Today I’m gonna give you some lessons from one of the best books ever written on influence and persuasion. You’re going to learn how you can influence and persuade people to take practically any action you want them to take.
I’m talking about the 6 Principles of Influence, discovered by Robert Cialdini.
6 Principles of Influence
His book Influence: Science and Practice is an absolute must read, if you are into any form of marketing or sales.
The book is one of the most valuable resources you will ever find, but if you find it a bit too heavy there is this easier to digest alternative from the same author, called Yes, that condenses the lessons in this book down into a fairly easy to learn chunks.
I’m gonna give you the 6 Principles of Influence and they are:
- Reciprocation
- Scarcity
- Authority
- Consistency
- Liking
- Consensus
Reciprocation
Reciprocation is really interesting because its like a self-imposed obligation to return a favour.
So when someone does something nice for you, you’ll usually feel a degree of debt.
Because you feel indebted to them, you feel like you owe them in some way.
If you want someone to do you a favour the best time to ask for that is immediately after you do something nice for them, when they feel like they are happy to return the favour because it helps them offload the feeling of being in debt.
The next one is scarcity.
Scarcity
Scarcity can be summed up as the fear of losing out.
People always want more of the things that they can have less of.
Think about resources – the less there is of something the higher the value.
And then the next principle is authority.
People follow experts.
That means you have to demonstrate your knowledge, you have to prove that you are an authority figure.
Think about when you go to a doctor’s office and they have all those PHDs hanging up on the wall.
That’s really to demonstrate their authority and to give you confidence in their advice.
Now, if you don’t feel like an authority figure at the moment you can actually recommend another authority figure.
It sounds counter intuitive but what happens is some of that perceived Authority rubs off on you, purely because you made a good recommendation.
So if you want to appear more credible and appear to have more knowledge in your marketplace but you can’t really demonstrate it, just recommend someone who does.
Some of that sparkle and shine will rub off on you too and you will be perceived more credible as a result.
The next principle is consistency.
Consistency
People like to be consistent with the choices that they make.
You can take advantage of that by asking your prospects to take small but consistent steps in a certain direction.
What system do we have that lets people do that?
Could it be a sales funnel?
Liking
The fifth thing that we’ve got is liking.
People say yes to people that they like.
So if you want to sell more stuff just make sure people like you.
Ah how do you do that?
Well, people like people who are like them.
Say that 3 times really fast.
If you want people to like you pay them a compliment.
But don’t make something up and don’t BS them.
Actually find something about the person that you genuinely like.
I actually learned this from my dad – he is an entrepreneur and every time he meets a new customer he will try and find something that he likes about them.
That’s a nice and authentic way to become more likeable.
Also people like people who share the same values as them.
They like people who work towards the same goals, too.
If you align your goals and your values with your prospects – in a genuine and authentic way then you will increase your chance of obtaining the sale or the conversion.
And the final principle of influence is consensus.
Consensus
People look to others, or groups of people, for guidance.
We use them to tell us what to think.
In a lot of cases we’re effectively just sheep and that’s because people tend to feel more confident in numbers.
Think about phrases like ‘everyone knows that…’ – that is a pure manipulation technique often used by the media and politicians to create the illusion of consensus.
So there you go I’m going to leave it there for today because I think I’ve given you a fair bit to think about for the moment.
Remember check out the book Influence: Science and Practice by Robert Cialdini because it will be a solid investment – and it doesn’t cost as much as some of the other books that I’ve talked about on Profit Copilot.
If you’ve enjoyed this or if you found it useful then share this with others who need to know. They’ll probably be thankful to you for it, and it helps me out too.