How to Coach Yourself and Others How to Influence, Persuade and Motivate | Page 28

2.

Mirroring – People respect, like, and are most easily
influenced by people who they perceive to be similar to
themselves (see Social Proof above). So one way to
influence someone is to mirror them. Mirror their speech
and their actions. If you verbalize back to someone
something they have said and in the same words, you
instantly become more influential. The same thing
applies to posture and actions. If you want to influence
Mike, then you need to act like Mike. If he is leaning
back in his chair, then you would be wise to do the same.

3.

Offer Few Choices – People are paralyzed by choice
and if given too many options, will simply fail to choose
anything. So if you are offering up alternative products,
services, or ideas, be sure to limit the choices to only a
few. Two choices is often better than three.

4.

Reciprocation – Do someone a favor and they are more
likely to return it. There is an interesting twist to this.
People who do you a favor once are more likely do do
you another favor in the future. Once someone has done
you a favor, in their mind you become more important to
them; you must be worthy of their time. So get someone
to do you a small favor, and they are more likely to listen
to you or do you an even bigger favor in the future. The
best way to get them to do you a favor in the first place is
to do one for them.

5.

Baby Steps – We want to act consistent with our
previous actions. Further once we buy into something or
someone, we tend to become much more committed to it
or them. This is the foot-in-the-door technique. No
matter how small a step you can get someone to take as
far as agreeing with your idea, product, or service, those
small steps will lead to larger steps in the future. This
even works on yourself. Start small. Get your target to
29