Industry
Intelligence
Best Practices, Tips & Techniques
Posted 10/30/07
The
Secret of Socrates:
How
to get irrational customers to think rationally
By
Myra Golden
The
diplomatic communicator builds a psychological path toward
an affirmative response by strategically getting their
“opponent” to say “yes” a number of times.
Get
the customer to say yes and keep them, if possible, from
saying “no.”
When
a person says “no,” all of their pride demands that they
remain consistent with themselves. And it is very difficult,
once they’ve said ‘no’, for them to change their mind
and become “agreeable” with you, because their sense of
pride is now involved. And we invest so much in our pride.
Let
me give you an example of how this works:
Years
ago when I was heading up consumer affairs for a car rental
company, I had an escalated call from a very upset customer.
The customer was demanding that the company pay him three
thousand dollars and some change because our mishap caused him
to be three hours late to a meeting. He explained that he was
a consultant and his billable rate was $1,000 per hour.
The
problem was our fault; there was no way around that. But the
demand was unreasonable, and I knew we weren’t going to be
able to give in. So, I used the Yes,
Yes
strategy on him…and here’s how it worked.
“Mr.
Jones, you are an astute businessman, are you not?”
I
knew he’d say yes, as he boasted proudly that his clients
paid him $1,000 per hour, for his services.
Next,
I said…”And, as an astute businessman, I’m sure you
only make decisions that make good business sense.” “Absolutely!”,
he said.”
I
knew I had him, because I had built an affirmative path.
Each of the questions I asked him yielded a positive
‘yes’ response.
So,
finally, I said. “I am quite sure that if you were in my
shoes, talking to a customer in this situation, that you would
not simply give a customer three thousand dollars, because
they experienced an unfortunate delay.”
After
about three or four seconds, he said, “Ms. Golden,
you’re right. If I were you, there’s no way I’d give a
customer three thousand dollars for waiting three hours.”
It
was that easy…and it will be that easy for you!
Build
an affirmative path by asking your customer two simple and
obvious questions that you know will result in a YES
response. It’s very much psychological…your customer
won’t feel comfortable disagreeing with himself…and will
feel compelled to say yes so that he agrees with himself!
