The Power Of Persuation

Persuade People With Deductive Reasoning

1. Identify your goal.
You must know precisely what you want to achieve. In my example with Jose, my goal was to get him to make the decision to stop playing his game and get his chores done immediately. In my video-production example, my goal was to get my partner to make the decision to invest an additional R5,000 so we could buy our own equipment.

2. Make a statement that leads the other person to the conclusion you want him to come to.
The leading statement I made to Jose was, "I’m sure you won’t forget [to do your chores before it’s time to go]." The leading statement I made to my partner was, ""I’m not sure any of these guys know more about shooting and editing a video than we do."

Let’s say you want to persuade your boss to increase your budget for a particular project. In that case, you might say something like, "I can definitely get this project done within the budget - although, with the shortcuts we’ll need to take, there may be some quality issues." That statement would lead your boss to the realisation that not giving you a bigger budget might be a bad idea.

3. Reinforce the logical conclusion the other person comes to "on his own."
When the person you’re using the Triggering Deductive Reasoning technique on comes to the conclusion you were hoping for, agree with him that he made a wise decision. You might even admit that you were thinking the same thing… and he convinced you it was the right thing to do.