Haley Henning

COM 315
Dr. Jensen
March 18, 2023

Persuasion Journal 9: Sequential Persuasion

Prompt: Conduct your own interpersonal studies using the sequential persuasion strategies we
talked about in class. Try at least two forms of sequential persuasion in a minimum of two
interpersonal conversations. Plan your requests carefully and do your best to make the requests
authentically. (Keep a straight face!)

After each of your sequential request attempts, reflect on your level of success. Why did/didn’t
the persuasive strategy work? What forms of sequential persuasion work best for you? What
other insights can you share about sequential persuasion and its effectiveness?

I first tried the “pregiving” strategy on my sister. Normally she’s a pretty cluttered person
when it comes to how she keeps her room clean/organized, but she likes to be clean despite the
hectic state she’ll leave her space in. Because of this, I decided I would thoroughly clean her
room for her while she wasn’t home and “surprise” her with my kind, seemingly unplanned
deed. She was very happy about her clean space, and rather than immediately following up with
the need for reciprocity, I waited until we were at the dinner table eating to bring up in
conversation that I wanted to go downtown somewhere with a friend but didn’t want to worry
about the parking. This is when I asked if she could drive us there, and with a playful hesitance,
she responded with “fiiine”. The pregiving was a success in this case, and I do think it was
because of the gratitude explanation. My sister and I’s relationship has always worked with a
favor-for-favor dynamic, so it's not unusual to me that this happened.
For both my mother and father, I approached her with the “foot in the door” strategy.
(Just as a disclaimer, I didn’t have any actual plans that required I asked my parents for money,
so I did not manipulate them for the cash! I gave it back when I explained the reason that I was
asking.) I told them that I would be going out to a café with a friend for their birthday and asked
if I could have $10 to buy a coffee and treat. Understanding that my mom is very “go hang out
with your friends instead of staying inside!” I knew that she would be glad to lend me the money
for the social event, but as she did, I added “oh wait, it might be a big ask, but would I actually
be able to do like $20 instead since we may stay out longer and get lunch as well?”. She looked
at me with smirk and a “did you really just do that” face and back over to my father, and with his
approval of “we can just give it to her”, proceeded to pull out the $20 and handed it to me.
Another success! This strategy, however, likely only really worked in my favor because of the
norms in my household. My parents understand that I do not ask for money frequently since I
have a job and spend my own money, but because it was a social event, they wanted to help out
their child.
Lastly, on a customer at my job, I used the evoking freedom technique for getting them to
sign up for a store credit card. Normally, we would just ask if the customer was interested in
signing up for the card, but by changing the language as I explained the card’s perks and then
added “but you’re free to pass up on it or even cancel if you decide you don’t want it after
signing up.” By doing this, I give the customer the feeling that they have control over their entire
checkout experience and reduce the chances of them feeling that demanding or guilt tripping
their acceptance of a credit card. Even if a customer still says no, it seems to increase their
feelings of goodwill towards the credit card and may increase their chances of getting one in the
future.