Influencing Skills Training

Overview | Influencing Skills Training Course

Influencing skills training is a course designed to teach you how to get results when you can’t rely on your formal authority. In the modern workplace, collaboration is constant. Research in the Harvard Business Review shows that many professionals now spend over 75% of their day working with others, making the ability to influence peers a critical skill.

This course teaches you to move from simply trying to win an argument to a more sophisticated approach of architecting an agreement. It is built on understanding the psychology of decision-making, helping you to build consensus and get your ideas acted upon.

The training is essential for project managers who need buy-in from cross-functional teams, managers who need to influence senior leaders, and sales professionals who need to build trust with clients. As a specialist in this area, MTD Training is a provider of influencing skills training that gives you a practical toolkit for persuasion.

For managers, pairing influencing skills with management training creates a stronger ability to lead without relying solely on authority.

Course Content

Here is an example of an in-house, customised course we can deliver for you. We can deliver it exactly as shown, or tailor the content to your organisation’s needs.

Understanding Influence & Persuasion

• Explore what influence is (and isn’t) including the difference between persuasion, influence, and manipulation.
• Understand your own power & influence sources, and how others respond to them.
• Recognise the risks and ethical boundaries of influence.

Preparing to Influence

• Learn push vs pull techniques and when each is appropriate.
• Explore assertive and responsive behaviours in influencing situations.
• Map who you need to influence and what motivates them.

Building Trust & Rapport

• Learn to see things from others’ perspectives and connect on shared values.
• Develop excellent verbal and non-verbal communication skills.
• Master listening, questioning techniques, and removing barriers to understanding.

Influencing Techniques & Styles

• Identify your natural influencing style and how to adapt it to different contexts.
• Use storytelling and narrative to reinforce your message.
• Learn how to influence effectively even without direct authority.
• Deal with resistance, recognising it, responding productively, and turning it into collaboration.

Practical Application & Real-World Scenarios

• Work through real-life influencing challenges from your own role.
• Practice techniques in role-plays, simulations and feedback sessions.
• Reflect on what works, what to adapt, and plan for influencing effectively in future opportunities.

Key Features

Influencing Skills Training

Learn practical strategies to gain buy in, shape decisions, and move people to action without formal authority.

Embed The Learning

We focus on real workplace scenarios so new techniques become everyday habits that build trust and momentum.

Certification

All our solutions are assured by the Institute of Leadership and Management and are CPD certified to recognised professional standards.

What Learners Say

Participants report stronger stakeholder relationships and faster agreement on priorities. See independent feedback in our Feefo reviews.

Ongoing Influencing Support

You will receive 3 months of access to our sister company Skillshub’s eLearning platform plus email and phone support.

Similar Learners

Ideal for managers and specialists who need to influence teams. Many face similar challenges, so the learning is immediately relatable.

FAQs about Influencing Skills Training

What Is Influencing Skills Training?

Influencing skills training is a course that teaches you the practical psychology of how to persuade others and gain their commitment ethically.

It’s built on the idea that influence is a learnable skill, not an innate talent.

The course gives you a clear understanding of what motivates people and shows you how to build a case for your ideas that aligns with their interests. These influencing techniques are also central to change management training, since guiding people through uncertainty often depends on persuading them to commit to new ways of working.

A core part of the training is learning the critical difference between ethical persuasion and manipulation. We teach you how to find a mutual benefit, which builds long-term, trust-based relationships.

As a specialist, MTD Training is a provider of influencing skills training, and we deliver it through in-person workshops. The aim is to give you a structured approach to get your ideas heard, respected, and acted upon, especially when you can’t just tell people what to do.

What Does The Training Cover?

The training is built around the world-renowned research of Dr. Robert Cialdini, giving you a practical and ethical framework for persuasion.

You will learn how to apply his Six Universal Principles of Influence in your own work, principles that are also reinforced in many leadership courses because of their direct link to effective communication and decision-making.

Building Trust and Credibility: These principles include Reciprocity, the drive to repay what you’ve received, and Commitment, the need to be consistent with what you’ve already said. You will learn about Social Proof, where people follow the lead of others, and Authority, where people defer to credible experts.

Creating Connection and Urgency: Finally, the course covers Liking, the principle that we are more persuaded by people we like, and Scarcity, the idea that people want more of what they can have less of. You will learn how to apply these psychological principles in real-world business scenarios, like writing a persuasive email or presenting a case for a new project.

What Are The Key Benefits?

The key benefits of influencing skills training are faster decision-making, smoother project execution, and greater career progression.

When you can build consensus and get buy-in more effectively, you reduce the amount of time that important projects are stuck waiting for approval. This directly improves the speed and efficiency of your work. Influencing is also a core part of management skills training, since managers need to secure support across teams without always relying on authority.

• Improve Collaboration and Teamwork: This training is also critical for improving cross-functional teamwork. It helps to reduce the friction and ‘political’ battles that can happen between departments, leading to stronger collaboration. The Project Management Institute consistently identifies effective communication and stakeholder management as essential for project success.
• Advance Your Own Career: Finally, you are making a direct investment in your own career. A global study by the development firm DDI identified ‘influencing others’ as the single most critical leadership skill for the future. By developing this competency, you increase your value to the organisation and your potential for more senior roles.

Make An Enquiry

Please call us on 0333 320 2883, email us at info@mtdtraining.com or complete our form below with any questions that you may have and we will get back to you.