Elicitation

Elicitation is the skill of gathering information without asking direct questions. This useful technique frequently involves making presumptive statements thus prompting the person being probed for information to correct the presumptive statement.

For instance, while negotiating the price of a major purchase, the purchaser might make an inflated guess about what the retail markup was thereby allowing the salesperson to correct them, e.g. "I suppose the store's markup is around 75%?", "No, the markup is only 25%." This ploy got the salesperson to divulge what would normally be a closely guarded secret. From this revelation the consumer may be able to negotiate a lower price without ever needing to specifically ask or demand further info.