When you want something

A recent research study examined the effective strategies of cold callers.

You may be cringing at the thought of receiving an unsolicited sales pitch, but is there a better interaction to study if you want to learn what works when trying to get something from someone?

The study, by York St. John University, School of Education, Language, and Psychology (in the U.K.), looked at words used by sales people to frame persuasive messages.

Surprise, surprise, successful cold callers didn’t start with an ask that fulfilled only their own needs.  

Rather than say, “Can I get some of your time to discuss our offerings…” it was more effective to frame the opening request as a collaboration: “I’m wondering if there’s a way we can help you…Can I come down Tuesday to talk about it?”

There’s a lot going on here. Let’s unpack it. 

• This framing presupposes that the two parties could collaborate 

• It narrows the number of things to object to

• It contains a specific request

• It doesn’t feel like a sale, at least not at this exploratory stage

• Inherent in the request is the benefit to the other person

• The requestor isn’t trying to change the other person’s behavior

• Safety is maintained

It does all this by establishing mutual purpose, something you can use in all your requests.  

For example if you want to take on a new responsibility, instead of asking your boss, “Do you think I could…?” ask, “I think I can help with...do you think we can talk about it later this week?”