Six Ways to Help You Get to a “Yes” at Work
Wouldn’t it be fabulous to turn all those nobodies into yes buddies? (OK. That was bad. I’ll admit it.) But seriously folks, whether you are asking your boss or a colleague for a favor, negotiating with a client, or cajoling your teenager to do something, wouldn’t it be great if you could improve your odds of getting to a “yes”? Here are 6 ways to improve your odds of getting more yeses in life.
Six Ways to Help You Get to a Yes
Do you want to get customers or your teammates saying ‘yes’ to you more often? Do you want to turn nobodies into yes buddies? Okay, I’ll let myself out. That was pretty bad. Here are six strategies that can help you get more yeses in the workplace.
#1. Leave a handwritten note. Research shows that leaving a handwritten note, even if it’s just something really brief on one of those little sticky notes, increases the likelihood of somebody saying yes to you.
#2. Open with the phrase, “Would you be willing to… .” You see, everybody wants to be seen as being willing to do something, so opening with that phrase primes them, it primes them to be more willing and more likely to say yes.
#3. Make your request at the start of the conversation, not at the end of the conversation. Research in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology shows that that is far more likely to get you a yes.
#4. Remind the person they can always say ‘no’ to your request. Again, research out of France shows that when you do that, you increase your odds of the person saying yes substantially.
#5. Focus on what’s in it for them. A German study found that, perhaps rather obviously, if you focus on the benefits of what they will get out of saying ‘yes,’ the likelihood of them saying ‘yes’ goes up substantially.
#6. Make your request fun. Scads of research shows that when you add a little bit of humor into your request, people are more likely to say ‘yes.’ They like you more, they trust you more when you use a little bit of humor. Research shows that those counter-arguments people often start formulating in their head when they hear you talk evaporate when you use a little bit of humor. And people are more open to possibilities when you deliver a request with humor. So, humor it up in some way.
A study of negotiations involving somebody selling a high-priced piece of art even showed that when the negotiator (the seller of the piece of art) offered to throw in a pet frog, people were way less price resistant. They were more open to paying the higher price. Other research has shown that when you include a non-offensive funny cartoon with a request, people are more likely to go along with you. So, use a little bit of playful humor to help you get people to a ‘yes’.
So, six strategies to help you get to a yes. What do you do, what tips, what techniques have you tried that work well for you to get people to say yes? Please leave a comment in the comments below. And if you haven’t yet subscribed to my Inspiring Workplaces channel, please subscribe to our channel. Join our growing community as we talk about workplaces that rock.
Michael Kerr is a Canadian Hall of fame business speaker specializing in workplace culture. He is the author of 8 books, including: The Jerk-Free Workplace, Hire, Inspire and Fuel Their Fire, and The Humor Advantage: Why Some Businesses are Laughing All the Way to the Bank.
