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PERSUASION WIKI

The Home Advantage

The home advantage is simply the effect caused on you and other party when you are meeting on your home terrain. It’s usually known from sports, but applies to many areas.

It can be both explicit or subtle (you can ask a person to book a call on your calendar casually, or you can look them in the eyes and tell them to their face they must “come to you”), and it can be global or local (you can make everyone in a company come to you, or you can ask a specific person to do it).

The Persuasion Psychology Behind the Technique

The home advantage works in two different ways:

  • It subconsciously empowers the person playing “at home”, as they feel more comfortable, dominant and powerful;
  • It subconsciously disempowers the person “visiting”, as they feel out of place, and that they must obey the person that owns the space they’re visiting;

One of the simplest techniques – simply make the other side come to you.

As this is a very polarizing technique, there are two observations:

  • Sometimes you don’t need to make the other side come to you (they may actually be insulted), but you can not come to them. Suggest a neutral place, a “Switzerland” of sorts;
  • It works best as a process. If you’re a doctor, it’s OK to ask for one client to come to you because all of them must. But if you’re in a situation where you want to make one specific person come to you, but not must, that may harder to digest;

Usage

Sub-Techniques
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None.

Examples

CEO presentations

When a CEO presents in a company, they don’t come to anyone. They pick a room, usually a big conference one, and everyone else in the company comes to them

The manager's office

In almost every situation, when a team has a manager, they call the team members to their office when they need to talk. Not many come to the employees

"Switzerland"s

In many cases, neutral territory is the best choice. Whether it’s an executive negotiation, a meeting with an employee, a hostile client or others, picking a neutral terrain is a good choice

  • Other examples:
  • "X come to me" (There are some coaches and consultants that use this in their wording to try and sound more powerful. Instead of saying, “I help people with back pain do [ABC]”, saying, “People with back pain come to me for [ABC]”. It can be unnecessary or boastful, but it can also work)
  • Dating and familiar places (In the dating world, a shortcut some people use is to invite people to a place where they feel very familiar, such as a known restaurant. This makes them feel more at home, more powerful and more confident).
  • Inbound vs outbound marketing (Inbound marketing, where people come to you via content, blog, etc, is always more powerful than outbound, where you reach out to leads. Because they are coming to you instead of the opposite)

Use Cases For the Four Quadrants

Key Takeaways
(3 Total)

How to Stack This Technique