Great link NightHiker...

In a past life I helped develop and teach a course called "Sales Judo". And I have to say to this day, the principles are ones I use unconciously everyday.

And should any of you ever meet my wife, remember... we never had this discussion. Right? -smirk-

In a sales scenario (or other emotional situation), there is inherent resistance right up front. Confronting that head-on rarely works and often leads to unfortunate resluts. Instead a simple two-step approach works great:

Step #1 - "Block"
Like martial arts, defense is often taught first. The reasons are many. In this case, it's to get the subject to relax and drop his/her defenses. The fastest way? Make them feel heard and/or validated before proceeding. Emotionall speaking, you are getting them to drop their guard a bit.

Step #2 - "Counter"
Now, and only now, can you make your point. The best way is to make it a counter to their point. Not a direct rebuttal and hard-nosed, but instead using their force against them as it were.

For example...
Sales:
Attack -"Your prices are too high"
Block- "A lot of my customers think that at first, our products do tend toward the high end"
Counter- "You might find it interesting to know we actually shop the competition twice a week and publish their prices. Let's take a look"

Wife:
Attack - "You spend way too much time thinking about survival gear and skills"
Block - "I can see that. In fact, I do spend a lot of time on it. You're right."
Counter - "You deserve to know why I do. I'd like to share this article with you and we can discuss what seems reasonable. How does that sound?"

Clearly tone of voice, body languge and all of the other non-verbal cues need to be brought in here. But taking just a second to "block" first is a super easy and powerful communication technique.

Hope this helps,