How do you succeed in any interaction? The answer is, frame control.
The is my second post based on ideas in “Pitch Anything,” by Oren Klaff. I’m just 30 pages into the book, and just getting to the part where he posits this:
All life is about frames.
Suppose you’re a marketer-for-hire pitching to a potential client. You may be acting within a frame of creativity: Hire us because our work is more original, clever and persuasive than the competition.
The client may be operating in a very different frame, based on power: I will dominate this interaction because I’ll be the one saying yes or no. I am ultimately the decision maker.
It may seem that a power frame will aways win. But it is not necessarily so.
The client may be so intrigued that they set aside any skepticism. Their greater relative power may become irrelevant. They may think (or actually say) I’d like to hear more about your creativity.
When you think about it, that sort of thing happens all the time. Life is full of surprises. One frame becomes prevalent and it crowds out the others.
In business, says the author, you will encounter these major frame types:
- The power frame
- The time frame
- The analyst frame
The potential responses are these:
- The power-busting frame
- The time-constraining frame
- The intrigue frame
And there is a fourth response type, potentially useful against all three major frame types.
- The prize frame
I am currently in (what I hope is) a budding relationship with a prospective dating partner. Suddenly I am thinking about it in terms of frames. And I’m thinking the key to my position may lie in frame number 7, above.
Manipulative? Maybe.
Potentially effective? Maybe. I’ll report back.