BOOK REVIEW: Fascinate – Your Seven Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation

This guest post is contributed by Leading Coach David McGraw.

A Road Map to Fascination

Sally Hogshead has written the must-read marketing book of the year.  The book is entitled “Fascinate: Your Seven Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation.” Her writing style is casual, laid back, and in-your-face challenging all at the same time. Hogshead is on a mission to raise your awareness, expand your curiosity, and push yourself into intentional action. She succeeds in providing a road map to fascination.

On the surface, Fascinate is purely about marketing your brand. Using this material to enhance your personal brand and marketing is great, but using this material to improve your coaching is where the real intangible value comes in.

Fascination is something that gets under our skin, slips into our conversations, and challenges us to move.  We knowingly and unknowingly use fascination in our daily lives. Fascination axioms are instinctive, innate, and a natural part of our make-up. How we use fascination triggers affects how we show up in the world.

The Seven Universal Triggers

Through her research, Hogshead has determined there are seven universal fascination triggers. Each of these triggers is capable of sparking an intellectual, emotional, or physical response. Leveraging these triggers is a road to persuasion and competitive advantage.

As you read the trigger descriptions, begin thinking about how this applies to your coaching practice. If you want to dive deeper as you are thinking about each trigger, click on the name link and watch a short video on each trigger.

1. Lust: Seduced by the anticipation of pleasure
   1. Stop thinking, start feeling
   2. Make the ordinary more emotional
   3. Uses all 5 senses
   4. Tease and flirt
2. Mystique: Intrigued by unanswered questions
   1. Spark curiosity
   2. Withhold information
   3. Build Mythology
   4. Limit access
3. Alarm: Take urgent action to avoid negative consequences
   1. Define consequences
   2. Create deadlines
   3. Increase perceived danger
   4. Focus the most feared result
   5. Use distress to steer positive action
4. Prestige: Inspire an envious eagerness to possess something
   1. Develop Emblems
   2. Set a new standard
   3. Limited availability
   4. Earn it
5. Power: Get people to defer to you and your message
   1. Dominate
   2. Control the environment
   3. Reward and punish
6. Vice: Get people to act outside of their normal behavior
   1. Create taboos
   2. Lead others astray
   3. Define absolutes
   4. Give a wink
7. Trust: People will find you safe and comfortable. They will confide in you.
   1. Become familiar
   2. Repeat and retell
   3. Be authentic
   4. Accelerate trust

If these triggers seem like common sense, it is because they are. They are a natural part of who we are.  We have been using them since we were born. The magic comes from identifying when they are at work, when they are not, and leveraging them into action as needed.

The six golden hallmarks of fascination

To do so, Hogshead introduces the six golden hallmarks of fascination. They are a framework to build upon, conversation starters, and the groundwork for action. I have added my initial thoughts on how they relate to coaching. I invite you to add your thoughts to the conversation.

1. Provokes Strong and Immediate Emotional Reaction
   1. Definition: People respond immediately. People either love it or hate it
   2. Brand Examples: Fox News, Disney
   3. Coaching Value: Clients move when they are emotionally triggered
   4. Coaching Application:  What emotional attachment does my client have to this challenge?  Are they passionate about it or strongly opposed?  What trigger is needed to increase their emotional response?
2. Creates Advocates
   1. Definition: People who provide active and vocal support. We need to reward them, inspire them, and support their communication. Help them become a part of our story
   2. Brand Examples: Harley Davidson, Twilight
   3. Coaching Value: Client support structure
   4. Coaching Application: Who can support my client in their journey?  Identify people with skills, influence, or who love them. What trigger do I use to get them to request help?
3. Becomes “Cultural Shorthand” for a Specific Set of Actions or Values
   1. Definition: Reference point for people to identify themselves, and their world
   2. Brand Examples: Home Depot (do-it-yourself), Target (accessible style)
   3. Coaching Value: Identify core values; Cares (what matters most to them); Goal setting
   4. Coaching Application:  Client’s stories invariably lead back to a major obstacle. Does the client identify themselves with their journey? What trigger is needed to own this desire?
4. Incites Conversation
   1. Definition: Get people to connect with us; generate conversational buzz any way we can
   2. Brand Examples: NFL Fantasy Football, TMZ.com
   3. Coaching Value: The more our clients share their goals, the more they are attached to them, and the more likely they are to succeed
   4. Coaching Application: Push clients to communicate their desires. To have the courage to share, be vulnerability, and lead the way.
5. Forces competitors to realign around it
   1. Definition: Establishes a new standard. People take notice, think, act, and behave in a new way
   2. Brand Examples: Wal-Mart, Apple
   3. Coaching Value: Clients recognize their gifts and allow their voice to emerge
   4. Coaching Application:  Help the client find and tell a new story for themselves. Help them find their swagger
6. Taps Into (or Even Causes) Social Revolutions
   1. Definition: People gather around a central message. Accelerates word of mouth marketing. Amp your efforts without trying
   2. Brand Examples: Zappos.com, Red Bull, Netflix
   3. Coaching Value: Clients take pride and build confidence when talking about their successes. Coachee Referrals
   4. Coaching Application: Teach your clients to celebrate their success. Pull the trigger and get them started. Win-Win situation

In this short overview, I hope you have found a few uses for leveraging Fascinate in your business and with your clients.

One final note…it is true…I drank a lot of Hogshead Kool-Aid (Jaegermeister)…I could not help myself…I was FASCINATED with Sally Hogshead’s message. Read the book. Take the Fascinate quiz. Become fascinated yourself.

What do you think? Did I drink too much Jaeger?  (Log in to comment below)

To contact David or learn more about his company, visit his Leading Coaches’ Center page or on the web at http://wevivify.com/