Episode 123 – Turn No into a Yes

The Power of “Yes”

Use questions that will create “yeses.” As you create your marketing and persuasive presentations, you must engineer the number of times you get your audience to raise their hands, say yes, or nod their heads. How many verbal yeses are you getting? One easy and effective way to get more affirmative responses is to engineer questions that will receive a positive answer. For example, when a word ends in “n’t” it will usually bring a “yes” response. Obviously this technique won’t work if they don’t like or trust you. Consider the following phrases:

Wouldn’t it?

Isn’t it?

Couldn’t it?

Doesn’t it?

Shouldn’t it?

Won’t you?

Can’t you?

Wasn’t it?

Great persuaders look for times when they can get affirmation from their audience. They engineer their persuasive message to get as many verbal, mental, or physical “yeses” as they can throughout their presentation. And there is good evidence to support this practice. One study brought in a large group of students to do “market research on high-tech headphones.” The students were told that the researchers wanted to test how well the headphones worked while they were in motion (students were dancing up and down and moving their heads to the beat of music.) Following the songs, the researchers played a commercial about how the university’s tuition should be raised. One group of students had been told to move their heads up and down throughout the music and the speaking. Another group was told to move their heads from side to side. A last group was told to make no movements at all.

After “testing the headsets,” the students were asked to fill out a questionnaire about not only the headsets, but also the university’s tuition. Those nodding their heads up and down (yes motion) overall rated a jump in tuition as favorable. Those shaking their heads side to side (no motion) overall wanted the tuition to be lowered. Those who had not moved their heads didn’t really seem to be persuaded one way or the other.  In a similar study at the University of Missouri, the researchers found that TV advertisements were more persuasive when the visual display had repetitive vertical movements – up and down yes movements, for example, a bouncing ball.