The Power Of Three

I met someone in charge of a company’s sales efforts recently who talked so much about the ‘power of 3’ that I felt compelled to check it out. His name is Paul Harris and currently sells professional tools for a living. He certainly seems like one of the good guys, so on investigating I was pleased it really does appear there’s something in what he says.
The general idea, is that the brain processes at its best when presented with 3 pieces of info. So when you talk to people, you should only ever give out info in blocks of three.
Paul gave me a couple of role play examples, including a silly one to get the point across; living in a cold clime as he does, Paul said imagine meeting someone who looks like they’ve seen a bit of sun recently, and wanting to make them feel good about themselves. “You’re looking good, very healthy with that tan, have you been away?” And he reckoned that was the best way to build rapport and establish relationship.
Which got me thinking. Then I found this terrific website, and have promised myself I’ll try this technique out:
Psychotactics’ power of 3 page
And the one area I’ve always used this principle, without knowing it, is when I try to get numbers out of people. Say for example, you want to know how much time someone is wasting. when you ask them, invariably they stutter, not quite being able to put a figure on it, but knowing such info is a necessity, I’ve prompted them, but only ever with 3 options, and it seems to do the trick. Sweet.