Imagine yourself being able to persuade anyone to say yes or do whatever you want. You think that isn’t possible? That’s because you haven’t read this yet.

First give before you receive

The law of reciprocity says: If you do me a favor, I do you a favor. If you buy me candy, I buy you a a candy. But that’s not all.

You don’t need to borrow someone money in order for you to borrow his money. You can do anything for him, as long as it is a favor he hasn’t returned yet. So, first give and you shall receive. Borrow him money and you can have his car available if you want to go somewhere…that’s a good bargain :)

Ask for a small favor before the big one

Let’s suppose you want to make someone to come with you on a concert. The concert lasts whooping 7 hours! What is a better way to ask:

  • Would you come to a 7-hour concert with me?
  • Hey, are you interested in coming to a concert with me? After he said yes, then say: The concert lasts 7 hours.

According to researches, you have way better chance to get yes to your second request after you got yes to your first. In psychology, this is called the consistency principle.

Make him think everyone else is doing that

When I ask most of my friends why they smoke their usual answer is: Well, everyone’s doing that!

I bet you heard that answer too when asking most people why they do specific things.

Why not use this trait to your advantage? Let’s say you have a blog and want people to leave regular comments on your blog posts. One of the most effective ways to do that is to have, let’s say a group of 3-5 friends that will leave comments to your EVERY post. That buids, so-called “social proof” (if others are doing it then I will do it too) that makes more probablyefor first-time visitors to leave you comments as well. This is called herd behavior.

Activate the relativity principle in his mind

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In our heads, everything is relative. We are creatures who do not perceive things in absolute terms but relative to other things. My mother used to tell me that I should feel lucky I have a warm house and food to eat because there’s people in Africa who can’t allow even that. Before she told me this I used to feel sorry for myself because I used to see so many rich kids that had more than me. Now I feel grateful because I live in a good family and have shelter. 

You see, my perception of wealth changed. I’m sure you too have numerous examples similar to this.

If you want to convince someone he or she should do something you want I suggest you use this in creative ways.

Activate the greedy monster inside him

Let’s face it: We all want things we can’t have. We all want things that aren’t easily available. Why not use this greedy monster inside people for your benefit? If you want to convince someone to buy something from you, convince him that the thing you’re selling is not available anymore or it’s the last piece you have and if he/she doesn’t buy there’s a huge chance someone will soon so the item will be gone forever.

Most of these principles come from one best-selling book I’ve read recently, can someone guess what’s its name?