It’s a new year! Time to set goals, make resolutions…or not. However you do it, there’s a lot of focus on making changes whenever that calendar turns over to a new year.
Would you like to be able to influence your own outcome this year? You can actually learn how to use influence to persuade the situation to go your way. Two keys in influencing are rapport and positive recall.
One part of rapport is understanding that everyone has various styles of communication. Some may be visual communicators, where they “see” what you are saying and often express themselves in imagery and physical attributes. Some are auditory communicators, where they “hear” what you are saying, and may express themselves with sounds. Some are tactile communicators, where they “experience” what you are saying and may look for connections to the physical senses as they express themselves. One of the things I teach in my PowerPersuasion(tm) Course is to identify and adapt to the different communication styles. There are several other aspects of building rapport, and I teach those in my course, too.
Once you have rapport with someone, you can then establish an environment for them to receive the idea as you see it. When is the best time to make an ask or persuade someone to give you something? When they feel good, right? In order to lead someone in feeling good, one technique I teach is positive recall. This is the technique a child might use when they want a new toy. First, they say, remember when I cleaned my room without asking? And when the parent is feeling really satisfied of their own parenting and pride in the behavior of the child, the child knows that is the time to make the ask.
These techniques are based on science, but there’s an art to it, of course, so you don’t blatantly go around analyzing communication styles and asking people to remember something good. Being aware of how you listen and respond to the different styles, and asking positive questions about the other person is a good start to a year of influence!
For more powerful techniques, and to learn the complete system of developing influence and persuasion, attend my PowerPersuasion Bootcamp, or contact me for more information.