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hOw tO make an Offer theY Can’t refuse: using COnsistenCY tO influenCe Others By Chakisse newtOn | Continued From Page 22
influence someone, it’s more profitable to focus on areas of agreement and min- imize conflict.
In Business: With your employees, build on small agreements around your core values to promote the behaviors you want employees to exemplify. For clients or prospects, have them publicly identify what’s important to them. Once they’ve identified what’s important, show how your solution meets those needs and make it consistent with what the pros- pect wants. You can also ask people to commit to taking a specific course of ac- tion. That is the persuasive secret behind the question sometimes asked at car dealerships, “If we can guarantee that price, can we get you in a car today?”
In Presentations: Make the most of rhe- torical questions. Don’t just use rhetori- cal questions for audience involvement; use questions that will help your audi- ence be more receptive to the actions you’d like to encourage. If it’s appro- priate, you can also call on members of the audience and ask them how they’ll incorporate information from your pre- sentation. Answering those questions out loud is public commitment that makes it more likely they will follow through with action.
In Networking: The principle of con- sistency can make it easier (or perhaps
more comfortable) for you to follow up with your networking contacts. Be sure to ask for permission to follow up with contacts and clarify what types of follow up your contact would welcome. Then, when you reach out again, you can say something like, “When we met at the awards ceremony, you said I could con- tact you to discuss [insert fascinating topic here].” Reminding them of that agreement can help take the pain out of follow up for both parties.
Most people like to be right. When you use consistency, you allow people to es- sentially agree with themselves by show- ing how your proposal aligns with their plans, goals and values. Do you think it’s important to work on improving your influence skills? If so, you’ll want to add this technique in your influence toolbox. After all, it’s consistent with what you really want, isn’t it?
(This post is the third in a series on Dr. Robert Cialdini’s six principles of influence. Part three will address how to use authority to persuade others.)
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February 2015