Say Yes to Influence

Noah Goldstein, writing in the current issue of Robert Cialdini’s Inside Influence Report shows how flow up questions can increase commitment to Yes response,

This research makes it very clear that simply hearing “Yes” from another person is just a starting point, rather than an ending point, for persuasion. To optimize the likelihood that others will follow through with their intentions, consider specifically asking them how they plan to go about accomplishing the goal they’ve promised to pursue. This doesn’t need to be done in a micro-managing or demanding way. Rather, you could ask about the details as they relate to whether or not there are specific aspects of the tasks with which you can help.

Applying this to a Sales Process:

When you get your buyer to plan their implementation with at concrete plan they will be more likely to follow through and get the value they desired.. and your sales will be more likely to stick

Robert Cialdini talks about persuasion psychnology at affiliate summit las vegas

Attendees at Affiliate Summit West being held at the Rio in Las Vegas this week got a chance to learn how to apply Robert Cialdini’s persuasion principles to getting a higher response and conversion in their marketing efforts.

The keynote by Cialdini included many of our favorite stories… the hotel towel studies, the power of “but” used between a negative and positive and emphasis on how leading with a con, specifically an objection that the target audience will perceive.

One story I did not remember hearing before was the Cialdini’s doctoral student’s thesis on the power of scarcity of information about a scarcity. Studying orders from imported beef, they broke the client pool into 3 groups. They were given distinct messages:

There is an allotment of beef available for orders

The will be a limited amount of beef available

We have just heard from our exclusive source that there will be limit

Group 1 was the baseline with with a result of 10. Group 2 more than double their orders when told of the scarcity (24) and then there was group 3.. told that an exclusive weather bureua source had shared information that there would be a scarcity due to weather conditions. That yield 6 times the orders (61).

When you have news to share, let people know that it’s new, that you made an effort to get it to them, and then how they can benefit.

I talked briefly with Dr. Cialdini about his new focus.. a book due out by the end of the year. I wanted to share this with you as soon as I found out and raced to post this.

Due to brisk sales and phenomenal word of mouth, the new book, Yes!
50 Scientifically Ways to Be Persuasive by Noah Goldstein, Steve Martin
and Robert Cialdini has moved to the New York Times Business Best
Seller List. We at INFLUENCE AT WORK, are totally thrilled and want to
thank you all for your enormous response, good wishes and gracious
comments. If you would like to send the authors your wishes as well,
just click Yes!.

Yea!!! Go team!

Thanks to eveyone reading this blog who participated in our viral campaign to promote the book

persuasion book, influence book, cialdini

After studying Robert Cialdini’s work for decades, I had assumed that I would never get a chance to meet him.

Cialdini is a scientist, and works in academia and our paths were not likely to cross.

So it was a pleasent surprise to hear my freind Donna Fox talk about Cialdini, an interview, and his new book.

I jumped at the chance to be the videoographer (I held a small camera) and be present for the interview.

From that, Donna connected me with the publisher of YES! and we set up http://Yes50book.com

Here’s a link to the video interview from Donna Fox

We been preparing for our call with Robert Calidini this Wednesday. (If you can’t find the call in codes, just fill in the form in the right hand column and I’ll send it to you).

Dr. Cialdini and I will be taking your questions and discussing his latest book Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive

Today, we use the net to promote books and authors, and increase the speed at which we can spread a meme or new idea. I’d like to show you exactly what we do, and give you a chance to see how easy it is to increase your own online reputation and results

Step 1 was this site. As soon as I heard that Cialdini had a new book coming out, I registerd a name and started telling some friends. At first, we were just going to have 4 people share a one day event with their mailing lists, but soon, others started asking about the book and the project.. wanting in on the action.

Thats where we decided to take a better approach. As students of Influence, and the Law of Reciprocity, we know that genuine gifts work far better than a one time bribe for building a relationship. So I put the requirement on anyone offering a FREE GIFT that it had to be for everyone that visits this site.. not just book buyers.

Sometimes, and author is so anxious to meet sales goals that they forget why they wrote the book in the first place. No Dr. Cialdini. He’s in this field for the long haul, and agreed to let us promote this book without any forced buying of this book.

Of course, it helps that the book is one that you will want to buy and read.

Our teleseminar/webcast will be open to anyone that wants to learn more about the book. Once you register, we send you the codes and let you submit any questions you have about persuasion, influence, selling online and offline, marketing and the book. You can attend the program live via your computer or any phone, plus there will be a recorded replay available after the event.

There’s no tricks here. Yes, we do ask for your email address, but have restricted the mailing list. You won’t be seeing a lot of offers, just an occasional update about this site, and you are welcome to opt out if you dn’t want to hear from us (there is a one click link in the email we send)

You will be eligible to receive Dr. Cialdini’s “Influence at Work” newsletter with more of the kind of articles that make up the 50 chapters of the book. You’ll get a notice and invitation from his office with a FREE report.

You can promote yourself, your business, or your book

This is the first of several posts about how we do things. Next up will be a summary of our Facebook program, how we spread a new idea using Twitter and social media and blogs. I suggest you subscribe to your RSS feed or return here over the next few days to watch. Each step will take a few minutes, and you can do this yourself for your own business.

One more way to build your reputation is with comments. Just click on the comment button at the end of this post (or any post your read) and let us know what you think. No need to write an essay, but do reference the post, your experience with Incluence and how you use these princples.

Almost like magic, a buzz starts around the net when you participate in blogs and comment. The blogosphere (all the blogs) is filled with community minded folks, they watch the comments on their blogs, visit your web site or blog and share what you have with their readers.

This is real influence with thought leaders, so be careful not to come off as SPAM. Post your real opinions. Write a fresh sentence or two, DO NOT cut and paste comments.

Go aheads, try it now. 93% percent of readers miss this opportunity.. so you will be noticed.

Mitch Axelrod inteverviewed Dr. Robert Cialdini this week.

When he heard about the problems we had getting Dr. Cialdini on for Wednesday night, he offered to post the call for us.

We are confirming a time in early July to talk with Dr. Cialdini and answer your questions, in the mean time, enjoy this recording, and watch for more influence and persuasion training resources here.Technorati Tags: cialdini interview, influence and persusion, mitch axelrod, new game

Dr. Cialdini Reveals “Three Lost Distinctions” of Influence

My friend Mitch Axelrod is the author of the game-changing book,

The NEW Game of Business. He is a powerful speaker and athought leader who makes distinctions
that will rock your world.

In this conversation, Mitch asks Dr. Cialdini to reveal the

"Three Lost Distinctions" from his work Instant Influence. 

He also shares a dozen different ways to be more persuasive 

and influence with integrity from his new book,

YES! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be More Persuasive

Listne to Dr. Cialdini and read Mitch's eye-opening white paper,

"Real Influence is S.C.A.R.C.E.What's Your I.Q. [Influence Quotient]?"

at  Mitch's Blog 

You don't want to miss this conversation.

On Wednesday June 18th, we we be talking to Dr. Robert Cialdini, author of Yes! 50 Scientifically Tested Ways to Be Persuasive.

Dr. Cialdini has agreed to take questions from our readers.

Since there will be hundreds of people live on the call, we need to have your questions posted in writing.

What do you want to know for the leading expert on Influence?

Do you have a question about the new book? Those will get preferential treatment, but we hope to answer them all.

You can post a comment here, or use the live interface when you sign up using the form to the right.

Sign up now to get the private URL and dial in instructions by email.

The call is FREE, but you have to register to attend and get access to the recording.

We are posting FREE GIFTS here from friends and fans of Dr. Robert Cialdini. There is no cost or obligation to get this material.

We are following the Law or Reciprocity as described in Dr. Cialdini’s book Influence and giving freely with no strings attached, knowing that we may never hear from you again.

We hope you will consider the training, products and services offered by our partners. We are all in business and are motivated to do good work. We know that those that want to become clients will find out about us.

We know the principles taught by Cialdini and others work. We have used them ourselves and encourage you to get the new book with 50 usable ideas.. ways you can be more persuasive.

The book is on sale at Amazon now

There’s an old joke told by the nightclub
comic Henny Youngman, who referred to his accommodations from the previous
night by saying, “What a hotel! The towels were so big and fluffy
I could hardly close my suitcase.”

Over the last few years, the moral
dilemma facing hotel guests has changed. These days, the question of
whether to remove the towels from their room has been replaced
by the question of whether to reuse the towels during the course
of their stay. With the increasing adoption of environmental programs
by hotels, more and more travelers are being asked to reuse their towels
to help conserve environmental resources, save energy, and reduce the
amount of detergent-related pollutants released into the environment.
In most cases, this request comes in the form of cards placed in guests’
bathrooms — cards that provide some surprising insights into the remarkable
science of persuasion.

A survey of the persuasive messages
conveyed by dozens of request cards from a wide variety of hotels around
the globe reveals that these cards most commonly attempt to encourage
towel recycling efforts by focusing guests almost exclusively on the
importance of environmental protection. In other words, guests are almost
invariably informed that reusing their towels will conserve natural
resources and help spare the environment from further depletion, disruption,
and corruption. To further draw guests’ attention to the impact of towel
recycling on the environment, this information is often accompanied
by various eye-catching, environment- related pictures in the background,
ranging from rainbows to raindrops to rainforests…to reindeer.

This persuasion strategy generally
seems to be an effective one. For example, one of the largest manufacturers
of these signs, whose messages focus entirely on the importance of environmental
protection, reports that the majority of hotel guests who have the opportunity
to participate in these programs do reuse their towels at least once
during their stay. But could the results be improved?

Researchers are often on the lookout
for ways to apply their scientific knowledge to make existing policies
and practices even more effective. Much like a highway billboard that
reads, “Place your ad here,” these little towel recycling
cards spoke to us, practically pleaded with us, to “Test your ideas
here.” So we did. And in doing so, we showed that just by making
a small change to the way in which the request is made, hotel chains
can do much, much better.

As this book will reveal, starting
with our towel experiments, small, easy changes to our messages and
to our requests can make them vastly more persuasive. In fact, we’re
going to claim that everyone’s ability to persuade others can be improved
by learning persuasion strategies that have been scientifically proven
to be successful. We will report on dozens of studies, some conducted
by us, some by other scientists, that demonstrate this point in many
different settings. Along the way, we will discuss the principles behind
these findings. The central purpose of this book is to provide the reader
with a better understanding of the psychological processes underlying
our efforts to influence others to shift their attitudes or behavior
in a direction that results in positive outcomes for both parties. In
addition to presenting a variety of effective and ethical persuasion
strategies, we also discuss the types of things to watch out for to
help you resist both subtle and overt influences on your decision-making.

The studies discussed in this book
are scientifically rigorous, but they can also be fun. For example,
we’ll seek to provide insights about what single office supply can make
your attempts to persuade others significantly more effective, what
Luke Skywalker can teach us about being an influential leader, why people
named Dennis are disproportionately more likely to become dentists,
how slipping your audience the perfectly legal drug 1,3,7-trimethylxanthin
can help you become more persuasive, how inconveniencing your rivals
will make them more likely to do favors for you, and why people would
be more likely to buy a BMW just after giving reasons for preferring
a Mercedes.

We’ll also seek to answer a number
of other important questions. For example: What common mistake do communicators
often make that causes their message to backfire? Which one word will
strengthen your persuasion attempts? Is it better to start low or high
when selling items on eBay? How can you turn your weaknesses into persuasive
strengths? How can waiters increase their tips without changing the
quality of their service? And why can sometimes seeing yourself — or
being seen by others — as an expert result in one of the most dangerous
situations in which you could ever be placed?

Persuasion as Science,
Not Art

The scientific study of persuasion
has been continuing for over half a century now. Yet, the research on
persuasion is somewhat of a secret science, often lying dormant in the
pages of academic journals. Considering the large body of research that’s
been produced on the subject, it might be useful to take a moment to
think about why this research is so often overlooked. It’s no surprise
that people who are faced with choices about how to influence others,
including important program or policy choices, will often base their
decisions on thinking that’s grounded in the established theories and
practices of fields such as economics, finance, and public policy. However,
what’s puzzling is how frequently decision-makers fail to use established
psychological theories and practices to guide them in their choices.

One potential explanation for this
tendency is that, unlike the fields of economics, finance, and public
policy, which tend to require learning from outsiders to achieve even
a minimal level of competence, people believe they already possess an
intuitive understanding of psychological principles simply by virtue
of living life and interacting with others. As a consequence, they’re
less likely to learn and to consult the psychological research when
making decisions, setting policies, or generating solutions to problems.
This overconfidence inevitably leads people to miss golden opportunities
for psychologically informed social influence — or worse still, to
misuse psychological principles to the detriment of themselves and others.

Besides being overly reliant on their
personal experiences with others, people also rely too much on introspection.
For example, why would the marketing practitioners charged with the
task of designing the hotel towel reuse signs focus almost exclusively
on the impact of these programs on the environment? They probably did
what any of us would do — they asked themselves, “What would motivate
me to participate in one of these programs by recycling my towels?”
And by examining their own motives, they would come to the conclusion
that a sign that tapped into their values and identity as environmentally
concerned people would be particularly motivating. But in doing so,
they would also fail to realize how they could increase participation
just by changing a few words in their request.

Persuasion has often been referred
to as an art, but in a sense, this is a misclassification. Although
talented artists can certainly be taught skills to harness their natural
abilities, the truly remarkable artist seems to possess a certain level
of talent and creativity that no instructor is capable of instilling
in another person. Fortunately, this isn’t the case with persuasion.
Even people who consider themselves persuasion lightweights — people
who feel they couldn’t convince a child to play with toys — can learn
to become persuasion heavyweights by understanding the psychology of
persuasion and by using the specific persuasion strategies that have
been scientifically proven to be effective.

Regardless of whether you’re a salesperson,
manager, marketer, negotiator, educator, policymaker, lawyer, health
care worker, food server, eBayer, or parent, this book is designed to
help you become a master persuader. We’ll describe certain techniques
that are based on what one of us (Robert Cialdini) explored in the book
Influence: Science & Practice as the six universal principles
of social influence: reciprocation (we feel obligated to return favors
performed for us), authority (we look to experts to show us the way),
commitment/consistency (we want to act consistently with our commitments
and values), scarcity (the less available the resource, the more we
want it), liking (the more we like people, the more we want to say yes
to them), and social proof (we look to what others do to guide our behavior).1
We’ll discuss what these principles mean and how they operate in some
detail throughout the book, but we won’t limit ourselves to them. Although
the six principles act as the foundation for the majority of successful
social influence strategies, there are also many persuasion techniques
that are based on other psychological factors, which we’ll cover.

We’ll also place a special emphasis
on how these strategies operate in a number of different contexts –
both within and outside the workplace — and provide practical and action-oriented
advice for how to maximize your persuasive prowess in those settings
and beyond. The advice we’ll provide will be ethical and easy to follow,
will require very little additional effort or cost on your part, and
should pay big dividends.

With apologies to Henny Youngman, we
fully expect that by the time you finish this book, your persuasion
toolbox will be packed with so many scientifically proven social influence
strategies you’ll hardly be able to close it.

1

How can inconveniencing your audience
increase your persuasiveness?

Colleen Szot is one of the most successful
writers in the paid programming industry. And for good reason: In addition
to penning several well-known “infomercials” for the famed
and fast-selling NordicTrac exercise machine, she recently authored
a program that shattered a nearly twenty-year sales record for a home-shopping
channel. Although her programs retain many of the elements common to
most infomercials, including flashy catchphrases, an unrealistically
enthusiastic audience, and celebrity endorsements, Szot changed three
words to a standard infomercial line that caused a huge increase in
the number of people who purchased her product. Even more remarkable,
these three words made it clear to potential customers that the process
of ordering the product might well prove somewhat of a hassle. What
were those three words, and how did they cause sales to skyrocket?

Szot changed the all-too-familiar call-to-action
line, “Operators are waiting, please call now,” to, “If
operators are busy, please call again.” On the face of it, the
change appears foolhardy. After all, the message seems to convey that
potential customers might have to waste their time dialing and redialing
the toll-free number until they finally reach a sales representative.
Yet, that surface view underestimates the power of the principle of
social proof: When people are uncertain about a course of action, they
tend to look outside themselves and to other people around them to guide
their decisions and actions. In the Colleen Szot example, consider the
kind of mental image likely to be generated when you hear “operators
are waiting”: scores of bored phone representatives filing their
nails, clipping their coupons, or twiddling their thumbs while they
wait by their silent telephones — an image indicative of low demand
and poor sales.

Now consider how your perception of
the popularity of the product would change when you heard the phrase
“if operators are busy, please call again.” Instead of those
bored, inactive representatives, you’re probably imagining operators
going from phone call to phone call without a break. In the case of
the modified “if operators are busy, please call again” line,
home viewers followed their perceptions of others’ actions, even though
those others were completely anonymous. After all, “if the phone
lines are busy, then other people like me who are also watching this
infomercial are calling, too.”

Many classical findings in social psychology
demonstrate the power of social proof to influence other people’s actions.
To take just one, in an experiment conducted by scientist Stanley Milgram
and colleagues, an assistant of the researchers stopped on a busy New
York City sidewalk and gazed skyward for sixty seconds. Most passersby
simply walked around the man without even glancing to see what he was
looking at. However, when the researchers added four other men to that
group of sky gazers, the number of passersby who joined them more than
quadrupled.2

Although there’s little doubt that
other people’s behavior is a powerful source of social influence, when
we ask people in our own studies whether other people’s behavior influences
their own, they are absolutely insistent that it does not. But social
psychologists know better. We know that people’s ability to understand
the factors that affect their behavior is surprisingly poor.3 Perhaps
this is one reason that the people in the business of creating those
little cards encouraging hotel guests to reuse their towels didn’t think
to use the principle of social proof to their advantage. In asking themselves,
“What would motivate me?” they might well have discounted
the very real influence that others would have on their behavior. As
a result, they focused all their attention on how the towel reuse program
would be relevant to saving the environment, a motivator that seemed,
at least on the surface of it, to be most relevant to the desired behavior.

In our hotel experiment, we considered
the finding that the majority of hotel guests who encounter the towel
reuse signs do actually recycle their towels at least some time during
their stay. What if we simply informed guests of this fact? Would it
have any influence on their participation in the conservation program
relative to the participation rates that a basic environmental appeal
yields? With the cooperation of a hotel manager, two of us and another
colleague created two signs and placed them in hotel rooms. One was
designed to reflect the type of basic environmental-protection message
adopted throughout much of the hotel industry. It asked the guests to
help save the environment and to show their respect for nature by participating
in the program. A second sign used the social proof information by informing
guests that the majority of guests at the hotel recycled their towels
at least once during the course of their stay. These signs were randomly
assigned to the rooms in the hotel.

Now, typically, experimental social
psychologists are fortunate enough to have a team of eager undergraduate
research assistants to help collect the data. But, as you might imagine,
neither our research assistants nor the guests would have been very
pleased with the research assistants’ sneaking into hotel bathrooms
to collect our data, nor would our university’s ethics board (nor our
mothers, for that matter). Fortunately, the hotel’s room attendants
were kind enough to volunteer to collect the data for us. On the first
day on which a particular guest’s room was serviced, they simply recorded
whether the guest chose to reuse at least one towel.

Guests who learned that the majority
of other guests had reused their towels (the social proof appeal), which
was a message that we’ve never seen employed by even a single hotel,
were 26 percent more likely than those who saw the basic environmental
protection message to recycle their towels.4 That’s a 26 percent increase
in participation relative to the industry standard, which we achieved
simply by changing a few words on the sign to convey what others
were doing. Not a bad improvement for a factor that people say has no
influence on them at all.

These findings show how being mindful
of the true power of social proof can pay big dividends in your attempts
to persuade others to take a desired course of action. Of course, the
importance of how you communicate this information should not be underestimated.
Your audience is obviously unlikely to respond favorably to a statement
like, “Hey you: Be a sheep and join the herd. Baaaaaaaah!”
Instead, a more positively framed statement, such as, “Join countless
others in helping to save the environment,” is likely to be received
much more favorably.5

Besides the impact on public policy,
social proof can have a major impact in your work life, as well. In
addition to touting your top-selling products with impressive statistics
conveying their popularity (think the McDonald’s sign stating “Billions
and billions served”), you’d do well to remember to always ask
for testimonials from satisfied customers and clients. It’s also important
to feature those testimonials when you’re presenting to new potential
clients who may be in need of some reassurance about the benefits that
your organization can provide. Or better yet, you can set up a situation
in which your current clients have the opportunity to provide firsthand
testimonials to prospective clients about how satisfied they are with
you and your organization. One way to do this is to invite current and
potential customers to a luncheon or educational seminar and arrange
the seating charts so that they can easily commingle. In this setting,
they’re likely to naturally strike up conversations regarding the advantages
of working with your organization. And if, while taking RSVPs for the
luncheon, your potential attendees tell you they’ll have to call you
back to let you know, just be sure to tell them that if your phone line
is busy, they should keep trying…

Copyright © 2008 by Noah J. Goldstein,
Steve J. Martin, and Robert B. Cialdini

Just got a private link Ben Mack is sharing with his clients.

http://IntellectualRockStar.com

Listen FREE to the call as our guest.

You can get a book at a bookstore by then, or order now at Amazon

Comment below on what you learned from the call. I will give away a copy of the book to one great comment this weekend.