Possibility Words & Influential Communication

Before trust is established, a surefire strategy for chasing people away is to be too forceful in your language.

There are times when people like to be told what to do, but if you do this too soon, it can have a repelling affect.

Can you remember a time when someone you didn’t want to take advice from said things like,

“You need to do this.”

“You should do this.”

“Let me tell you what you need to do.”

Or a time when a salesperson was trying to forcefully shove something at you that you weren’t interested in or open to learning about?

How did that make you feel?

Like you wanted to get away from that person right?

Part of great sales and marketing is preparing your prospects minds so they can be open to your suggestions at the right time and in the right way.

Removing pressure and helping people to remember that they always have full choice is a great way to do this.

This is where possibility words can come to the rescue.

Here are some examples…

• might
• maybe
• could
• can
• possibly

If I could show you a video that could possibly help you achieve your goals & dreams in life, would you be open to taking a look?”

Notice how hard it is to argue with anything in that sentence.

Making hard and firm statements in your language, can not only ad pressure, but can also give your prospects & listeners more to disagree with, even if silently, in your communication.

We’re looking for agreement, not disagreement.

You can do this with questions too.

If you start sentences with phrases like…

“What if… ”

“Imagine ….”

“Wouldn’t it be nice if… ”

You’re creating the possibility of something that could happen in the future.

That’s much more open and easy to consider than someone who says this will happen in the future, isn’t it?

It’s very hard to disagree with a possibility.

And maybe, this is why possibility words can be so powerful for communicating in attractive and influential ways.  🙂