Unexpected persuasions of our life!
We all feel very chuffed when someone, be it our friend or a family member gets us an unexpected present.
What would you do? Well, you would turn around and discover a way to pay them back. You would rush out to the store and get them a gift, or you go to your storeroom and dig up something that was a gift from a long time ago, and you think, “This will do!”
This is because you just feel as though there’s this pressure to return the favour. So did the same happen to me a few months ago? While I called it a day from work and was winding up my things to leave, one of my friends came to me saying that “This one’s for you.”
I opened it with so much excitement and I found a ravishing watch in the box. It was a completely out of the blue situation. I was rather thankful to my friend for that watch.
A few days later, I was stuck with work and that made me skip my lunch. It should be close to 4 PM in the evening, and another friend of mine came to my place and left a cover. When I opened it, that increased my hunger. I was so very hungry that I left my work and began to eat.
Today, while I was just pondering about the two instances, something made me think beyond these incidents. In the first place, when my friend gave me a watch, it was really a joyous moment. After a small chit-chat, I packed my bag and left for the day. A few hours later, my friend rang up to me and needed help with the work he was doing.
From a tiring day at work, when I was all set to hit the sack, that was when my friend asked for a favour. It’s human nature, that when someone receives an unexpected gift, they are more likely to reciprocate it in any form of favour. Adhering to such nature, I immediately agreed to help him without giving my cold shoulders.
It is a social rule that “If you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours”. Thereby, if someone does a favour, you pay them back. That’s a norm that we live by. I realised that by giving someone a gift, you can gain compliance and increase the likelihood that they’ll agree to your request. However, there’s one thing to be noted. It works for the requests that the other person is capable of doing.
Now, speaking about the second instance, where my friend brought me some food, till date, he has not asked for a favour. But imagine if he asks for a favour in time to come, what would I respond?
Actually, this is something natural among everyone. You don’t have to wait too long after you give the initial gift before making your ultimate request. You obviously don’t have to say that “Here’s my gift. Now give me something.” That’s not going to work at all as it’s a little too aggressive.
But in general, you can give the gift and then do not wait too long before making the request, else the compliance begins to fade. If the request is made a week later, it is natural that anyone would no longer feel indebted.
There is one more way to persuade people, where you can project yourself to present an offer and frame it as a special gift. Say, for instance, you are pitching in a product whose cost is $10. But, you turn the plate and give spiffing news. “Well, it’s for $10, but you can have it for $5”. This offer would eventually make the person feel that you are being nice to him and so should I also be. This creates a need for paying back your generosity and they tend to purchase it.
However, the reality is the product is for $5.
Here, if I speak about the difference, we can comprehend that when this “That’s not all” technique is applied, people are prone to respond to it, rather than the approach of fixing the product cost to the actual one (say $5).
Let me quote another example that will definitely make things precise. Assuming I and my friend are cooking dinner. So, I say to her, “I’ll tell you what… I’ll take care of dinner, but can you get the groceries?”
Here, perhaps I’m going to take care of dinner anyway but didn’t want to get the groceries. So if I frame this as a “special offer”, I’m just saying, “I’m going to go out of my way to take care of one of these things, but could you still take care of the other?”
Highlights:
— Presenting an unexpected gift.
— Don’t wait too long to make the request.
— That’s not all I have for you.
Cerebrate on this and try it on someone intentionally :P
