Persuasion Artist

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   Photo Credit: Sad Beaker 

This is case study 6 of The Great Rapport Experiment of 2008: Matching and Mirroring Edition.  This is an experiment in persuasion to see what methods of influence work best in the real world.   These are all true stories and all subjects are real.  

As a result of being in sales for so long I can read body language well.  Often I can look at a person and size em up quite well.

Subject comes in, a young guy mid twenties.  Looks like a salesman of some type.  Most salespeople can always sniff out other salespeople.  I’m suspicious he’s a competitor, spying on me on his lunch break.

NOTE:  In sales, the people who are hardest to persuade are the ones who have some type of hidden agenda.  That agenda can be as simple as they really aren’t meeting with you to buy, instead they buying their friend and they want to be sure their friend is giving them a good deal or this agenda can be as complex as it’s really someone from your competition spying.

These type of people have a wall up, and it takes a stronger strategy to gain rapport of they just aren’t worth the time. 

Even though I knew this guy was a joke, I still proceeded with the experiment. 

I started mirroring the way he was standing.  He point his feet outward, so I pointed my feet outward.  Then he has one hand in a pocket, I did the same.  I did use the strategy I used from the last case study, of before I match exactly his stance, I maker a small distracting movement then match his so I don’t get caught.

I haven’t discussed this part of rapport yet, but it’s important to know that rapport alone is not persuasion. 

Getting rapport is the first step and then you use that rapport to direct and lead the subject.  One way to test for this is once you have paced for a while, you test by making a new unique body movement and see if the match you. That’s a sign of rapport.

I didn’t think I had rapport but what surprised me the most was that he began following me, and started matching my body movements!? 

So I then started throwing in some commands and suggestions.

He was a little tense in his shoulders, and I told him it’s okay to relax and get comfortable, even really comfortable.

He said “yeah”, and dropped his shoulders and relaxed.

That’s all really cool for sake of practicing covert hypnosis, but there was no use he wasn’t a buyer.  I could tell as soon as he walked in. 

At least I got to mess with him a little >:-)

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