A great way to persuade somebody to do something is to get them imagining all the benefits from taking your suggestion.
Say you’re selling some kind of widget. On the one hand, you could memorize a whole list of features and benefits, and rattle them off and hopefully hit enough hot buttons to get a sale.
Or, you could simply get your potential customer to imagine using it. That way, they’d imagine it in just the right way, utilizing all of their criteria, even if the aren’t sure what they are.
One way to do this is make it sound like you aren’t sure if they should buy the widget or not. This will sound refreshing to them, because every other salesperson is always trying to close the sale every step of the way.
Say something like this:
Now, I’m not sure if this really is the right widget for you. After all, you’ve got your own reasons for deciding whether or not you want to buy this. Try this. Some of my customers have found it helpful to imagine yourself a couple weeks in the future, using this widget in all those ways that are important to you. Thinking about that now, how does it feel? Are you happy with your decision? Do you wish you’d made a different decision? What are some of the best things about owning this widget? What are some of the things you wish were different?
Of course, you’ll need to put this in your own words, and maybe stretch it out a bit. But you’ll find it’s a fantastic way to obliterate resistance, and get them eager to buy.