Techniques of Compliance: Tools to Getting Positive Replies.

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Many times we seek ways to make people comply with our request and often attribute some level of 'must-have-been-touched-by-a-god' ability to those who easily can.

Laughable. For it is merely a skill. It can be learnt.

There are many other ways to get people to agree to a request other than straight up lying to them. I, for one, would rather use be smart about it.

Some of these ways I would be mentioning here.

• Full Belly:

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I call it 'belle full' (Nigerian style) and chose to mention this first because it's something you most likely already know but take for granted. It is fact, that people are more agreeable in a well fed, relaxed environment.

I'm not saying it is guaranteed that once you feed someone well in a relaxed environment they would agree to just about anything.

No.

I'm saying it loosens them up a bit for you. When you add a good pitch to that, you are more likely to get a positive reply.

• Foot-in-the-door technique:

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With this technique, you hope to get someone to agree to a large request by first getting the person to agree to a smaller one.

Let me explain

If for example you want someone to allow you put a crate of drinks in his or her refrigerator for five days, you could start by asking requesting it be put there for a day and later, you can make your request for five days.

Or

Rather than ask someone to stay the night, you ask the person to come visit for a few hours, and then later request they stay the night. The person might me more willing when you do it this way than when you ask straight up.

How this works?

It is based on 'successive approximation. It is more like, agreeing to the first request paves way for the later larger one.

• door-in-the-face:

direct opposite of foot-in-door. To get someone to comply with a request, you start by requesting for something bigger (which you know would most likely be rejected) before you ask for what you really want.

An example is asking someone to lend you money. There is a chance you won't get the exact 10,000 naira you want of you request for it directly, so you request for a way way larger amount first. Once the you sense reluctance, you can request for the 10,000.

It works better than foot-in-door as people see your later request as more reasonable and are more likely to comply.

You could use these and see how they go for you. They are already being used with us in our daily dealings anyways. Employing them now and then isn't a bad idea.

Be good.

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