Influence

While listening to Lewis Howes’ School of Greatness podcast I came across an interview with Robert Cialdini. He has written many books on influence and the best ways to communicate to get what we want. In each of the 7 main influences, he was able to refer to anecdotes, studies or A/B testing to help get his points across. I find it interesting that we are influenced a lot easier than we would like to think. There are many ways to influence people and learning them can help prevent us from being influenced, as well as help us get what we want in life. These aren’t negative or exploitive ways of influencing people; they are more ways of getting more out of people than you’re getting now. This could be making more sales, getting more followers, or just starting a business. This is just my understanding of the 7 pillars of influence I got from the podcast. I am yet to read his books.  

Reciprocity

This is the pillar I’ve seen the most return in. People are always willing to pay you back and even feel obliged to.  The trick is to go first and make it as personal as possible. This works often in conversations when meeting people. If I’m willing to be a bit more vulnerable and share an embarrassing story, then they tend to do the same. This creates a more relaxed environment, and the conversation progresses beyond normal small talk. I’m sure you’ve noticed the reciprocity approach used by marketers from many different brands. If you give something to your customers for free, something with value, then they are more willing to make a purchase. It creates a sense that they owe you and so it’s always a good idea to give some info, content, or product away for free. Just look at all the successful YouTubers. They give away information for free all the time and when the time comes to release a product of sorts, their subscribers are very happy to pay.   

Commitment and Consistency

Making sure that someone will follow through with their commitment almost ensures that they will. This could be checking up with someone after a meeting or getting people to respond ‘yes’ to receive future emails about your products. People are more inclined to follow through if they have made a promise to you. If they are making progress, it is better to congratulate their commitment rather than their progress. Progress tends to be in hindsight and can create a sense of achievement or security with what they’ve achieved. Congratulating commitment ties them to their commitment ensuring that they don’t give up and keep working towards their goal. This works for the person delivering the product too. People value commitment and consistency and if you’re willing to turn up regularly, up to a point where you can be relied upon, people will begin to trust you, and anything associated with you.

Social Proof

No matter how unique we think we are, we are more comfortable going with the crowd. We buy the products on Amazon with the most 5-star reviews, we line up for things because there’s a line and we only trust things if other people trust them too. This isn’t a bad thing, and it makes sense that we’re like this. Trying the ‘new thing’ or something that doesn’t have people’s support tends to be risky. We naturally try to avoid risk and following the crowd is the most efficient way to get the most utility out of things. Social proof can then be used to our advantage when trying to sell something. In the episode, he uses the example of a restaurant. Just by pointing out that certain items on the menu were popular, increased the sales of those items by about 40%. Sales increased, even more, when they were listed as items that were popular with the regulars, making it an even more secure dinner choice. People are even more inclined to make a purchase if you can compare the potential customer to a small group of people. The smaller the group the easier it will be to close a sale from a person who can relate. That means balancing a fine line between including enough people that it can be profitable but limiting it enough that the people can relate a feel special to be associated with that group.

Is Liking

This is done by being likeable and pointing out the similarities between us. If you’ve been through similar experiences or felt a similar way about something, then you know how this feels. Being able to connect on a shared experience helps people purchase the product because it seems to have worked for you. This tactic is very common in personal development courses because most of the people selling them can describe what they were like before they started their business. Most of the time a few of their experiences will be relatable to you and it feels like their product or course seems legit. 

Authority

This point is more applicable to physical spaces and books. Just by hanging your degree up in your doctors’ rooms can improve the trust of the patients by quite a lot. People trust credentials, but they don’t like them shoved in their faces. That’s what I find so interesting. We need proof that the person we have gone to for help is qualified, but we don’t want them to explicitly tell us. That will seem cocky. Another way to prove your authority is by the support of other authorities on a topic. This is commonly seen at the beginning of the book in a forward or those little write-ups on the back of the book. All of these displays of approval help us make decisions and trust what we’re spending our money on.

Scarcity

Loss is a more powerful motivator than gains. Asset managers found that if they were to call up a client in the early hours of the morning to tell them about a potential buying opportunity that could make them 25% gains, they would usually be irritated and tell them not to call so early. If the asset manager were to call about a possible 25% loss, they tended to be appreciative of the call. To convert scarcity into sales you need to point out what differentiates you from your rivals. Potential customers need to be aware of what they could lose if they don’t decide to go with you. Another common tool used is a limited amount of products or available spots. If people see that they must act fast or the opportunity will pass, they tend to act. This is different to a limited time because people usually just wait till the last minute and may miss it.

Unity

People are more inclined to make a purchase if you can make the potential customer part of a small group of people. The smaller the group the easier it will be to close a sale from a person who can relate. That means balancing a fine line between including enough people that it can be profitable and limiting it enough that the people can relate to and feel special to be associated with that group. Using inclusive language like “us”, “we” and “our” helps create a sense of community. This could be as simple as a common region or as niche as long-distance running. In marketing, co-creation can be very beneficial to get customer input on new products. This makes them feel a part of the process and more inclined to purchase something that they feel they helped make.

You may have been familiar with many or even all of these techniques mentioned above. I wasn’t and found some of them fascinating. They are all pretty simple tricks and changes that we can make to our current market or sales tactics. These little changes can result in huge increases in conversion. I found them helpful and see them as a checklist of sorts. When creating a marketing campaign or evening marketing myself, I can refer back to these pillars and make sure I’ve touched on each one of them. I hope some of them were helpful to you and if you’d like to dive a little deeper, then check out Robert Cialdini’s website influenceatwork.com.

“Don't ask for feedback, ask for advice”