We all want others to believe us especially when we tell the truth but in many cases we fail to convince people to believe us because we lack the proper convincing skills.
Contrary to common beliefs people might not believe you even if you are telling the truth. I am sure you faced a situation where you were completely honest yet had a hard time trying to convince your friends to believe you.
In this article I will tell you about few techniques that can surely help you in making people believe you.
Why don’t people believe you?
In order to make people believe you then you must first understand the reasons that are preventing them from believing you. One or more of the following could be the reason people don’t believe you:
Going against their beliefs: If someone never saw an apple then you can easily convince him that an orange is an apple. When people have already existing beliefs then you will need an extra step to convince them which is shaking their existing beliefs. (see The belief system)
believing they know more: its much harder to convince someone to believe you if he thinks that he knows more than you about that subject. If a person regards himself as an expert and your ideas sounded irrational then he won’t believe you Skeptics:
Skeptic people question everything that is new to them and that’s why you need an additional step when trying to make them believe you
How to make people believe you, shake their beliefs and sound really convincing Here is a list of techniques that can be used to make people believe you, the more techniques you use the more likely people will believe you:
Shaking their beliefs: Yesterday I was watching TV and I came across a program that is similar to candid camera but the only difference is that they interview a famous star then allow some random fans to keep saying that the star is completely unsuccessful in his career. Most stars had their self confidence shaken right after listening to the third fan. If we can make one conclusion from this program it would be that you can shake anyone’s self confidence and beliefs if you sounded confident enough and had enough evidence.
Repetition: In my book How to make someone fall in love with you I explained how the continues repetition of a certain idea can easily allow it to turn into a belief. Why do you think The Coca-Cola company spends millions on advertising? To let us become aware of their brand? Of course that's not right, we all know about coke but the main reason is to program the minds of those watching the ads to buy coke. You can convince anyone to believe you by constantly repeating yourself. (see Subconscious mind programming）
Remove the mental barriers: sometimes a person won’t believe in something because he has three or more opposing ideas. You must first ask the person why doesn’t he believe you and then let him tell you about the first excuse. If you provided a logical explanation he will put aside the first excuse then face you with the second one and so on until he runs out of excuse. At this point repeat your words few times and he will surely believe you.
Back up: Back your words by charts, statistics, number and research findings. Why do think I display a hit counter on the top left of each page of 2knowmsyelf? To provide evidence to the skeptics that this website is trust worthy (see Social proof theory)
Skeptics are good people: Skeptics aren’t evil but they just need some more evidence than normal people, be patient and provide them with what they want in order for them to believe you
Believe in yourself: If you sounded shaky or if you were not 100% sure of what you were saying then the opposite might happen and your own beliefs might be shaken!!! Seek your answers and make sure of your beliefs before trying to convince others to believe in them. (see Believing in yourself）
Use Body language: In body language having a straight back, visible palms and strong eye contact shows that you are trustworthy so make sure you send these signals to the subconscious mind of the person you are trying to convince.
