This is a must read book for anyone going into sales (and pretty much anyone who has to sit on either side of a negotiation.) Cialdini presents a nice framework of 6 simple principles that act as "weapons of influence": reciprocation, commitment and consistency, social proof, liking, authority, and scarcity. More importantly, he provides great examples of how these are used and how they can be leveraged in numerous domains. You will be kicking yourself as you see how easily you've been prodded into choices in the past (and hopefully, will learn some tricks on how to get your way more often). I will warn you: after you read this book, you are going to be highly suspicious of people's actions and their underlying motives!
Of course, a big part of persuasion is communication. And there is no point in communicating ideas if they are going to be immediately forgotten. You've already had to give a lot of presentations (PowerPoint and other) so far in your life. And no matter what you do, you're going to give some more. You might as well make them interesting, memorable, and thus, more persuasive. The Heath brothers give 6 simple principles to make ideas "sticky": Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, and Stories. Following their own advice (and my spelling prowess), they even give us an acronym to remember it by, SUCCESs. These two books do a great job taking what we know of social and cognitive psychology and providing direct, easily applicable advice to address a wide range of marketing scenarios.
No comments:
Post a Comment