The Accusations Audit
List every ugly thing they might think about you — out loud, before they think it.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 93%
The accusations audit is an inventory of every negative thing the other side might think about you — greedy, not listening, disrespectful, just another slick salesman — stated out loud in advance. Voss's mechanism for building it is to write down everything you're worried you'll need to deny, then simply take the denial out and list it. Most people fear that naming a negative speaks it into existence, Candyman-style; what actually happens is an inoculating effect. It is grounded in neuroscience: emotional pain and physical pain are nearly the same thing, and if you warn someone that pain is coming, they get a three-to-twenty-second window to brace, and it hurts less. Every time.
Origin
Voss built it from the observation that people are naturally wired negative — survival wiring, where the optimistic caveman got eaten by the bear and the pessimist survived. Since every counterpart is human and therefore arrives somewhat negative, he learned to throw defusing statements out right off the bat rather than waiting for objections. He later found neuroscience grounding it: warning someone that pain is coming lets them brace, and they appreciate the warning.
Core principles
- 01Audit what they might think about you, not what you think about them.
- 02Start from the list of things you're worried you'll need to deny.
- 03Take the denial out and state the accusation directly.
- 04'You probably think' is stronger than 'you may think'; 'I'm sure you probably think' is stronger still.
- 05Naming a negative doesn't summon it — it inoculates against it.
How to run it
- 1
Inventory your denials
Write out everything you catch yourself wanting to deny: I don't want you to think I'm greedy, I don't want you to think I'm not listening, I don't want you to think I'm disrespectful.
Pro tip If you're in sales, start with the stereotype — there are enough slimy salespeople out there that the word carries a negative connotation, and everyone in sales knows it.
- 2
Remove the denial, keep the accusation
Convert each item from a denial into a direct statement of what they think. 'I don't want you to think I'm greedy' becomes 'you're probably going to think this makes me look greedy'.
Pro tip Escalate the intensifier for weight: 'you may think' → 'you probably think' → 'I'm sure you probably think'.
- 3
Deliver up front to defuse or pre-empt
Say them before the ask. You are either dismantling an elephant already in the room or stopping one from being built in the first place.
Pro tip This makes you look honest, genuine, and unafraid of your own shortcomings — you'll never fix a problem you won't admit is a problem.
Watch out Don't wait for the accusation to land. Once it's on the table it's an objection you have to fight rather than one you've inoculated.
- 4
Warn before anything harsh, then wait for the brace
When something you say will hurt, prefix it with 'this is going to sound harsh' and pause. Watch them brace — you'll get a physical or verbal go-ahead signal.
Pro tip The window is somewhere between three and twenty seconds. Watch for the signal rather than counting.
Watch out Deliver the hard thing before they've braced and you lose the entire inoculating benefit.
- 5
Sprinkle them in periodically
The negative wiring doesn't switch off after one pass. Re-defuse before each significant ask across the conversation.
In the wild
When someone asks what it costs to hire Voss or his company, he doesn't lead with the number. He says 'it's going to seem greedy' and 'more than you've ever spent in your life, more than you have' — because his prices are high and he doesn't want them caught off guard. Then he lets it sink in and lets them choose whether they want to hear the number.
→ The number the counterpart imagines is higher than the one Voss then quotes, so the actual price lands as a relief rather than a shock — and their autonomy is preserved because they chose to hear it.
Asked how to defuse a counterpart who thinks you're an arrogant hot-headed jerk based on past interactions, Voss's answer was to say it for them: 'You probably feel like I'm an arrogant jerk. You probably feel like I don't listen to you, that I fly off the handle. You're probably scared to say anything to me at all because you never know when I'm going to blow up, and it's painful for you.'
→ It defuses the dynamic and makes Voss look honest, genuine, and unafraid of his shortcomings — while a sympathetic response ('everybody deals with hot-headed people, it's part of life') would show no awareness that his approach might be counterproductive.
Common mistakes
Fearing you'll speak negativity into existence
This is the single biggest block. People think calling out a negative summons it like Candyman. In reality it creates an inoculating effect — the accusation loses its charge once you've said it first.
Auditing what you think of them
The audit is strictly about what they might think about you. Listing your grievances about the counterpart is a different, and far more destructive, exercise.
Leaving the denial in
'I don't want you to think I'm greedy' still leads with a denial, which invites doubt. 'You're probably going to think this makes me look greedy' does the inoculating work.
Is it for you?
Best for
Salespeople, consultants, and anyone whose role carries a negative stereotype, or anyone about to make an ask that will land as greedy or harsh.
Not ideal for
Relationships with deep established trust where naming negatives would seem performative, or contexts where you have no read at all on the counterpart's likely objections.
From the transcript
“You simply take the denial out and list that stuff out and put it as 'you may think' — 'you probably think' is even stronger.”
“That's the thing that most people are most afraid of, is they think you're going to speak a negativity into existence by calling it out.…”
“If I say effectively 'it's going to sound harsh', which is 'what I have to say is going to hurt', I'll let you brace yourself…”
From the episode
Christopher Voss: Negotiate Like a Boss
Christopher Voss