An efficient method is to perform a quick pre-mortem before your interaction.

It’s a method devised by a psychology professor, Gary Klein, for identifying the flaws of projects even before starting them.

Try to think that you are in the future, the persuasion just failed and you have to find three concrete reasons that led to this. It takes a few minutes and you might be surprised.

It will not only make you much prepared for the interaction but more importantly, can give you a trampoline for persuasion.

The first problem with our persuasion efforts is that we put too much trust in our natural ability to convince and therefore we usually turn up for the meeting totally unprepared.

Make a case for preparing thoroughly for a meeting.

Jot down your ideas on a piece of paper, try ...