Asking for someone to be your friends is definately not a good start.. Either you become friends or you don't, it all depends on whether you have a compatible personality witht this other person, and whether both are open to friendships at the time.
As for influencing people, it depends what type of influence you are looking for, whether the person is strong- or weak-willed. Usually manipulation works fine, but to what degree? Also, manipulation doesn't have to be the case if you can say stuff honestly and people just sense that you have good reasoning.