Sequential Persuasion

When thinking about sequential persuasion strategies, I first thought of my friend who works at a place called Telefund. At Telefund, they call alumni of the college to ask for donations for the school. With this, I asked him to carry out a couple experiments for me.

I asked how he asks for money over the phone and he said that they typically ask for a large sum up front and then lower the price throughout the phone call to make it seem more appealing. Because of my love and desire for persuasion, I immediately starting recollecting back to the Door in the Face (DITF) strategy. This is the principle that when a person is presented with an initial, large request and they reject, they are more likely to acquiesce to a second, more reasonable request. When my friend talks to potential donors, he asks for $500. This is a very large number to ask to a stranger and typically people reject. He then lowers it to $365, which still seems high, but explains that it comes out to just $1 a day. By going from $500 to just $1 a day, people are very likely to make this jump. He said that this strategy is extremely effective in their offices.

I then asked him to do a couple of phone calls and try a different strategy for me. He said he would. I asked him to try the Foot in the Door strategy (FITD). This is the principle that if a person agrees to a small, initial request, he/she is more likely to agree to a subsequent larger request. While this strategy works best if you allow time in between requests (2-3 days) the experiment would not work this way based on circumstances and nature of the job. He asked for $1 a day as an initial donation and then tried to increase it to $3-5 a day after this. While the people complied with the $1 a day request, they did not comply to higher amounts. Because of the nature of this job, this strategy failed.

For me, my preferred strategy is the DITF strategy. I currently work in sales and find this the easiest for people to comply with. I find it very hard to upsale after you have already shown a customer a certain product. On the other hand, I find it very easy to offer the top of the line product and then allow them to settle for something that is middle of the road.