THE “FEEL – FELT – FOUND” TECHNIQUE AND OTHER PERSUASIVE MEANS OF CHANGING POST COMMUNICATIVE BEHAVIOUR OF THE RECIPIENT
The article explores persuasive techniques considered useful in terms of changing post-communicative behavior. The study views “feel – felt – found” as the key technique of the objection handling which includes three standard steps: 1) empathize with the customer and show how you feel; 2) appeal to somebody else’s experience and say that other people felt the same; 3) present what other people found. Depending on certain situations, it is possible to skip any of the mentioned steps while performing the technique.
The aim of the “feel – felt – found” technique is to deal with objections and change the recipient’s attitude towards the object of communication. The author emphasizes that “feel – felt – found” can be viewed as a cooperative technique as its nature goes back to the principles for constructing polite speech described by P. Brown and C. Levinson (Brown & Levinson 2014). Likewise politeness principles, “feel – felt – found” involves claiming common empathy which improves the quality of social interaction and shortens the distance between the speaker and the recipient.
The “feel – felt – found” technique is commonly used by sales agents to close a sale. The “search for a solution” technique including various interrogative forms is considered to be essential to persuade the recipient to change his or her mind. “Search for a solution” gives the speaker the opportunity to find out the factors preventing the agreement and, as a result, make a suggestion which can handle the objection. “Address concerns” is the technique which helps someone to deal with concerns or criticism. The study stresses that the best way to change post communicative behavior is to address concerns directly by the means of various linguistic devices.
The use of the mentioned techniques together can increase the communicative impact of the utterance. Ample examples demonstrate the main results of the study.
Romanova, I. D. (2019). The “feel – felt – found” technique and other persuasive means of changing post communicative behaviour of the recipient. Issues of Applied Linguistics, 35, 63-82. doi: https://doi.org/10.25076/vpl.35.04