Selling Your Likability 37
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Selling Your Likability
C 37 c
YOU GIVE YOUR audience four choices.
- They can like you.
- They can dislike you.
- They can be neutral to you and not care one way or the
other. - They can feel sorry for you.
The goal
Your one goal as a communicator is to get them to like you. If
the uncommitted people in your audience like you, chances are
they’ll pay attention and get your message. If they don’t like you,
they’ll probably consider you pushy, or incompetent, or misguided,
or bombastic, or phony. If they’re neutral to you, they’ll think
they’d be better off spending their time somewhere else. The mes-
sage won’t make it across the distance between you. If they feel
sorry for you, that’s the message: “Poor, poor soul!” Nothing else
will be communicated.
Think about this: If they like you, even if they strongly dis-
agree with your message, the worst they can say about you is,
“That one really believes that garbage,” or, “So what? I like him.”
That was the prevailing feeling about Bill Clinton’s untruths. And
believe me, that’s better than, “What a liar,” or, “How stupid can
you get?” or, “Kill!”