If you find yourself having to make an argument that you know isn’t very strong, or presenting an idea that is under developed, you’ll certainly want your target to process your message heuristically (quickly based on irrelevant aspects of your message). Now luckily if you’re in this type of situation, the chances of this happening are already in your favor since heuristic processing is usually what’s on autopilot for most people. However, if you think they’ll analyze it systematically, or maybe you just want to increase their likelihood of staying in autopilot, these strategies will be useful to you.
One thing that can really help you out in this instance, would be to get your target in a good mood if they aren’t already. When people are in a nice happy mood, they have a tendency to perceive information in an optimistic manner that they may otherwise be a bit more cautious with. Because of this, they will be more likely to choose not to critically analyze your message which will give you a better chance of gaining their compliance. If on the other hand, they’re just completely determined to stay in a bad mood, you might want to hold off on your proposal until their state of mind improves. When people are in negative moods, you’ll find that they have a tendency to be a little skeptical about things. This attitude will most likely cause them to process your message more thoroughly than I’m sure you’d like for them to, so pay attention to your targets mood before you present your information to them.
After that, you could help your case even more if you increase the complexity of your message in a way that makes it a bit difficult for them to grasp everything you’re saying. If your content is just slightly too intellectually complex for them to completely understand, they’ll rely on other aspects of your message in order to make their decision. Things that are completely irrelevant to your proposal like your friendliness, confidence, appearance, your perceived intelligence pertaining to the subject matter, and several other things that have nothing to do with your actual proposal. Since this is the case, you could have a very weak case to present to them, but if you present yourself with confidence, dress to professionally, act in a friendly manner, and basically portray yourself as a very likable person, you may very well be able to gain their compliance anyway.
Knowing how to effectively use these skills can be a lifesaver when you find yourself in situations like the ones above. Most people don’t know how to properly implement these tactics which makes it all the more valuable to you by giving you the edge to come out on top in difficult positions.