The Law of Expectations says that people generally act in way that other people expect them to.

As individuals, we can sometimes make decisions and behave based upon how others expect us to.  This is known as the impact of suggestion in general and it holds true for behaviors that are both positive and negative.  We tend to fill the expectations that people have about us.  We all want to be admired, liked and respected.

And in our minds, if we can fulfill people's expectations, we believe they will like us more.  This can work both positively and negatively. If you constantly expect a person to act in a bad way, chances are they will eventually take you up on your assumptions.

There are various ways to communicate your expectations. Ivan Pavlov was a famous hypnotist and physiologist as well as a Nobel Prize winner.  He was most noted for his ability to get dogs to salivate every time they heard a buzzer. Pavlov would ring the buzzer and then feed the dogs over and over again.

Eventually, every time the dogs would hear the buzzer, they would expect that they would soon be fed and therefore begin to salivate.  You can actually do the same thing during the influence process with your audience in various ways which include:

Assumptions – The expectations that we have are usually based on the assumptions that we have about people or groups of people.  I remember growing up as a kid; I was not your typical grade A student.  I was always finding myself in some sort of mischief and had created a reputation for myself for being a troublesome kid.  As time progressed in school, more and more teachers, parents and children began to know my reputation and I continued my behavior because I felt as though they were expecting me to behave this way. I basically created an identity as a trouble maker for myself when I was around this group of people. Reputations are a powerful thing and most people feel the need to live up to them; whether good or bad.

This is exactly how the Law of Expectations works in sales. We use this law all the time by assuming that the sale was already made. So if I was presenting a product or service to you and I was trying to get you to visualize using it, I would ask questions like “so when you purchase this car will you be driving it to work or for pleasure?” I have already assumed that the sale has been made.  I am expecting that the sale will be made and subconsciously layering those expectations into the prospects mind so that eventually they will comply with my expectations.  You can also do this by asking questions that assume the decision for compliance has already been made.

Embedded Commands - The Law of Expectations is something we often find in NLP through the use of embedded commands. When using embedded commands, you are communicating to the conscious mind but sending a message to the subconscious mind at the same time.  Basically what you're doing is bypassing the conscious mind to have direct communication with the subconscious mind. You could do this either in spoken language or written language.

Much research has shown that we can actually use embedded commands to completely reformat our beliefs or values without even realizing that it has even happened.  That's what makes embedded commands so effective.  We have no time to use our conscious mind to logically scrutinize the information. Our subconscious mind has already made the decision for us.

Pacing and Leading - Pacing and leading are also powerful NLP tactics that involve use of the Law of Expectations.

When you're pacing, you are establishing rapport and making the level of communication easier.  And when you're leading, you’re simply just leading your prospect closer toward your viewpoint. Using both of these techniques allows you to direct a person’s thoughts and actions so that they are congruent to what you want to ultimately gain their compliance. In the pacing process, you can connect with the other party either verbally or nonverbally to build rapport with them.

When you do this, they feel like they're aligned with you and ultimately they feel more comfortable being around you. In pacing, you simply use statements that are universally accepted.  When you do this, you remove any chance of disagreement or noncompliance, and generally others will agree with what you're saying.

Pacing involves speaking a lot about topics that have already been proven to be valid or are socially accepted.  Once there is a synergistic relationship between you and the other person, you can create the expectation of agreement between the two of you and they will be more likely to comply with your requests.