additon to Non-Profit organizations, I think that sales people do this as well. In our text book Hendricks gives an example about the used car he bought that turned out to be a lemon. Using rhetoric and persuasion seems to equal success. Good luck with your fundraising!
I think that it's totally okay to play on play on people's emotions to persuade them to do something if it's for a good cause. I think that you're doing a great job at convincing them to donate as well. You butter them up by telling them how great they are and then you present them with what you want them to do and you make them feel like they'd be a bad human being if they didn't do it. If like a used car salesman can do it (like Stephanie said), then it's totally okay for you to do it for a good cause.
Yeah, Liz I guess I never thought of non-profit organizations as using rhetoric, but now that I think about it and after reading your blog I can def. see it. I too wrote a blog on something very similar, commercials that try and get you to send money to save a a child or animals life. Those kinds of organizations do play on the emotions of society and the viewer. In a way I would feel bad playing on the emotions, but then again if thats the only way to get people to listen and help, well then what else is there to do. I can't say I think it is bad or good, its just apart of trying to get people to take the time to help and make a difference. We all do it weather or not we know it, I think it is like second nature to every human. Emotions are an easy target and it seems to work to everyones advantage.
Sales people are the best at this, that is why taking this class with help me with my career. I interned at Enterprise Rent a car this summer and worked there during our breaks and I sold our protection on our cars. It entails if the customer smashes up the car, they don't have to claim it on their insurance and take another hit because chances are that is why they are renting in the first place. I first ask them where they are going in our car and then later when I am selling our protection, I am using their activities against them. For instance, during the summer one of our custmers were going to a softball game and later I switched it on her. I told her that a foul ball could hit our car and smash in a big dent which causes a lot of worry and not to mention money. If she took our protection package out, she would have no worries about the rental vehicle.
I am all for playing on people's emotions. It is human instinct. Use the power of emotion as a motivator and a persuader.
Liz, I work for Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Racine and Kenosha. At times it's very difficult to persuade people that being a "Big", for our program is worth the time and energy. It becomes very frustrating because we are non-profit and need all the help and support we can get. Good Luck!
I agree with you and the other comments that we seem to almost subconsciously use rhetoric so much in our daily lives. You have a great example of that, and I think that it's completely ok to play on people's emotions, but without the other parts of rhetoric, it can be abused. You do engage with your caller's emotions but can support your claims by the credibility of your organization as well as explaining the facts of where their donation will go to. I think this is a perfect example of classic rhetoric and using people's emotions in an ethical way.
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