The art of conversation is probably the most important skill a person could ever develop. Conversation is how a salesman gets the sale. Conversation is how a man gets a woman in bed. Conversation is how a pimp gets paid.

There are 4 basic steps to a successful conversation:

1. See the end before you begin
2. Ask questions that lead to certain answers
3. Have 5 possible follow ups to those questions
4. Think while they answer

See the end before you begin

Before you begin any conversation, there must be a goal. Your goal could be to gather information about the person, to get them to leave the bar with you, to convince a person that it’s your product that they need to buy, or any number of things; just know what your goal is before you begin. If you DON’T know what the goal of the conversation is then you’ll be easily lead off track by your opponent.

Ask questions that lead to certain answers

So get a clear thought in your head about the desired result you’re looking for. Once you have that end game, You have to imagine each step that you’re going to take your opponent on to lead them to whatever it is you have in mind. Once you have your steps in mind, use questions to lead a person through those steps.

Have 5 possible follow ups to those questions

When you ask a question, you should already know what answer it is that a person would give; and you should have your follow up to that answer already ready. If the answer to the question that you ask is not the answer that you thought it was going to be, ask the same question in a different way. Use a different angle. Rephrase the question until the person responds the way you want them to respond so that you can move to the next step on your path.

Think while they answer

When you are asking questions, if you phrase the question correctly, you’ll leave the person with very little maneuvering room. You should already know how they’re going to respond to your question. So while the person is responding to your question, you should be thinking of your next question, and your opponents response to that question. This way you are always 2 steps ahead of your opponent. You only need to half listen to your opponent when they’re speaking to verify that they are giving the answer you expect. They’re talking is your opportunity to think. This is why some people seem to be so quick with their words; they’re no quicker than anyone else in fact. They’re just more prepared.

The basic goal is to lead a person down a path that you create. To lead them to your conclusion. The best game in the world makes the opponent believe that they are making the decidion on their own, even though it is you who lead them to this conclusion. This is a basic technique for influencing your opponent. A master of this technique can bend the will and/or uncover valuable information about all of those around them.

I’ve given you the game, now it’s up to you to step your game up.

mpruv.com aims to bring self improvement to the urban crowd.
 Kingdom. High School dropout. Network Administrator. Pimp. Next…???

Posted by kingdom on Monday, January 28th, 2008 at 3:47 am.