Recommended reading for how to ask for favors?

Carlos Xuma had some nice advice on this from sales related ideas and pscyhology. Chief also mentioned the foot in the door phenomenon.

Looking for more of this.

One thing I was thinking about is how to calibrate not coming off too strong. For example.

"Hey Soandso, you know about _______(thing related to favor?"

yeah?

"Well before you do _________(favor) for me, I wanted to ask you if you'd rather do it (Way #1) or (Way #2)?"

i mean I won't just sound like a jackass?

Yeah, I don't know if I'd want to do it like that.

Getting people to do stuff for you is pretty much the focus of a compliance ladder, where you get them to do bigger and bigger favors for you.

If you want to get someone to do something for you, you should start off with some justification. It's not enough to just say "Hey, do you know about this?" then follow it with a presupposition that they will help you with it because someone knowing about something isn't reason enough to give you compliance.

There's nothing wrong with being humble about it when you're on the lower ladder rungs here. If you say something like "Would you mind helping me out with (favor)? I don't know too much about this." after you ask him/her if they know about it, that would work a lot better.

One thing I like doing is starting off with simple compliance tests where the justification is physically implied. For example, if I'm holding something, I'll tell the girl I'm talking to "Hey hold this for a second" when I'm trying to get my phone out of my pocket or about to go get something (any reason, really). I'm not stating a reason so she doesn't exactly know why I'm asking her to do me a favor but she knows that there is SOME simple reason which makes compliance a lot more likely.

After you build up some momentum in the compliance ladder you can eventually request bigger and bigger favors with less and less justification.

I think you'd come across as a massive pillock if you juts said "right well after you've done that for me", as in your opening post.

I don't think there's anything wrong with simply asking for a favour is there? The whole point is that you need their help, so if you've earned the right to get their help (ie; you've been alright around them before), then chances are they'll help?

A lot of people will feel pressured into helping you anyway if you just ask nicely. "Excuse me, you say you know about this? I'm really stuck, do you mind helping me out?" - how many people are going to turn round and say "no"? Not many I doubt.