Exactly What to Say: Keywords for Impacts

These keywords and templates of sentences help you influence people.

• I’m not sure it’s for you, but ...

  • recommend in a non-intrusive way

• Open-minded

  • "Are you open-minded to do something?" this encourages people to do something.
  • or if you are criticizing something or someone but still want to show the empathy, you can say "I am helping someone be open-minded."

• What do you know about

• How would you feel if?

  • How are people motivated?
    • Avoid a loss
    • Aquire a potential gain
  • Emotion comes first than logic
  • People make decisions based on what feels right first. ==Interestingly, when we make decisions for ourselves, we should avoid harmful emotions. (By Ray Dalio)==

• Just imagine

  • Creating pictures in the minds of others is done by telling stories.

• When would be a good time?

  • One of the biggest reasons your ideas fail to get heard is that others tell you they just don’t have the time to consider them.
  • The preface prompts the other person to assume that there will be a good time and that no is not an option.

• I’m guessing you haven’t got around to

  • By pushing for the negative scenario, you get people to rise to the positive or to tell you how they are going to fix the thing they said they were going to do.

• Simple Swaps

  • Do you have any questions? => What questions do you have for me? When emphasizing “questions”, instead of “you” (the audience), then the audience will ask less questions.

• As I see it, you have three options ... Of those three options, what’s going to be easier for you?

• There are two types of people, ...

  • This may help people make final decisions.

• I bet you’re a bit like me

  • It often results in the other person comfortably agreeing with you.

• If … then …

  • people like to hear something with logic behind, no matter if it really makes sense…

• Don’t worry

  • it’s particularly useful in high-stress scenarios, when confronted with someone who is panicked - it puts people at ease.

• Most people

  • When you tell people what most people would do, their brains says, “I’m most people, so perhaps that is what I should do too.“

• The Good News

  • “The good news is ….” causes people to face forward with optimism and zap any negative energy out of the conversation
  • by bring more positivity to situations with “the good news is …” and responding with, “that’s great,” you soon start shifting the balance in people’s thoughts.

• What happens next

  • finishing a process with a question that is effortless to answer is the key to gaining a rapid response and a positive outcome.
    • the easier the question is to answer, the easier you gain your decision.

• What makes you say that

  • success in negotiating is all about maintaining control in a conversation, and ==the person in control is always the person who is asking the questions.==
  • so when we get objections like
    • I haven’t got the time
    • It’s the wrong time
    • I want to shop around
    • I haven’t got the money right now
    • I need to speak to somebody else before I make a decision about this.
  • by treating every objection you face as nothing more than a question, you can quickly regain control of the conversation by asking a question in return.

• before you make your mind up

  • fight for the last chance before you say “no”.