Bite 063 🍪

Bite 063 · Sat 17 Oct 2026

✅ Sales

Open with the big ask, then retreat to the real one

Asked cold to chaperone a group of young offenders to the zoo for an afternoon, about 17% of students agreed; asked first to mentor them weekly for two years, then offered the zoo trip when they declined, about 50% said yes. Backing down feels like a favour, and people repay favours. It only works when the same person makes both asks back to back and the opening ask is one you’d honestly accept.

🔗 Cialdini et al. — Reciprocal concessions procedure for inducing compliance: The door-in-the-face technique (1975)

💡 Why it matters

When someone turns down a large request and you immediately come back with a smaller one, the smaller one reads as a concession they feel they should return, so far more people say yes than if you'd asked for it cold.

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