Metaphors are incredibly powerful persuasive tools.
If you are telling someone else what to do, or even suggesting a course of action, there will usually be resistance.
But as soon as you turn on a metaphor, all conscious resistance goes out the window.
So what is a metaphor?
It can be a story, it can be a single line, it can be anything, as long as it is not direct communication.
The bottom line is to get your listener to think, on a conscious level, “Oh … he’s talking about someone else …” so they can relax and get on with it.
Let’s say you want to convince your partner to try that new broccoli pizzeria in town.
The direct method would be something like this:
“Hey, let’s go to that new broccoli pizzeria! What do you think?”
But suppose you suspect that your partner will refuse, because he hates everything broccoli related.
But you want to convince them that it’s pretty good. So instead, you tell them a story. Choose two characters, one to represent you and one to represent your partner. And make the “story line”, so to speak, match what you would like the outcome of your conversation to be. That is, your partner decides to open his mind and try some broccoli.
The great thing about using metaphors is that when used correctly, the “decision” to “test your idea” will feel like yours. To them, it’s like they’re listening to you tell a random story and all of a sudden they have a craving for broccoli pizza.
Anyway, you could try something like this:
[begin metaphor]
“Hey look at this, I was talking to this girl at work (this is the character similar to your partner) she was telling me how she and her husband were looking for a new place to dine, they always do that, they are not like boring couples who they eat the same thing over and over again.
Anyway, they saw this broccoli pizzeria.
Now normally my friend would never eat broccoli pizza, but her husband started teasing her and telling her how normal and boring she was.
Anyway, they decided to give it a try and she told me it didn’t even taste like broccoli. I think they just give it that name as a kind of marketing stunt or something.
Anyway, he said it was very good, and while he still hates broccoli, he would like to go back and try them again. I really admire that couple, because they are always trying new things. Anyway, what do you want to do for dinner? “
[end metaphor]
Do you see how that works?