The geographic area in which I live celebrate Chinese New Year anually. Being a Chinese, my family and I celebrated this festive season as well.

During this Chinese New Year, it is a custom for people who have wedded to give "angpao" to their children as well as to their relatives' and friends' children. "Angpao" is money enclosed in a red envelope. The amount of money enclosed differs from person to person.

I remembered when I was still a young kid, whenever someone gave me an angpao, my mom would ask me how much money was inside the angpao. I didn't bother asking my mom why she wanted to know. I just told her.

Every year when the Chinese New Year came along, she would ask the same question. Up until one year when I got really curious, I asked her "Why do you always want to know how much money was inside the angpao?"

To which she replied "Because I want to know how much your uncle Sam is giving you so I can give the same amount or more back to his son (uncle Sam's son").

This illustrates one thing - when humans are being treated nice, they want to repay or give back. This is the principle of reciprocity. This does not apply only to Chinese or asians in general. This applies to people from all races and all walks of life. This is human psychology and behavior.

Think about it for a second. Is it true when someone gave you something nice, you almost always feel the need to give something back to them? If you don't you'd probably feel guilty.

How can this "you treat me nice, i treat you nice" principle be used in business in improving your sales?

Tip: Every month, you could give your customers and prospects small gifts such as your company pen with your company's logo on it. Or you could give them free vouchers just to show you appreciate having them. Or if you're on a tight budget, you could always just maintain constant contact with them to build good relationships. Of course on their birthdays you want to send them something special as well. This is covert persuasion at work.

There are 2 things that can happen after this. They can turn you off completely, or they'll order from you the next time you ask for a purchase. Chances are, they'll buy from you instead of from your competitors.

Why? Because your competitors didn't give these folks anything. All they did was just follow up by phone. You, on the other hand, present small gifts to these people on a consistent basis. And being humans, they'll feel guilty if they don't buy from you (provided your product is good and it's priced reasonably). You've successfully persuaded them to buy from you by using covert persuasion.

Let me give you another example of this principle in action. In one of Robert Cialdini's books, he illustrated this point by saying that sometime in the 80's when you walked into an airport, they would give you a flower. Then at the gate they would ask for your donation. The result: almost everyone who received the flower made a donation.

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