Ask your prospect for a small favor to win their trust
If you want a potential client to like and trust you, don't start by doing something nice for them. Instead, ask them for a small, effortless favor, like offering feedback on a single slide. Known as the Ben Franklin effect, human brains resolve the cognitive dissonance of helping a stranger by concluding, "I helped them, so I must like them."
The Rival and the Rare Book
In the eighteenth century, Benjamin Franklin encountered a formidable political adversary while serving in the Pennsylvania legislature. This rival member was wealthy, talented, and openly hostile, delivering speeches and maneuvers that threatened Franklin's standing in the assembly. Rather than attempting to win the man over through groveling, flattery, or offering unprompted political favors, Franklin devised a counterintuitive strategy. He knew that the gentleman possessed a rare and curious book in his private library, so Franklin sent a polite note asking if he might borrow the volume for a few days.
The rival sent the book immediately. Franklin read it carefully and returned it about a week later along with a note expressing deep gratitude for the favor. When the legislature reconvened, the previously hostile rival approached Franklin in person, spoke to him with great civility, and offered assistance on other matters. The two men formed a friendship that lasted until the rival's death. Reflecting on the incident in his autobiography, Franklin summarized the behavioral principle: a person who has once done you a kindness will be far more ready to do you another than someone you have personally obliged.
This psychological phenomenon—now formally recognized as the Ben Franklin effect—turned conventional social intuition on its head. The prevailing assumption in human interaction had long been that to make someone like you, you must first bestow gifts, compliments, or services upon them. Franklin demonstrated that reversing the flow of benevolence could be far more effective at reshaping attitudes, transforming an antagonist into an ally by requesting a small, voluntary gesture of goodwill.