Not too long ago, a human brain was considered a very rigid structure. It was thought that the behaviour patterns once made, were very hard if not impossible to break ("Old habits die hard").

Today we know that it's actually a very "plastic" and dynamic structure -- always creating new networks to better suit our needs. And we also know that creation and cultivation of new habits and patterns of behaviour very quickly (in about five days of conscious effort) become our new predominant way of behaving (although the choice to begin previous patterns of behaviour remains for a long time!).

Are we then to believe that if a person has "made up his or her mind" about something, it's really impossible to change it?

Of course not. In fact... think of the last time you "made your mind up" about something and then very shortly after changed it. What had to be there in order for you to change it? Was it new "evidence"? Was it the ability to suddenly "see things from a different perspective"? Was it the memories of the "good old times" to make you give the change a chance?

As you can now understand, it's very easy to change a person's mind... you just have to know what "buttons to push". This could be tough, but although everybody is an individual and everybody likes to think that THEY are completely different in every way from other people, there are only a few ways of how people generally and predominantly process information and how they make decisions. Sure, there are some individual differences, but general rules work fine in everyday life.

One of the best ways to start a persuasive interaction is to ask questions. Get to know what moves the person, what's important to him or her, in other words -- what makes them tick. I suggest you get the knowledge before you try to persuade a person, but if there's no time for that, do it in the process of persuading.

What are good questions to ask?

In forming good questions, you must always keep in mind what's the purpose of extracting a certain piece of information. It's what you do with the information that's important. To change a person's mind about something, it's usually good to know their values. You can elicit values in many ways, for example:

* What are the three most important things you look for in your friends?

* Which of these is the most important and which is the second most important?

When a person answers, you now have a "map" to their friendship. You can then covertly demonstrate these values and become their friend. Things really don't have to be complicated sometimes!

Although it's important to point out that people will most likely tell everything you ask them, sometimes you'll have to be a bit more covert in order not to arouse suspicion in them. In such cases you can ask question such as "Besides being a good climber, how would you describe yourself as a person?". The answer will hold many insights you might want to remember as you'll be using them later to change their mind if the need for that emerges.

You can also ask a customer what exactly are they looking for in a product or service you offer and then simply demonstrate that that's exactly what they'll get.

Another very powerful way to change a person's mind is to get him or her to imagine already doing what you want them to and feeling good about it. This can sometimes be done overtly and sometimes it's best done covertly (without them knowing what you're doing). You can get them to imagine things by, for example, telling stories or using language patterns (sentences that are specifically formulated and said in a specific way to elicit a desired response in another person).

The key here is to paint vivid images in people's minds. I like to call this covert hypnosis using vivid imagery

It's a very effective way to get a person to change their mind. Of course, in cases of stubborness and long-term, publicly exclaimed decisions, it takes more work. Covert hypnosis holds many techniques and strategies to do just that -- to quickly and easily get a person to change his or her mind and to motivate them to do what you want.