Persuasion And Influence-leveraging On The Law Of Reciprocation

You probably have heard of the saying “what goes around comes around”. This saying especially holds true in the field of persuasion and is known as the Law of Reciprocation.

The idea is that if you were to do someone a favor, the person would be morally obliged to return this favor. The Law of Reciprocation can be used in many situations to your advantage.

If you’re in sales, offer trial products and have as many people test these products as possible. For example, if you’re selling a product such as a fire safety system for homes, provide free inspections of homes for fire safety and then sell your product to the customer.

Having accepted your free inspection of their home, the customer will feel morally obliged by the Law of Reciprocation and is more likely to buy your product.

Large sales companies such as Amway often make use of the Law of Reciprocation by offering trial products which in turn is one factor in increasing their sales volume.

Another way would be to follow Joe Girard’s example. Joe Girard, probably one of the best salesmen in the world, used to send his prospects greeting cards which simply said “I like you”. The next time his prospects were thinking of buying a car, the first person they would think of would be Joe Girard and this was one of the reasons which contributed to Mr. Girard’s outstanding sales volume. The Law of Reciprocation worked in Mr. Girard’s advantage as the gift from him made his prospects feel the need to reciprocate and thus, they looked to Mr. Girard when they considered buying a car.

Why does the Law of Reciprocation work? Strangely enough, it is as though we have been conditioned to follow it. From young, we have been taught to reciprocate kindness shown to us with kindness of our own. Generally, individuals who do not conform to the reciprocity rule are given desirable labels such as mooch and ingrate

This technique can be applied to many everyday social situations as well. For example, you’re in real need of money and you need to borrow $10 from a friend. How do you go about doing it?

First, start by asking for $20. If your friend accepts, then good for you. If your friend rejects, ask for $10 instead. It is more likely that your friend would lend you the money now than if you had asked for $10 straightaway in the beginning. This is because you had sort of done your friend a favor by stepping back from $20 to $10. Your friend then feels obliged to reciprocate on your concession and lends you the $10.

The general idea is one that our parents have been trying to tell us since we were young. That is, do good to others and others will in turn, do good to us. Furthermore, by doing good to others, we build positive relationships with people, which will only benefit us, not just in sales, but in our daily lives as well.

I’m not going to say that the Law of Reciprocation will work every time. Nor am I going to say that persuasion techniques are sure fire and will work 100% of the time. I do not believe that there are absolute successes but what I can tell you is that knowing these techniques will give you a higher chance of succeeding in persuading someone to do what you want. Have fun trying the techniques out!

By: Vincent Kyle Ng

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Vincent Kyle Ng is the founder of a website ( www.thesecretofpersuasion.com ) that aspires to help others by giving advice and information on the latest strategies in the fields of persuasion, influence, public speaking, relationships and much more.