You’ve established the goals you have for yourself and for your audience. Now you can decide how you want to control the issue in your argument.
What does that mean, control the issue? What are the types of issues that you must decide between?
Rhetoric characterizes three types of issue in argument:
- Blame=Past: The first issue is about blame, who did what to whom, guilt or innocence. This issue predominates in the courts. It’s about what happened in the past.
- Values=Present: The second type of issue is about values. Participants praise and condemn. They identify which group they belong to. It asks “Who are my friends and who are my enemies?” It is the language of sermons and toasts. It takes place in the present tense.
- Choice=Future: The third type of issue is about making choices. It’s not about facts; it’s about influencing others to make the choice you want them to make. It’s about making decisions that pay off in the future.
Doing business is generally not about blame or values, it deliberates about the future. To control the issue in these discussions, keep the argument focused on the future, on making choices. Avoid allowing the issue to become focused on blame or values.
You are asking your buyers to choose to work with you, to buy your solution, to let you into their company to help fix a problem. It’s a big decision for them. They are asking themselves lots of questions about what you will do and how you will behave in the future.
As Jay Heinrichs says:
If you want to make a joint decision, you need to focus on the future. This is the tense that Aristotle saved for his favorite rhetoric. He called it “deliberative,” because it argues about choices and helps us decide how to meet our mutual goals. Deliberative argument’s chief topic is “the advantageous,” according to Aristotle. This is the most pragmatic kind of rhetoric. It skips right and wrong, good and bad, in favor of expedience.
Seller: “It would be idiotic not to buy my solution today.”
Buyer: “Why would I want to buy from a moron who thinks I’m idiotic?”
Clearly this discussion has gotten off on the wrong track. Entering into a buyer-seller relationship is not a referendum on what anyone thinks of the other person’s intelligence. The relationship is about what is advantageous for each party.
Seller: “If you buy the solution today, you’ll start to see an immediate improvement in revenue and cost-containment.”
Buyer: “Sounds good. If I buy today can you provide some additional integration support?”
These two parties are much more likely to win each other over. They are deliberating about choices that are advantageous to the other. They are focused on the future.
Some other related posts you might find useful:
About David Crankshaw
[...] ISSUE CONTROL – Argument can take place in the past tense, the present, or the future. Control the tense and you are more likely to control the argument. [...]