Way of the Wolf: Straight Line Selling: Master the Art of Persuasion, Influence, and Success

by Jordan Belfort

At the same time he’s hearing the additional words from Bill Peterson’s amped-up greeting and trying to process their meaning, he says, “Yeah, this is John,” to which Bill Peterson immediately breaks out his second core influencing tonality, which is called phrasing a declarative as a question, and he applies it in the following words: “Hi, my name is Bill Peterson, calling from Acme Travel Company in Beverly Hills, California. How are you today?” Now, notice how each one of those three thoughts is a declaration: 1 Hi, my name is Bill Peterson, 2 calling from Acme Travel Company 3 in Beverly Hills, California Now, clearly each of those three thoughts is a declarative statement, not a question. However, by phrasing them as questions, you’ve tapped into the power of three separate human desires simultaneously: 1 To not be perceived as being out of the loop 2 To remember people we’ve met before 3 To appear generally agreeable