How to Make People Say Yes

Perhaps you’ll agree when I say that making people NOD could be the hardest.

 

Imagine how great life would be if only we could make people say yes:

 

Yes, I’ll purchase your product.

Yes, I’ll attend your seminar.

Yes, I’ll invest to your business.

 

Fantastic, right?

 

But what if it’s the other way around? What if you always receive SORRY and NO as an answer? (Not to mention the many reasons and excuses  you possibly hear from people)

 

If you’re amongst the uhm… well, unfortunate ones, who aren’t gifted with some power of persuasion, then this article would surely help a lot.

 

I have compiled in here some techniques that can earn you the SWEETEST YES from almost everyone.

 

Keep on reading.

 

Appeal to emotion.

 

People love drama; I bet you do too. If I ain’t right, then those tear-jerking television series making audiences’ eyes puff almost every night should have been dead a long time ago. Creatives behind those productions have recognized how people embrace such genre and so they continue rolling films as that.

 

But what’s with emotion?

 

I have read a blog by John Calub explaining the significance of having an emotional connection in terms of persuasion. The objective of appealing to emotion is to create a connection with the audience and make them receptive of the message.

 

By doing this, a persuader can make his audience understand where he is coming from, accept his views, subsequently take the course of action he is suggesting.

 

 

How to do it right?

 

As per Aristotle, there are basically seven emotions you can evoke from and tap into its opposites: These are:

 

• anger and calmness
• friendship and enmity
• fear and confidence
• shame and shamelessness
• kindness and unkindness
• pity and indignation
• envy and emulation

 

There are many other emotions. However, the mere idea is to understand the emotions that your audience are predisposed to. In order to do this, you will only have to answer three questions:

 

1. What’s your audience’ current state of mind?
2. To whom are their emotions directed?
3. What’s the reason they feel that way?

 

It is not enough to know the answer to one or two of these questions. Know the answers to all three questions and you will know how to get them from where they are to where you want them to be.

 

Take this for example: You’re a political candidate abd you were asked to speak in front of a group advocating for Home for everyone.

 

This is their stand:

The government has promised many times that they will build more affordable housing. However, people without homes of their own only continue to grow in numbers.

 

As mentioned earlier, your aim is to appeal to what their emotion. In this scenario, you can appeal to their anger. Anger since nothing has been done as promised.

 

Now, let’s try to change the situation. Let’s say you’re the advocate and is going on a meeting with a representative from the government. Of course, it is unlikely to evoke anger to someone with such position and tell them they aren’t doing enough. You might look at the three questions again and think of pity as the best emotion to appeal to. Pity is a pejorative term these days, but consider its synonyms: empathy and compassion. If you can make the representative of the government empathize with people sleeping rough, you may be able to persuade him or her to prioritize solutions that address the problem.

 

Indeed, emotion is what you can use to make many individuals, if not all, say YES.