The idea of manipulating someone sounds a bit sinister, but in reality we all actually want our emotions to be evoked. If we didn't, manipulation could not happen at all, as our will cannot be bent by others otherwise. When we pursue any form of entertainment, we go with the express intention of having our emotions aroused. An unscrupulous person such as a skilled con man exploits existing desires within a victim by appealing to them and offering gratification, getting them to focus so much on the desire that they overlook holes in the deal being offered. A skilled magician like David Copperfield or mentalist like Derren Brown gets the audience to focus in on one specific thing whilst the trick is actually in what seems like the innocuous surroundings. What they are getting you to focus on seems solid and irrefutable but it's based on false assumptions that aren't actually the truth. That said, these entertainers are at least honest in their dishonesty. They fully admit it's a trick and our entertainment derives from perceiving something that is impossible to our reasoning. Good optical illusions do the same thing.
As an ethical hypnotherapist, public speaker and businessperson, I do not intend to deceive anyone, but I have no scruples about manipulating the emotions and perception of my clients and audiences. Altering a client's perception and prompting positive emotion can liberate them from things that have held them back for years, as well as being good for my business. Similarly, in the same way any good entertainment would do, when I give a good speech or seminar, it leaves my audience with a good feeling and the sense that it was worth coming. In addition I have promoted my profile and made people more disposed to seeing me again.
The importance of influencing emotion and perception in the business environment has been increasingly recognised in the last few decades, most notably by Grinder and Bandler, the founders of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), who themselves were profoundly influenced by Milton Errickson, arguably the founder of modern hypnosis.
You do not however need to sign up to an expensive course to learn how to influence emotion, as the basic technique is simple. Decide the emotion you wish to evoke in your client or audience, and work out what would evoke that emotion in yourself. Simply present an imagined or real scenario that evokes the desired emotion and you have already promoted rapport between you. Remember to keep maintaining the desired emotion, which may need to change during the encounter, from the initial greeting all the way to parting.
The reality is that in anything we do, no matter how good for us it might be, we will not do it as well without some kind of emotional payoff, i.e. we have to get some kind of good emotion from doing it, otherwise we will not persevere. Therefore, ensure that your client is offered an emotional payoff alongside whatever other material benefits there may be. The thing that takes skill and practice is to ensure the emotional payoff gets delivered as promised!
