Rule of Three

OK, if you want to hear “yes” more often, you should use this idea, and it is the Rule of Three.

We’ve talked in other videos about how a great way to get people to say “yes” is to give them a reason. Well, you shouldn’t really just give them one reason; you should give them three.

People love to hear things in threes. Psychologists really have no idea why this is, but two seems too few, four seems too many; three is perfect.

And, in addition to people liking to hear things in threes, it does a couple of other things for you, as well:

One, when you tell somebody that there are three reasons why they should take you up on your offer, or do what you’re suggesting, they’ll listen to you more. Why? Because we love lists.

Look at almost every magazine article or magazine cover as you are checking out at the grocery store. It is three ways to do this, five ways to do that, seven ways to do this.

So when you tell someone, “Well, you know, there are really three reasons why we should go this way,” in that person’s mind, they go, “Uh-huh, here’s a list,” and they’ll pay attention to you and, by the way, follow you along as you make your points.

You know what else the Rule of Three does for you? It dramatically and almost instantaneously improves your credibility. How? When you tell someone that there are three reasons why they should take you up on your offer, in nanoseconds, that person, in their mind, says, “Huh, now here is somebody who has considered this issue. They have three reasons.”

So there you have it. How do you get someone to say “yes” to your suggestion? Give them three reasons.