David Sandler, Founder of the Sandler Selling System™, called it The Rule Of Three Plus.  Whenever you wonder if someone is telling you the truth, get them to lie to you three times.

“I’m sorry.  What did you say?” can be the first of those three.  Assuming you receive the same answer on their second statement, you might then paraphrase what they said back to them – getting them to confirm that you heard them correctly.  An example might be “So what you’re saying is . . . did I hear you correctly?”

And finally you could project the results of what they just said out into the future – confirming that what you understand is going to happen as a result of what they said indeed is going to happen.  This might sound like “So based on what you said, if we come to agreement on this, it will only be your signature at the bottom of the agreement.  Am I correct on that assumption?”

If a person can lie to you three times, they are either very hard core or they are telling the truth.  Usually what happens in one of questions, they will “remember” something they forgot to include in their initial statement – bringing greater truth and clarity to the situation.

See the poster Presumptive Questions for how to combine two steps of this process in one question.

Categories: Influence

Tags: influence