How to Influence People, 2nd Edition

Chapter 5 summary

I spoke at a conference recently and the managing director of an organisation stood up. As soon as the FOR slide went up on the screen he shot up and said, ‘Chris, can I interrupt you?’ There were 350 people in the room, but he is the boss so of course I agreed. He proceeded to announce to his entire sales force that he had seen me present the idea of FOR at a conference in Fiji and considered it to be the single greatest tool of communication that he had ever come across. He explained how he used it every day and it had made a phenomenal difference in his successful business conversations.

FOR is a great tool for conversation. Think of all the different areas in which you would be able to FOR, ORF or ROF in small talk. You never have to struggle again!

Challenge yourself if you are in sales and leadership. Do you know the FOR information about your clients? Are you clear about the FOR information about your employees and the people that work within your organisation? Do you know the FOR information about your team?

Finally, FOR is a fantastic tool to manage information about clients that will build relationships over time. Have you earned their trust? When someone shares FOR with you, spend the time to listen, focus and understand exactly what is important to them.