Dr. Robert Cialdini is an expert in influence and persuasion. He is also this year’s keynote speaker at Affiliate Summit West. He is the author of Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive
His keynote speech is about the Six Universal Principles of Social Influence. Well he only really discusses three of them because that is all he has time for. The six principles are:
1) Reciprocation
2) Scarcity
3) Authority
4) Consistency
5) Consensus
6) Friendship/Liking – give information about yourself that allows them to see parallels & commonalities – hobbies – school – where you grew up
Scarcity
-if I can’t have it, I want it
-loss language converts better i.e. you will lose $1 a day does better than you will save $1 a day
Information, unlike wine, does not get better with time.
Authority either comes from authorities or from yourself
What can you do to get instant authority? – mention a weakness in their case/drawback to their case – this establishes you as a trustworthy authority
Examples:
Avis – We’re #2 but we try harder.
L’oreal – We’re expensive but you are worth it.
Consensus
if a restaurant puts these are our most popular items on the menu then they become 20% more popular
They did a study on please reuse your towel sign found at hotels. People were more likely to do so if the sign read “please join your fellow guests” – they had the best result if they used the specific room number on the sign
we follow the lead of many others – similar others
Use testimonials from peers – need to change depending on target audience
Overall some really good information. He was a bit slow to warm up but had the audience laughing at the end. I will definitely be picking up his book.
