Yes- I am aiming to persuade you!
Paul Cooper is well known to many SMS alumni and has been a champion of the alumni network at SMS. Here, Paul reflects on some simple persuasion techniques that are suprisingly, er, ... persuasive!
Based on the book called “Yes! 50 Scientifically proven ways to be persuasive” by Robert Cialdini.
I was referred to this book by an exSMSer Shawn Callohan on his twitter stream @unorder (who said Twitter was a waste of time?!) I found it such an easy and insightful read, I thought I would share some of my learnings which I try to put into practice in my daily life.
Let me start with a story (and stories are the key to persuasion by the way…)
The story is about my dad. When I returned from the UK a few years ago I found him proudly gazing over a big bunch of bananas. He was very excited – I asked why. He told me it was because they were so rare – the blight had killed off so many. So he paid a fair bit and got a bunch.
And this is the power of scarcity…if people think something is running out, they tend to act on that. The kicker to my Dad’s excitement—he doesn’t even like bananas!
So here’s a tip: if you want to sell a concept or service or product, emphasise that this is “time limited” or “a unique event not to be repeated” or along those lines. I did this recently and had a great response – it really works – we do indeed respond to scarcity.
Cialdini shares a story about Benjamin Franklin and his start in US politics. An older senator constantly dismissed him in parliament. How did Ben react? He figured he would ask the guy for a favour – that’s right! Not to give a favour, but to receive one. He asked the senator if he would lend him one of his rare books that Ben heard was in his collection. The senator obliged. Benjamin read the book and returned it with a nice note of his learnings from the book.
The next week the senator supported the bill that Franklin was working on. Even more impressive was that they became life long friends.
So here’s a tip from Ben – it’s okay to ask for favours from difficult or even hostile people – as long as you do it respectfully and follow up with genuine thanks.
I did this recently with a request to several past clients and contacts for tips of key trends in the Water Industry and was amazed at the quality of the responses I got!
A final story from the book is the power of the word: “Because” – this one is truly amazing. Researchers tested people’s preparedness to allow someone to cut ahead of them in a line. The researchers went to an Officeworks where people were standing in line to do photocopying. The researcher went to the head of the line with their doc asked the person if they could cut in “Because they were in a hurry”. About 90% of the time the person agreed. The researcher then said something crazy to the person at the head of the queue.. “I need to cut in because I have some copies to do”. Amazingly 85% agreed even though it was a totally absurd reason.
They had simply used the word Because!
So, let me persuade you to read the book I based these stories on BECAUSE you will find it very helpful, and BECAUSE I would consider it a favour and BECAUSE this sort of information is not found everywhere, and is a never to be repeated offer from me! 