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iii

GRAPHO-PERSUASION
Mastering the Pyramid of Persuasion
(Confessions of a Marketing Man)
A queen has more influence over the king
than the senators because she knows his personality.
Therefore, she knows what to say, how to say it, and how to
act when she’s persuading him.
This is a pocket bible for the novice, timid and talented professionals, to help
them to be more influential using Grapho-Persuasion. It is an innovative
method, based on years of research, that blends together techniques from the
sciences of graphology and persuasion for greater emotional impact. Know who
people truly are, and you can move their heart easily, like a queen.

“I like to know who I am dealing with, and this book helps
me to reveal what they are hiding from me.
Fascinating!”
Geoff Burch, best-selling author and BBC television presenter

AMONG THE TIPS REVEALED:
> How to understand people’s personalities and use this knowledge
to persuade them
> Persuasion is seduction: how companies use the same techniques
as womanisers to win clients
> From Martin Luther King, jr to Naomie Campbell, the secrets to
make hypnotic speeches that move an audience
> Various tools of persuasion, easy to “carry and deploy” in any situation
In this insightful book, originally a letter to his sister, Victor Semo reveals
the essential elements to master the art of persuasion. Jargon-free, packed
with tried and tested advice, get more in business and your personal life.

SELF-HELP/BUSINESS UK £9.99

Disclaimer

T his handbook was originally a personal, handwritten letter and
manual to my sister Ghislaine.
I wrote the handbook for her in order to help her be more in control of
her environment, and stop being a victim of stress and anxiety.
Although now publicly available, it remains, for me, a personal letter.
Throughout the text, you will still find mention of “Ghislaine”, “sister”,
“brother”, and some personal stories and notes for Ghislaine displayed in
this rounded box:

When you read the contents of a rounded box, I am addressing myself to
you. Replace the name “Ghislaine” with your name, and replace the words
“sister” and “brother” with‘[my] friend.’ As someone who is taking the time
to read this book, I consider you a friend. Follow this persuasion trick
throughout the book and you will feel that I have written it for you.
Please be advised that:
• All the techniques and theories presented within the book have been
used by men and women throughout history. In academic circles,
many are considered unreliable because results of empirical studies
conducted to date are inconclusive. Since scientists cannot prove or dis-
prove these theories 100%, it is safer to consider them unproven ‘junk
science’. My sole contribution as a ‘pracademic’ is to bring the school of
persuasion and the school of graphology together.

ix

x Disclaimer

• All the businesses, places and names mentioned are real unless
mentioned.
• If you are an expert in persuasion, you might say that more persua-
sion techniques could have been included, and I would agree with
you. With your experience, whatever your profession, you also
know that more does not necessarily mean better and this hand-
book does not attempt to be an encyclopaedia. Some techniques
are just too complex to put into practice, therefore it is better to
present here those that are easy to ‘carry and deploy’.
• There may be mistakes, both typographical and in content. You are
therefore advised to use the text as a general guide.The purpose of
this handbook is to educate and entertain only.
• You may not like what you read, especially if you are sceptical by
nature and prefer to see before believing. If that is the case, I ask
you to be fair; try putting it in to practice first, then feel free to
criticise. Criticism and debates are good, I welcome them; they
keep you intellectually healthy.

Introduction
Objections from the Audience

W henever I do a seminar or talk about Grapho-Persuasion, I usually
get these two comments:
1. “Handwriting analysis does not work. It is a quackery”.
2. “People don’t write anymore with a pen and paper, but with a key-
board and a computer screen. They handwrite occasionally only to
take notes or send greeting cards”.
And I always have to answer these two questions:
1. “Does it really work?”
2. “If it works, is it really relevant today? People are more and more
online”.
My answers to critics, sceptics and other Jeremiahs of this world are always
the same.

Answer to Comment / Question 1:

“Like any student, do your homework. Try first, then we’ll talk. Here is
my number and email address to send me your feedback”. This is my usual
answer when I don’t have time to expand further. When I can, I explain:
Graphology (i.e. handwriting analysis) has been around for almost four

1

2 Grapho-Persuasion

hundred years and the question remains, is it a science, a pseudo-science
or an art? The science has demonstrated that an individual’s handwriting
is unique, like their DNA1. Scientific studies remain unclear as to whether
it is possible to establish a correlation between someone’s personality and
his or her handwriting. Handwriting analysis is a combination of scientific
principles and the subjective interpretation of the graphologist, who can be
victim of bias. As with any doctor that reads a patient’s X-ray, a handwriting
analysis’s report is only as good as the impartial graphologist who does it.
As a pracademic and due to the high risk of bias, I see graphology like adver-
tising and marketing: not entirely scientific. During the application of scientific
principles for a marketing campaign or the handwriting analysis of someone, at
a certain point these principles will be subject to the personal interpretations of
the marketing director, or graphologist. Their interpretations and implementa-
tions will determine the success of the campaign, or analysis.
Body language is not a science. If you believe that someone’s attitude and
facial expressions gives you more information about what that person is really
thinking, than what he or she is saying, why don’t you believe in graphology?
Businessmen and politicians say that you can learn about a person’s
personality and the way they do business by the way they play golf. Science
cannot prove this myth, but if you are one of those who believes it, why
don’t you believe in graphology?
Fingerprint analysis includes a degree of subjectivity, exactly like hand-
writing analysis. If you believe in fingerprint analysis, if you acknowledge
that fingerprint analysis confirms your unique identity and does not attempt
to predict your future actions, why don’t you believe in graphology?
Graphology confirms your unique personality today, not yesterday or to-
morrow. It does not predict the future. If you believe that you can influence
and persuade someone that you’ve known for years because you know their
personality (e.g. family members or spouse), why don’t you believe that you
can do the same with a stranger, as long as you know his or her personality?
Do you believe in behavioural economics? Many persuasion techniques

3 Introduction

used by salespeople and marketers are derived from behavioural economic
theories. Do you believe in behavioural psychology? Graphology is a form of
behavioural psychology theory:
Behavioural Economics + Behavioural Psychology = Grapho-Persuasion
Think about it for five minutes (and during that time let me get a glass of
water). Still sceptical? All right, I continue....
Here are few phenomena that science still cannot explain why they work,
we just accept them2:
1. Placebo effect: the placebo effect is a persuasion technique usually
used by doctors and propagandists (it is not covered in this book).
Why does it work?
2. Yawning: Why do we yawn? Why is it contagious? (i.e. when you
see someone yawn, you tend to yawn too).
3. Female orgasm: in contrast to the male orgasm, there is no evidence
that the female orgasm plays a reproductive role, so why does it exist?
Scientists are still debating these questions. If you ask, some will give you an
honest silence as a response. Some will say your question is a floccinaucini-
hilipilification, why get a headache in trying to understand all the Whys and
Hows of the universe. It works, just accept it. Others, the obdurate Jeremi-
ahs and pompous scientists, will give you a verbose answer full of scientific
jargon that makes their explanation appear very intelligent and therefore
plausible. But if you scratch beneath the surface, you soon realise that it is
nonsense.
Illusion is the best weapon of marketers, you should never make up your
mind on what you read, hear and see only. As a pracademic, the best advice
I can give you is to be critically open minded. Listen to both sides of the
argument, analyse, make your own tests, and finally decide which side you
will join. But if you are like most first year students who believe they know
everything and anything in life, well, you already know what to do: close
this book and keep following the herd.

The Creation of Grapho-Persuasion

P ersuasion, influence, power, political manoeuvres, political
philosophy, lobbying, hypnosis, the art of rhetoric, psychology, Cor-
porate Social Responsibility (CSR) and ethics: these are some of the fields
I’ve been analysing as a Marketing Manager and a part-time PhD research
student since 2007. The more I researched how corporations influenced
governments, and the tactics and strategies used by lobbyists to persuade
policymakers to agree with their clients’ opinions on public issues, the more
interested I became in finding an answer to the question: How to effectively
influence people?
In the 1970s, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) who lobbied for
the environment and more CSR in boardrooms were considered as demagogues
and anarchists by business leaders and policymakers. Yet, by the 1990s, they
had turned this around, earning the respect of those same people. They had
persuaded corporations and governments that the concept, People, Planet and
Profit, was better than Profit only. How did Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth
and Christian Aid, to name just a few, spread their “green” ideology and make it
mainstream? It took a few decades, but they succeeded in the end. In 1975, if a
chief executive stated publicly that the environment was none of his concern, he
was applauded by his peers and the comment would have been largely ignored
by the public. Today, if one dares make this sort of statement in public, they
know they will be reviled and condemned by both the public and their peers.
What a change in just thirty years!

13

14 The Creation of Grapho-Persuasion

To understand how corporations, NGOs and governments influence
each other, as a pracademic, I needed something more scientific than the
techniques advanced by Dale Carnegie in his classic book How to Win
Friends and Influence People. I read all the academic papers and books on
power and influence that I could get my hands on. I studied psychology,
Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), body language techniques and
the methods used by experts in the art of seduction and dating, nick-
named ‘Pick-Up Artists’, and how they seduced women. I studied the
sciences of behavioural economics, irrational behaviours and communi-
cation techniques used by lobbyists to persuade government officials. I
studied the methods used by the best sales and marketing people. I read
countless stories of successful businessmen, entrepreneurs, historical
political figures and strategies of warfare.
I attended seminars on these topics but by 2009, having read so many
books and talked to so many experts, these events did not teach me any-
thing new. Many times, when listening to the speakers, I felt that I could
walk on to the stage and finish the presentation myself.
One day, at a workshop on Assertiveness and Presentation Skills, I was
stunned to see the speaker take out a book and recite the contents. He then
told us that, for more information, we should go out and buy the books
on a list he was passing around! When you pay to attend a workshop, you
expect to hear something new, to garner something of value to take with
you at the end. You don’t want to see a speaker, who’s been paid £1,000 for
a half day workshop, only to watch him stand up in front of you and read a
book, especially if he’s not even the author!
What surprised me most that day was how many other delegates found
his presentation new and refreshing. For me, what he was saying was obvi-
ous and could be found in books at the library by anyone interested enough
in the subject. As a doctoral student conducting research, I’d done little else
for the past two years.
After that disappointing workshop, I came to the conclusion that there is

15 Grapho-Persuasion

nothing new being shared by all these professional speakers and consultants.
It is the same old meal, recycled and put in the microwave. It is presented to
people as a different dish but the food (knowledge) is still the same. These
consultants have mastered the art of selling yesterday’s food every day, and
many dare call themselves ‘gurus’. Peter Drucker used to joke that people
call them ‘gurus’ because the word ‘charlatan’ is too long!
I analysed all the number one bestselling books on my shelves and at
the library, gauging the content and how it was presented, i.e. layout,
template, the number of pages, references and the bibliography. My
instinct was right: in the last twenty years, no new, innovative theory
and no new thinking in business management sciences, public rela-
tions, marketing and personal development sciences has contributed to a
discovery on consumer behaviour or business strategy to the extent that
companies systematically implement it, or that it is taught in all major
universities. Business strategies and tactics used online are not new, they
are adapted from the offline world. A report from sourceforconsulting.com
reaffirmed this opinion. According to the report, having something new
and distinctive to say remains the biggest challenge of consultants to
date and, as a result, the primary difference lies merely in the planning
and execution of the consulting services they provide4.
There is, it appears, four categories into which authors can be divided.
Within the first two lie the true gurus who are making significant contribu-
tions to knowledge; the remaining two categories contain the media titled
or self-designated gurus who present old, established theories and practices
in a different light. Many times, these are the consultants who write books
just to establish their reputation as experts in their fields, since writing a
book reinforces your credibility.

“The secret of good writing is to say an old thing in a new way or to say a
new thing in an old way.” (Richard Harding Davis)


Category 1: Academic research- Category 2: Professionals drawing
ers building on the work of their upon their years of work experience,
peers, developing new theories and developing principles they have
principles, then successfully diffus- observed working in all business
ing their work to the general public situations (e.g. Jack Trout).
(e.g. Robert Cialdini and Michael
Porter).

Category 3: The Re-framers. Category 4: The ‘Referenceurs’
Authors who re-package and present (re-framing combined with
the work of the first two categories référencement (listing)). Authors
as if it was their own. Their who re-package and present the
packaging looks more attractive, work of those in the first two
their writing style and presentations categories, focalising on making it
are entertaining, and the book more entertaining and interesting
publisher creates promotional hype for the reader. It is often historical
to make the content appear new research and contains numerous
and refreshing. references. For example, Robert
Greene, co-author of the best-
seller, The 48 Laws of Power, is one
successful writer in this category. He
presents well-established concepts,
difficult to prove scientifically they
all work in any given situation, in
an easily readable fashion. (This
book you are reading now falls into
this category, with a zest of category
2).

17

Beyond that, no other books or academic papers on the science of persuasion
shed any new light, and I saw no sign of upcoming, new and real gurus.
The problem was that, like most academics, I had become an expert by
having read and studied all the books on the subject that were out there.
I was now an expert-scientist and I have reached a plateau in the learning
curve. I was a Master in the Science of Persuasion. The only way to grow my
knowledge and move on to the next phase, that is, become an expert-artist,
a Master in the Art of Persuasion, was to stop reading and start acting. I’d
need to practice every day and, by trials and error, keep sharpening my
persuasive skills.
So I sailed off on a journey to become my own Master, armed with a
notepad and a pen in my pocket where I could jot down my thoughts and
observations from my experiences.
I would approach women in the street and flirt with them; I would go to
coffee bars and observe how people interacted with each other, noting how
they communicated. I would analyse all the newspaper articles, marketing
brochures and product labels that I came across, trying to understand why
they were written and presented in a certain way, trying to understand the
subliminal impact, if any, created by the combination of the words used.
In face-to-face or telephone conversations, I would listen to and observe
carefully the other person: their walk, their vocal intonation, their smile,
how they shake hands, the look in their eyes, the attitude and gestures, the
grooming, what kind of watch was worn including whether it was on the
left or right hand, what kind of shoes and had they been polished, which
jewellery was visible and hidden, the choice of briefcase or handbag. I even
noted the fabric of the clothes and whether they’d been pressed or not, how
long the other person could hold my eye during the conversation, their pos-
ture on a chair, the accent and richness of the vocabulary, etc. All these little
details had escaped me previously but now I sought them, like a detective,
especially little details. They are clues to the personality and state of mind
of your interlocutor, which opens a little bit more the path to successful

18 The Creation of Grapho-Persuasion Grapho-Persuasion

persuasion.
I started developing a system based on my personal experiences and called
it The Pyramid of Persuasion.

The Pyramid of Persuasion

Note: Except the Cornerstone, there is no need to master one layer before moving to
the next

But in my quest to become a successful expert-artist, something was still
missing. One day it dawned on me. To truly and successfully persuade
someone, the greatest advantage lies in knowing the person. That’s why a
queen wields greater influence over her husband, the king, than all the sena-
tors put together.
When you’re pitching a new idea, your pitch is more likely to be success-
ful if you know the person to whom you are presenting. You will have some
instinctive knowledge as to how best approach him or her. You will know
what to say and how to say it. Therefore, it was necessary to swiftly get to
know the stranger inside and out. I needed to get into the head and heart of
that person as fast as I could. NLP would help, but it would not be suffi-
cient on its own.
One day, while perusing psychology books at the library, I stumbled upon a
book on graphology (i.e. handwriting analysis). As an academic, I was naturally

19

sceptical since handwriting analysis had been criticised for the lack of empirical
studies that would validate it as an exact science. Yet, the book noted graphol-
ogy had existed for several hundred years, since the first book published on the
subject, and it was still popular in France, Germany and Israel. Companies used
it for recruitment purposes, alongside psychometric testing. Anglo-Saxon coun-
tries despised handwriting analysis. Puzzled, I decided to give it a go.
From my own tests conducted on a small sample of people I knew, gra-
phology had an average accuracy of 80%. Assuming that no scientific study
can predict the behaviour of animals, including human beings, with 100%
certainty because we are all creatures of emotions and those emotions drive
us, I started trusting graphology. It gave me enough information on some-
one’s personality, I realised, to better influence that person.
To improve my knowledge of graphology, I knew I had to learn from an
expert. Oddly enough, call it luck or destiny, I met a man one evening at
an event. His name was Owen Williams, a sixty year career expert called
upon regularly by individuals, companies and the police. A former president
of the UK International Graphoanalysis Society, Owen was a true expert-
artist in handwriting analysis! He gave me his business card and few months
later, when I felt that it was time for me to become a certified graphologist,
I called him. The problem was, at eighty-three years old, he was retiring.
Since my motivation was not to make money but a personal interest in gra-
phology, he accepted to teach me. I was going to be his last student.
I loved the private lessons with Owen; a fascinating man who always had
captivating real life stories to illustrate a lesson. He constantly said: “I have been
doing this for sixty years! Sixty years!! If it did not work, it’s been a long time
I would have given up! Bring me anyone and I’ll tell them who they truly are!
People in this country [UK] don’t believe it, but they don’t know that the police
call upon us [graphologists and forensic graphologists] regularly!”
I blended together the sciences of persuasion and graphology and
called this new theory Grapho-Persuasion.
Grapho-Persuasion is the use of graphology to understand some-


one’s personality and the incorporation of this information in to
the techniques you use to persuade that person.
In academic circles, there is an old joke: “Copy from one source and it is
considered plagiarism; copy from many sources and it is considered research”.
Well, my dear Ghislaine, I do not pretend to have created something really
new here, Grapho-Persuasion is what came out of my research. Critics, no
doubt, will have plenty to say about it, but the Grapho-Persuasion theory –
and I’m still improving it – is not a science, it is an art. Like psychotherapy,
no empirical research will establish that Grapho-Persuasion works with
complete accuracy because, as I pointed out earlier, we are all emotional
beings.
Grapho-Persuasion was the missing piece of information that I needed in
order to progress along the learning curve and find the answer to this query:
How to successfully persuade?
I don’t think of myself as an expert-artist in persuasion yet. Human beings
are complex emotional creatures, difficult to understand. I am still sailing.

Victor Semo, August 2010

PART THREE
GRAPHOLOGY

Ghislaine, you and I are both scientists. There are no empirical studies
that validate body language as an exact science, yet we believe in it. If
you accept that someone’s body language tells you more about what
the person is really thinking rather than what is being said, you should
not be sceptical of graphology.
The view, “I am right, you are wrong,” will always prevail when opin-
ions diverge. But before you say “no” to something, you must try it
yourself and by yourself, then make a judgement. Don’t be influenced
or persuaded by what people say. There is no place for prejudice and
bigots in research.
If, after trying, you do not like the results, close this manual and give it
to a charity, and, if this is the case, then:
• You should never believe in body language again and any of
the persuasion techniques presented here. Despite having been
around for thousands of years, most of these techniques can-
not be empirically demonstrated to be working 100%. But we
all know they work, we just cannot prove them scientifically.
Persuasion, like marketing, is more art than science.
• You should never believe fingerprint analysis again. Nothing is
certain in life:

87

88 The Secret Recipe

The Illusion of Certainty
“There is nothing certain in life but death and taxes” (Benjamin Franklin)

Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911), cousin of Charles Darwin, made an enormous
contribution to sciences, including the foundation of weather forecast reports,
regression analysis for statistics and fingerprint analysis. There are thirty-five
to fifty points (the ridge) in a fingerprint. By looking at all these points, he
estimated that the probability of a match between two fingerprints was one in
sixty-four billion.
The police compares, on average, eight to sixteen points to find a match
between a suspect’s fingerprints and those found at the crime scene. If a
match is found by the police, then it is up to the subjective review of a
fingerprint examiner to determine if the suspect is guilty or not.
In 2002, in response to the reversal of David Asbury’s murder convic-
tion after the fingerprint evidence was discredited, Scotland’s Justice
Minister, Jim Wallace, said that despite the great degree of skill involved
in fingerprint analysis, “There is an art form here, it’s a skill which does
involve judgment and can’t be boiled down to an exact science”19.
Like graphology and forensic graphology, fingerprint evaluations are
only as good as the analysis by the fingerprint examiner. “The difference
is that it is easier to forge someone’s fingerprint than their handwrit-
ing,” remarked Milton Carlson, an expert in handwriting analysis and
fingerprint examination in the 1920s. This remark is still valid today20.
In 1991, Byron Mitchell was convicted of driving the getaway car in
a robbery carried out in Pennsylvania. The case was based on two latent
fingerprints, one found on the steering wheel and another on the gear
lever. Mitchell appealed in 1998 and in 1999.To prove the reliability of the
fingerprint match, the FBI sent the latent fingerprints found at the crime
scene, along with the inked prints of Mitchell, to fifty-three laboratories of
state law enforcement agencies. From the thirty-five agencies that respond-
ed, eight did not find a match for one of the latent prints, and six could not
find a match for the other; a failure rate of 20% (one out of five tests). The
FBI then re-sent the exemplar and latent prints to the laboratories with the
points of similarly marked. Only then 100% of the laboratories agreed21.

92 Emotional Aspects

Each zone depicts:

E+: extreme responsiveness, very impulsive and heart-over-head. They find
it difficult to control emotions and need to express them.
DE: a high degree of responsiveness and influenced by others; affectionate
and expressive.
CD: a responsive nature, they attempt to control emotions but with difficulty.
BC: influenced by emotions but fairly objective.
AB: head-over-heart emotional responsiveness, in control of emotional
expressions and objective. They can appear indifferent and selfish.
FA: a lack of responsiveness, they hide their emotions, are self-interested and
cautious yet, may have a polished public self-image and appear friendly.
F-: reserved, cold, completely self-interested and emotionally withdrawn.

You don’t need to know personally these two men to be certain they
are very different

Gordon Brown, 2010 Tony Blair, 2007

6.2 Emotional Depth (Pressure in Writing)
After emotional responsiveness, emotional depth is the second aspect of a
handwriting specimen to assess.

For Designers, Engineers, Marketers,

“G

FR o-P boo
rap th
Speakers, Salespeople, Womanisers...

EE ers k
h e

gift uas
ion
”
THE PERSUASION
NOTE CARDS
A visual aid that reminds you the tricks and
techniques that influence human behaviour

52 ways to persuade
from the sciences of behavioural economics
and social psychology

Be more creative when brainstorming ideas
Be more persuasive in your business and social circles

It all began 9 years ago, during my first creative project.
As a young and inexperienced engineer, and then later as a marketer, I was
often in the library. When working on new products or marketing projects,
I constantly looked for information on design ethnography and, how to
understand and influence human behaviour. For quick and easy reference,
I noted the techniques on cards.
Then I’ve realised that having ideas is good, but you must still be able to sell
them. In business and engineering schools, my lecturers had taught me how
to think, but not how to talk. “I am a creative person, not a salesperson”, is a
common excuse in the creative community. That’s why so many great projects,
strategies and causes are lost. Good ideas, bad presenters.
Learning how to pitch in front of clients and my superiors was costly. After
several mistakes, and with the development of the Grapho-Persuasion method,
I began also noting sales techniques on cards.
The Persuasion Note Cards is a collection of the best persuasion techniques
and principles, used for centuries by the greatest marketers, salesmen, product
designers, politicians and womanisers. The 52-card deck is fun, easy to use and
easy to carry.
Each card illustrates a “weapon of mass persuasion”, drawn from the sciences
of behavioural economics and social psychology, with real-life examples. When
brainstorming with your team and clients during a project, or when preparing
yourself for a meeting, keep these cards visible at all times. They will remind
you how persuasion works, and how to integrate elements of it in your work.
From business and personal experiences, I guarantee you that you will find the
52-card deck useful. If you don’t, offer it to someone who will benefit from it,
or contact me at www.grapho-persuasion.com for a 100% refund. No quibble.

Victor Semo,
Creator of the Persuasion Note Cards

www.grapho-persuasion.com

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