BUSINESS MATTERS Making rejection work


in mind. ‘Would you be willing to escort a group of kids on a trip to the zoo this weekend?’. You politely decline, thinking that the youth centre has its work cut out persuading people to sign up to such a scheme. And you would be right. Only a few people were willing to say ‘Yes’ to such a request.


But the next day the youth centre was able to triple its success rate by making one small change. Remarkably this change cost nothing to implement. ‘Would you be willing to become a counsellor at the centre?’, people were asked. The representative then went on to explain that this would involve two hours of their time every weekend on a programme that lasted three years! No surprise when everyone refused. But immediately after they did they were asked, ‘Well if you can’t do that would you at least go on a zoo trip this weekend?’. The result was nothing short of remarkable. In the context of this larger request that was roundly rejected by all, 300 per cent more people now said ‘Yes’ to the smaller one duly signing up immediately.


Concessions Steve Martin


Steve Martin, co-author of the New York Times best seller ‘Yes! 50 Secrets from the Science of Persuasion’, explains why rejection is often the best route to acceptance.


I 40 COMMS DEALER OCTOBER 2011


magine you are approached one day by someone introducing themselves as a local youth centre worker. They want to persuade you to become a volunteer. In fact they have a specific task


This zoo trip appeal was in fact part of a series of studies carried out by persuasion researchers keen to understand how people respond to concessions. What this study, and others like it have found, is that people are more likely to say ‘Yes’ to smaller requests immediately after they have said ‘No’ to larger ones. One reason for this is that people feel more psychologically obligated to give a concession to those who have given them a concession first. A form of reciprocity or give and take if you like.


This ‘rejection then retreat’ strategy is most effective when the first request is not so extreme that it is seen as an obvious trick. Secondly, and most importantly, the second request needs to be made immediately after the rejection of the first proposal. It may sound obvious but it is something that is often forgotten. After a proposal is rejected we often


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work out an alternative and come back another day. In doing do so we miss our moment of persuasive power. Another mistake is to fail to ask for our ideal scenario. In an attempt to avoid a refusal often we’ll reduce what we ask for in the first place. In doing we also reduce our persuasiveness. Children however seem intuitively to know this. When Naomi wants her Mum to buy her a kitten she knows to always ask for a horse first!


Find out how persuasive you are by taking the free test at: www.influenceatwork.com


ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Steve Martin is the New York Times best selling author, business columnist, speaker and Managing Director of Influence at Work UK. He is co-author of the international best seller ‘Yes! 50 Secrets From the Science of Persuasion’, a New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Business Week best seller. Yes! was nominated for the 2008 Royal Society annual prize for science writing and in 2009 the Harvard Business Review listed the book on its prestigious ‘Breakthrough Ideas for Business’ list. To date Yes! has sold almost 400,000 copies and has been translated into 25 languages.


Steve regularly features in the media and the national press. His popular business columns appear in magazines and online all over the world. As well as his monthly ‘Persuasion’ column in the British Airways in flight magazine he is a regular columnist for the Harvard Business Review blog and a staff writer for Inside Influence and the Institute of Leadership & Management. His columns are read by over 1.8 million people every month, and he will be providing Comms Dealer readers with information and advice on the science of influence and persuasion and its application.


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