What is the role of critical thinking in persuasion?

Being able to evaluate in an objective and subjective manner that which you want to persuade somebody of something is an essential skill as you need to think through all the possible retalliations the person you are tring to presuade will come up with and be fore armed with answers, before they know they are going to ask the questions themselves.

One role would be knowing the subject well enough that you can analyze what information would convince someone to come around to your way of thinking.