How to Coach Yourself and Others How to Influence, Persuade and Motivate | Page 319

Increasing Participation
You can create involvement through increased participation. The more we
take an active role and get involved, the more open to persuasion we
become. When we take an active part in something, we feel more
connected to and have stronger feelings for the issue at hand. We have a
personal stake in what we are doing.
One of the keys to successful participation is making your problem their
problem. This technique creates ownership and a willingness to help on
the part of your prospects. Obviously, asking for help is much milder than
telling someone what to do or think. You will have more success
involving your prospects in the solution if you give them the option of
participating. Feeling that it was their choice and their solution, your
prospects will take ownership — they have persuaded themselves. It
becomes their own problem and their own solution. By nature, people will
support what they help create.
Store and mall owners understand the concept of participation. They
attempt to get you participating by making eye contact with you, by
arranging their stores to force you to spend more time in them, and by
saying hello as you pass. When you shop for goods in Mexico, for
example, the storeowner knows that if he can get you in the store and get
you involved, there is a greater chance of persuasion and a purchase. As
such he will make eye contact and do everything in his power to get you
in the store. If you don't go in the store, he might follow you for blocks,
showing you his products and trying to get you to buy.
The amount of time one spends in a store is directly related to how much
one