Say Yes to Influence

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.