Thursday, November 29, 2012
Tie downs are very under-utilized skills that allow people to feel good about their judgment or their taste. They are close-ended questions that are a form of “that is true, isn’t it?” Or “that is true, yes.” What you want to do is listen to the person to see what they have to say. Suppose they say, “This is really very important to me.” How you would respond is, “that is important, isn’t it?” If you agree with what someone says, and you remind them of their good taste or good judgment by saying some form of “that is true, isn’t it?” then you are going to get them to say “yes.” So remind people of their good taste with a tie-down and you’ll get better results.
Thursday, November 8, 2012

If you want to sell somebody something, if you want them to sign-up, you want them to conclude quickly that it is a good idea.  You want to create a condition in which people actually want to buy.  You can increase that likelihood by asking open-ended questions.  Open-ended questions are questions that start with: what, where, how, who, which, when.  Remember them… what, where, how, who, which, when.  If you can get into the habit of asking questions like that, you are much more likely to get people to sign up.  If you are like most people, unconsciously, you are going to ask close-ended questions and you are going to get “no” too often.  So remember, what, where, how, who, which, when and you will get much better results when you want to persuade anyone to do anything.  What are your thoughts?  
Tuesday, November 6, 2012

When you ask people a close-ended question you are likely to get a “yes” or a “no” answer.  The key is to position the question so that you get a “yes” most of the time.  It’s called getting the person in the direction of “yes.”  If you think through how you want to ask the question, and you think that you want to get a “yes,” then you want to position your question accordingly.  More than half the time, if you fail to be careful, you are going to get a “no” answer, and the more “no’s” creates more resistance.  So if you want to persuade anyone to do anything, think through how you ask the question.  Ask the question so that you are more than likely to get a “yes.”  For example, “Does that make sense?  Well, of course that makes sense!”  That’s the way it works.