16
The Contrastive Analysis
One of my favorite influential triggers to agreement is eliciting contrast from another person.
Contrast is consistently predictable in generating compliance. It is most effective in situations where rational thinking and logic will prevail. It can be adapted to situations where emotions will make the difference, as you can see in the example below.
Bring mental images in their mind close together by showing Option A, then Option B, and quickly moving on.
If you can remember your last visit to the optometrist, you did this in discovering the correction needed for your eyes.
Imagine a guy talking to his potential date:
Kevin: “So how come you’re sitting here with me instead of with some really good-looking man? What happened to the last guy you were with?”
Kim: “Ohhh … he turned out to be a real jerk.”
Kevin: “Like how?”
Kim: “He was rude, said inappropriate things in front of my girlfriends, and flirted with them.”
Kevin: “And how about the guy before that?”
Kim: “He was a jerk, too. Always waking me up by texting me in the middle of the night. Really controlling. He even showed up at my office when I didn’t call him back one day.”
Kevin: “A lot of guys can be really insensitive like that—it seems pretty normal from what I hear. What about the one before that?”
Kim: “You mean the one who hit on my sister?”
Kevin: “So what are you going to do to stop this insanity?”
Kim: “I’m being a lot more picky about who I date now. They have to pass a bunch of personality ...
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