BARKING UP THE WRONG TREE

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JUNE 3, 2013 JUNE 3, 2013 by by ERIC BARKER ERIC BARKER
Robert Cialdini explains the six
ways to inuence people
Interview:

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Dr. Robert Cialdini
Dr. Robert Cialdini is the authority on the study of persuasion. His classic book,
Influence has sold millions of copies and is widely regarded as the go-to text
on the subject.
What makes the book so special is its not just a collection of academic studies
on college students.
Bob went undercover to learn the secrets of used car salesmen, marketing
professionals, telemarketers, and others who influence in order to survive.
He distilled his findings down to six universal principles of influence which
anyone can use in their daily life.
His company, Influence at Work, offers workshops that teach the principles to
business professionals. (Theyre on Twitter here.)
I spoke with Bob about the six pillars of influence, the ethics of persuasion, and
the best way to ask for a raise.
My conversation with Bob was almost an hour long, so for brevitys
sake Im only going to post edited highlights here.
If you want the extended interview Ill be sending it out with
my weekly newsletter on Sunday.
Join here.

The Six Universal Principles of

Inuence

1) RECIPROCITY
Robert Cialdini:
Its the principle that suggests that people give back to you the kind of
treatment that theyve received from you. If you do something
first, by giving them an item of value, a piece of information, or a
positive attitude, it will all come back to you. The key is to go first.
If you smile at a stranger, you get a smile back. If you dont, you dont get a
smile back. Thats essentially the rule. Whatever it is that you would
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like to get from a situation, you can increase the likelihood that it
will be forthcoming if you provide it first.

2) CONSISTENCY
Robert Cialdini:
People will feel a desire to comply with a request if they see that
its consistent with what theyve publicly committed themselves
to in your presence. The implication there is to ask people to state
their priorities, their commitments, the features of the situation
that they think are most important, and then align your requests
or proposals with those things. The rule for consistency will
cause them to want to say yes to what theyve already told you
that they will do or what they do value.
Theres a great study that I like to cite having to do with one restaurant
owner in Chicago who was able to reduce the number of no-shows at his
restaurant by just having his receptionist change two words that she used
when she took a booking. Previously she said, Thank you for calling
Gordons Restaurant. If you have to change or cancel your reservation,
please call. That was the standard approach and it was producing about 30
percent no-shows.
If she changed to saying instead of Please call if you have to change or
cancel your reservation, if she said, Will you please call if you have to
change or cancel your reservation? and waited for people to say yes, as they
all did, then no-shows dropped to 10 percent because people were going to
be consistent with what they had said publicly they would do.

3) SOCIAL PROOF
Robert Cialdini:
People will be likely to say yes to your request if you give them
evidence that people just like them have been saying yes to it, too.
For example, I saw a recent study that came from Beijing. If a manager put
on the menu of the restaurant, These are our most popular dishes, each
one immediately became 13 to 20 percent more popular. What I like about
that is, not only did a very small change produce a big effect, it was entirely
costless and entirely ethical. It was only the case that these popular items
were identified as popular items. That was enough to cause people to want
to go along with what they saw as the wisdom of the crowd.

4) LIKING
Robert Cialdini:
No surprise that people prefer to say yes to a request to the
degree that they know and like the requester. A simple way to
make things happen in your direction is to uncover genuine
similarities or parallels that exist between you and the person
you want to influence, and then raise them to the surface. That
increases rapport.
Similarly, uncovering genuinely admirable or commendable features of a
person, and complimenting the person on those things will lead to liking.
Simple things that we can easily get access to. Instead of burying them and
keeping them under wraps, we mention those similarities, we mention those
compliments that are genuine to provide. That establishes a rapport that
leads to a yes.

5) AUTHORITY
Robert Cialdini:
Authority refers to the tendency of people to be persuaded in
your direction when they see you as having knowledge and
credibility on the topic. Whats interesting is how many people
fail to properly inform their audience of their genuine credentials
before launching into an influence attempt. Its a big mistake.
A crucial point here with regard to authority is Im not talking about being in
authority and using that lever to move people in your direction. There are all
kinds of problems associated with that, including resentment and
resistance. Im talking about being an authority. Someone who is perceived
as a credible source of information that people can use to make good
choices.

6) SCARCITY
Robert Cialdini:
People will try to seize those opportunities that you offer them
that are rare or scarce, dwindling in availability. Thats an
important reminder that we need to differentiate what we have to
offer that is different from our rivals or competitors. That way we
can tell people honestly, You can only get this aspect, or this
feature, or this combination of advantages by moving in the
direction that Im recommending.

What youre doing wrong when
you try to inuence others
Robert Cialdini:
Most people always use their favorite approach to influence, the
one that they like the best. Thats a mistake.
I have a colleague who is in the marketing department at an American
university, who told me that he has spent the last 16 years looking to find the
single best influence approach. I saw him at a conference a while ago and he
stopped me. He said, Bob, I found it. I found the single best approach to
influence. It is not to have a single approach.
Thats a fools game to think that every situation will yield to the
same tactic or strategy. We have to assess every situation in terms
of whats truly available for us there. Is there genuine social
proof? Then we should use it. Do we have a genuine scarcity issue
that we can raise to the surface, a unique feature? Then we
should use it. Do we have genuine authority on the topic? Then
we should use it. Thats how you would decide. Not based on what
tends to be your favorite approach, but using the one that aligns
with what is truly inherent in the situation waiting to be
employed.

When is using inuence
principles ethical or unethical?
Robert Cialdini:
My sense of the proper way to determine what is ethical is to
make a distinction between a smuggler of influence and a
detective of influence. The smuggler knows these six principles
and then counterfeits them, brings them into situations where
they dont naturally reside.
The opposite is the sleuths approach, the detectives approach to
influence. The detective also knows what the principles are, and
goes into every situation aware of them looking for the natural
presence of one or another of these principles. If we truly do have
authority in the topic, if we locate it as inherently present, we can simply
bring it to the surface and make people aware of it. If we truly do have social
proof, we can bring that to the surface. If we truly do recognize that people
have made a commitment, or have prioritized a particular value that is
consistent with what we can provide, we can show them that congruency
and let the rule for commitment and consistency do the work for us.
Thats the difference, the difference between manufacturing,
fabricating, counterfeiting the presence of one or another of
these principles in a situation, versus identifying and then
uncovering it for our audience members so that it simply
becomes more visible to them as something thats truly present in
the situation.

What books should someone
interested in inuence read?
Robert Cialdini:
You can go all the way back to the 50s and the book Hidden Persuaders,
and go forward from that. Of the books that are relatively recent on the topic
of persuasion and influence that I particularly like, I think Daniel Pinks new
book To Sell is Human, and Guy Kawasakis book Enchantment, do a
really good job.
Another is Adam Grants book, Give and Take. I know youve interviewed
Adam. He takes a more organizational view. How do you wind up being
influential inside your organization rather than with customers, and clients,
and so on? I think its a valuable perspective as well.

What surprised him the most
during his research?
Robert Cialdini:
Heres a story for you. It has to do with the authority principle,
and how I sought to learn about the action of these principles, not
just in the laboratory, but in the training programs of the most
successful influence industries of our society. When I took the
training I always did that incognito, undercover they didnt
know who I was.
At the end of the training, I would reveal my true identity, my
university affiliation, and my intention to write a book about the
influence process. Because I had not informed them ahead of
time that I was collecting data from them, I always gave them the
opportunity to tell me that they prohibited me from using their
data in my book. I said, If you are not comfortable with this, and
dont want me to include any reference to what I learned here, I
will honor that preference. Eric, not one asked me to embargo
their information. Not one.
When I asked them about it, the answer was a version of the
authority principle. They said, You mean youre a university
professor and youre asking me? You mean, youre my student?
They puffed up their chest and said, Of course you can use my
insights.
If you want the extended interview (where Bob discusses how to
leverage influence principles to get a job or a raise) Ill be sending it
out with my weekly newsletter on Sunday.
Join here.
Join 45K+ readers. Get a free weekly update via email here.
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