Pacing and Leading is a simple but fundamental technique in hypnosis or persuasion that involves directing your prospect to your point of view. This technique will allow you to lead a person’s thoughts suggestively in your favor.
The idea behind this technique is that if you say a number of things that are obviously true, everything you say afterward will appear to be accurate, even without any real facts to back it up. When you set the pace, you validate your prospects either verbally or non-verbally; that is, you agree or agree with your prospects. Once this relationship is established, they will feel more comfortable and congruent with you. Because pacing involves the use of statements of truth, after a few lines, it eliminates disagreement and makes others agree with what you are saying.
Let me give you an example:
“Right now you’re looking at your screen and reading this article, so it makes sense that you want to learn everything you can about hypnosis and persuasion that you can use in your everyday life.”
The first two statements are obviously true facts that cannot be disputed. The third (“main”) statement MAY be true, but is more likely to be accepted because of the first two “rhythm” statements you’ve already established.
Of course, the connection must be reasonable and not something outrageous like:
“Right now you are looking at your screen and you are reading this article, therefore the sky is now green”
The connection doesn’t make any kind of logical sense, it will just make the prospect say “Huh?” and will totally break any type of connection.
Ultimately, the art is to make the pacing and lead statements as natural and conversational as possible because it could sound robotic if not done correctly. Even for this simple technique, the applications are virtually limitless. Come out and try it for yourself!