Swaying the Power of Influence

Earlier this week, I started reading Influence: The Psychology Of Persuasion, by Robert B. Cialdini. Cialdini proves throughout his book how people react to different persuasion techniques and how effective they are when applied to sales and marketing programs. Although I don’t agree with some of his points, I believe Cialdini’s insights are quite pertinent for businesses, particularly for start-ups and SMBs.

According to Cialdini, there are six persuasion techniques: reciprocity, commitment & consistency, social proof, authority, liking, and scarcity. Used either jointly or separately, these rules leverage our social rules, increasing the probability of a potential customer to say “yes” to your pitch. Here’s a nice sum-up of these persuasion “weapons” (as Cialdini calls them):

Reciprocity
People tend to return a favor. Thus, the pervasiveness of free samples in marketing. In his conferences, Cialdini often uses the example of Ethiopia providing thousands of dollars in humanitarian aid to Mexico just after the 1985 earthquake, despite Ethiopia suffering from a crippling famine and civil war at the time. Ethiopia had been reciprocating for the diplomatic support Mexico provided when Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1937.

Commitment and Consistency
If people commit, orally or in writing, to an idea or goal, they are more likely to honour that commitment. Even if the original incentive or motivation is removed after they have already agreed, they will continue to honour the agreement. For example, in car sales, suddenly raising the price at the last moment works because the buyer has already decided to buy.

Social Proof
People will do things that they see other people are doing. For example, in one experiment, one or more confederates would look up into the sky; bystanders would then look up into the sky to see what they were seeing. At one point this experiment aborted, as so many people were looking up that they stopped traffic.

Authority
People will tend to obey authority figures, even if they are asked to perform objectionable acts. Cialdini cites incidents, such as the Milgram experiments in the early 1960s and the My Lai massacre.

Liking
People are easily persuaded by other people that they like. Cialdini cites the marketing of Tupperware in what might now be called viral marketing. People were more likely to buy if they liked the person selling it to them.

Scarcity
Perceived scarcity will generate demand. For example, saying offers are available for a “limited time only” encourages sales. This concept plays with the sense of urgency, a crucial element in good copywriting.

One of my favourite examples of these persuasion techniques used in Cialdini’s book is how a donour reacts when faced with two different fundraising approaches on a busy intersection. On the first approach, the potential donour is presented with an overview of the organization and where his or her money would go to. The volunteer ends the presentation by asking the potential donour to fill-in a form for a donation. When using the second approach, the volunteer first hands out a small token such as a flower, and only then introduces the organization, asking for a donation at the end, just as in the first approach. The small gesture of handing out the flower produced the double of the number of donations. According to Cialdini, this is because the act of retributing a favour is embedded in us since our early stages of social interaction.

While most of these persuasion techniques you probably already know, it’s important to keep them in mind when developing your marketing and sales argument. This is particularly true when it comes to your vocabulary. My good friend, David Olinger, has written an interesting post on this subject titled Word Bans on his The Muse & Views blog .

Have you ever come across other persuasion techniques? How do they impact your marketing programs? Let me know, I’m all ears.