FITD is a persuasion technique through which a persuader helps a prospect comply to a bigger request by using a smaller request first. This concept was first researched by Freedman and Fraser.
Persuasion Tool #1 Manuscript – FITD
Welcome to Influence University and persuasion tool #1. My name’s Kurt Mortensen. Today let’s talk about an influence tool that will really help you out. This tool is called “Foot in the Door,” or FITD. Some have called it self-perception theory or sequential request; basically, this foot-in-the-door is powerful. If you’re getting a lot of resistance, if you’re getting a lot of NO’s, pay close attention here. Basically, when you begin with a small request and follow-up with a large request, statistically speaking, you are going to get more YESES.
Just think about this: if there’s a point in your presentation where you’re getting a lot of no’s, what you’re asking is too big. Get smaller commitments, smaller yeses. Persuade them on the smaller things, because we know that small commitments lead to larger commitments. We know that when people write something down it’s more powerful than a verbal commitment, and public commitments are stronger than private commitments.
The key point here is to get a person to initially grant a small, simple request. It can be as simple as, “Can I have 30 seconds of your time?” “Can you glance at this real quick, write this down, raise your hand?” “Hey, can you help me?” And you can fill in the blank here, because you just persuaded them on a small initial request.
So at a university, psychology students were asked to participate in a study. And this study was Saturday morning, early Saturday morning; I believe it was around 6:00 a.m. So when they asked these college students, “Hey, will you participate in a study Saturday at 6:00 a.m.?” only 24% said yes. That’s pretty low. But then they changed one thing, they added the foot-in-the-door technique. The number: it doubled to 56%. This is what happened. This is all they did. “Hey, will you participate in a study?” “Well, yeah.” “And so is Saturday available?” “Well sure.” “It’s at 6:00 a.m.; will you be there?”
All they did was break down the bigger piece into smaller manageable yeses, into three yeses, and it more than doubled the compliance to 56%. So understand the human brain, when it gets overwhelmed, when you are you asking too much, it will shut down; it will say no. An overwhelmed brain will say no. So at that point of resistance, that point you’re getting a lot of no’s, break it down into three, four, five, easier yeses. Make it as easy as possible. And the great thing about this study is that 95% of the students followed through and showed up for this early morning session.
So what do I want you to do? Let me give you a little application, let’s talk about this. So make initial small requests that you know they’ll say yes to. It’s easy for five minutes, for two seconds, for a quick glance, for maybe a lunch appointment. Maybe you want to try the project out for a month instead of ten years. Get smaller yeses, and then all you have to do is make another more involved request or another yes. When you watch a great persuasive presentation, there are probably twenty yeses all the way through. In persuasion, you don’t want to get the no. That’s like hitting a brick wall. Get as many yeses as you can. So at that point where you’re getting the no, back up and think of a few small requests before you get there. Break it down into smaller pieces and you’ll become a power persuader.