How to Talk to Anyone: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships

The sweetest sound a performer can hear welling up out of the applause is ‘Encore! Encore! Let’s hear it again!’ The sweetest sound your Conversation Partner can hear from your lips when you’re talking with a group of people is ‘Tell them about the time you …’ Whenever you’re at a meeting or party with someone important to you, think of some storie

Back to that frightfully familiar moment when it is your turn to speak but your mind goes blank. Don’t panic. Instead of signaling verbally or nonverbally that you ‘got it,’ simply repeat, or parrot, the last two or three words your companion said, in a sympathetic, questioning tone.

Salespeople, this technique is especially crucial for you. Keep your Swivelling Spotlight aimed away from you, only lightly on your product, and most brightly on your buyer. You’ll do a much better job of selling yourself and your product.

Like a good gumshoe, listen to your Conversation Partner’s every word for clues to his or her preferred topic. The evidence is bound to slip out. Then spring on that subject like a sleuth on to a slip of the tongue. Like Sherlock Holmes, you have the clue to the subject that’s hot for the other person. Now that you’ve ignited stimulating conversati

When introducing people, don’t throw out an unbaited hook and stand there grinning like Big Clam, leaving the newlymets to flutter their fins and fish for a topic.

Whenever someone asks you the inevitable, ‘And where are you from?’ never, ever, unfairly challenge their powers of imagination with a one-word answer.

No Whatzit? No host for Whoozat? No problem! Just sidle up behind the swarm of folks you want to infiltrate and open your ears. Wait for any flimsy excuse and jump in with ‘Excuse me, I couldn’t help but overhear …’

The technique requires no exceptional skill on your part, only the courage to sport a simple visual prop called a Whatzit. What’s a Whatzit? A Whatzit is anything you wear or carry that is unusual – a unique pin, an interesting purse, a strange tie, an amusing hat. A Whatzit is any object that draws people’s attention and inspires them to approach

Anything you say is fine as long as it is not complaining, rude, or unpleasant. If the first words out of your mouth are a complaint, BLAM, people label you a complainer.