Today we’re going to take a lesson from a book by Robert Cialdini and I’m going to give you one simple trick you can use to instantly become more persuasive.
I’m talking about Pre-Suasion by Robert Cialdini 0 the follow-up to Influence: Science and Practice, which has become a Bible of the digital marketing community, and rightly so.
In Influence: Science and Practice Robert Cialdini talks about the Six Core Principles of Influence.
In Pre-Suasion a seventh is added; unity.
And there is no stronger perception of unity than family.
During an experiment Cialdini discovered that if he told students that they would receive one extra point if their parents complete a survey, participation in that experiment increased fivefold, purely because of the family element.
So if you want to persuade someone or become more influential, get them to think about how things relate to their family.
Cialdini also cited an example from Warren Buffett.
Buffet wrote a letter to shareholders dealing with the future of Berkshire Hathaway.
Instead of describing what was going to happen, Warren Buffett invoked this unity and the family element to help things go in his direction.
He wrote:
“I will tell you what I would say to my family today if they asked me about Berkshire’s future.”
That one little statement helped Warren Buffett become a lot more persuasive when he was writing that shareholder letter.
So that’s a couple of examples of how this can be used, but Robert Cialdini also notes that unity doesn’t just stop with family.
We can also create unity amongst a wide variety of different things like; ethnicity, location – and shared interests.
If you and your prospects have a shared interest, or a shared mission, then you’re going to be instantly more persuasive as a result.