There are ways to persuade and influence people without being manipulative. After all, this skill may prove useful in certain situations when you need to convince someone of your right.

8 Techniques to Persuade and Influence People

1. Framing

This technique is often used in politics. The most popular example of framing is the inheritance tax. Politicians opposed to this tax will call it “death tax”. The use of the word “death” instead of “inheritance” causes all kinds of unpleasant associations.

Framing is a fairly unobtrusive technique, but using emotive words such as “death”, you will have more chances to convince people to accept your point of view.

2. Reflection

This is a popular technique used in NLP. Reflecting someone means imitating their movements. These movements can be almost imperceptible, but the most obvious ones are the hand gestures, leaning forward or backward, and various movements of the head or hands. We all do it unconsciously, and if you look closely, you might notice it.

The way to reflect someone goes without saying. However, there are a few recommendations. Try to do it imperceptibly, and do an interval of 2-4 seconds between the other person’s movements and your reflection.

3. Deficit

This technique is often used by advertisers to persuade and influence people. Opportunities, whatever they may be, attract far more if we have restricted access to them.

This method can be successfully applied to any person in a suitable situation. But more importantly, the knowledge of this technique will make you stay on your guard. Stop and think about how you are affected by the fact that the quantity of goods is limited. If the product is limited, then there must be a huge demand for it, right?

4. Interchange

When someone helps us or does something nice for us, we feel compelled to pay them back. Therefore, if you want someone to do something for you, why not do something for them first? No matter where or when you do it (with your business partners or with your neighbor), the main thing is to take initiative.

5. Timing

Usually, people are more accepting and flexible when they are mentally tired. Before you ask someone about something, try to bide time until that person will do something that requires considerable mental effort.

You can catch your colleague on the way out at the end of the day and no matter what you asked for, most likely, he will say: “I’ll do it tomorrow”.

6. Congruence

We all subconsciously try to act consistently. One of the good examples is a technique used by sellers to persuade people.

A seller shakes your hand while you are negotiating the purchase. Most people associate handshaking with the completion of the transaction. Thus, making it before the deal was completed, the seller has more chances to make you say yes.

A good way to use this method is to persuade people to take action in the following way. For example, if you walk with a friend and want to go to see a movie, but he/she is not sure about that, you can go towards the cinema until he/she decides.

7. Smooth speech

During the conversation, we often use small exclamations and phrases that express uncertainty, such as “um”, “well” or “hm”. These words inadvertently give the impression that we are not sure of ourselves, and thus, we sound less convincing.

If you speak with confidence, you will find it easier to convince and influence people.

8. Friends and authorities

We are more likely to allow other people to persuade and influence us when we believe that they are important to us and when we consider them authority.

Being able to persuade and influence people is not manipulation but a useful skill that will make you sound more confident and convincing. Keep in mind to not cross the borders and use the tricks above only in trivial everyday situations.


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