Communication Hack 1 - Repeat Last Words

After running several thousand interviews with users, customers, partners, employees, board members, recruiters, I’ve learned some simple ways to improve the way to communicate with others. Why should you care? Because everything is about communicatíon: pitching, negotiating, presenting. Good communication skills will help to become more successful in every single role, whether you are a sales person, a marketeer or a product manager.
Everything is about communication.

Today’s communication hack comes from Chris Voss, a former FBI hostage negotiator. In his negotiation courses, he teaches the mirroring technique:

Repeat the last 1-3 words of what the other person just said in the form of a question. It triggers the counterpart to rephrase their point and share more information. Much better than asking “what do you mean by that?”

How do I personally apply it?
Whenever my counterpart says something like
“Every time I try to find a way to use your product it is really frustrating” I will continue with “It is really frustrating?”
After that, they immediately light up, they realize I truly care and tell me more about the problem than they’ve initially intended to.

Try it out with your family members.