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How Social Consistency Helps Make the Sale

Hi PRL!

A friend recently told me that, despite having no ability to play the banjo, he recently outbid others at a silent auction. Once he expressed a minor interest in the instrument, he found it hard to walk away. Combine this with the scarcity of the item and the time crunch, and he found himself drawn into an impossible situation. He was asking if I had any tips to pass along. Nope! Do you have any banjo tips to share?

Last week I introduced Social Consistency. As you saw, people want to remain consistent to the public statements they’ve made. They don’t want to eat their words! Pointing out someone’s inconsistent statements will often force them to revert to those previous attitudes. People like to agree with their previous selves, don’t you think?

[tweetthis]People like to agree with their previous selves, don’t you think?[/tweetthis]

People also work to maintain consistent behavior, and use words that reflect those behaviors. No one wants to appear erratic. Erratic is synonymous with crazy, and crazy is dangerous. (more…)
Persuasion wins the day in “Stranger Things”

Hello PRL!

Have you seen the Netflix series Stranger Things? It’s like a classic 1980s adventure movie, a mix of ET and Stand By Me, stretched out over eight episodes. If you’ve not seen it and you can handle a little PG-13 horror, check it out.

Warning: minor plot point ahead, here until the end of the short dialog below

People have a desire to remain consistent and look for patterns and consistency everywhere they look. Photo by allen, Untitled, Flickr CC-By-2.0

In episode 7 of Stranger Things, the Goonies-like squad of middle-schoolers have a plan to rescue their friend. (more…)
My Life in Advertising: Chapter 2

Welcome to Persuasion Reading List. This is the next part in a series of Executive Summary posts of the book My Life in Advertising. Find previous posts on this book here, and thanks for your visit.

“My Life in Advertising” by Claude C. Hopkins

In Chapter Two of My Life in Advertising, Hopkins writes about his childhood jobs. Hopkins learned the importance of a good product or good service. He cornered the flier delivery in his hometown by being the only boy to deliver to all of the homes on his routes. The other kids weren’t so thorough. Consistently great service attracts business.[tweetthis display_mode=”button_link”]Consistently great service attracts business. [/tweetthis]

Later, during his door-to-door sales work, Hopkins learned that selling with a demonstration or a sample made selling many times easier. Persuasion without a sample was far more effort. Samples, samples, samples! This is the cornerstone of his later career. (more…)
My Life in Advertising: Chapter 1

Hello PRL, thanks for joining me.

This is my first post directly related to Executive Summaries for the Persuasion Reading List. I’ll be posting notes and lessons from books focused on Persuasion and Influence, to save everyone time from reading the full text. In the process, I hope we can have some discussion and learn a lot about methods of Persuasion.

We’re going to start with My Life in Advertising by Claude C. Hopkins. Hopkins was a pioneer in effective advertising in the early 1900s, working to standardize his methods into what he named Scientific Advertising.

“My Life in Advertising” by Claude C. Hopkins

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Listen to Robert Cialdini discuss his new book “PRE-suasion”

Dr. Robert Cialdini, author of Influence, discusses his new book PRE-suasion. Listen to this fascinating 1 hour podcast now!
From Bottled Water to Better Grades

Have you ever felt obliged to do something for someone to repay her for her efforts? Maybe you sent a thank-you card to a great aunt for that fruitcake. That time when you tipped at a restaurant when grabbing takeout. Someone held a door for you and you hurried through, trying to not waste his time.

Obligation goes beyond wanting to do something. You feel like you have to do something. This is reciprocity. You might call it tit-for-tat.

We recently covered anchoring, setting a large opening bid to help sway a negotiation towards that anchor. Reciprocity is almost the opposite.

Bottled Water is a cheap gift to give someone, yet the returns are great. Photo “Bottled Water Macros December 02, 20105” by Steven Depolo, Flickr, CC-By-2.0

My father-in-law recently gave me a great example of reciprocity that he uses in his college classroom. (more…)
Diffusing those Horrible Accusations

“What are these?” my boss asked. He was standing near the mail delivery in the front of the office, holding a new computer. But not the right computer. “Where are the laptops we ordered?”

Diffuse a situation by taking responsibility before everything blows up. “Time_bomb” by Matt486, Flickr CC-By-2.0

My boss looked around the office. No one knew who had ordered the wrong hardware. Except, I knew that it was me. I could see my boss welling up with the frustrations of the week. No one wanted what was coming next.

Some day, you’ll find yourself painted into a corner. Maybe even the target of a character assassination. Your coworker is torpedoing your chances at that promotion. The police officer catches you speeding. Your spouse is going for the kill in the middle of a dinner party.

What can you do? (more…)
How I didn’t get my asking rate (and why that was good)

Hello PRL!

Ever feel like you’ve got the bad end of a bargain? Maybe it doesn’t feel like a bargain at all. Maybe you’re not sure why you accepted that deal. Or maybe it was a great deal, all things considered. Time was short, options were few.

Who wouldn’t want to dance? “Festival,” photo by Purple Sheep, Flickr CC-By-2.0

Years ago, I had concert tickets to a summer festival in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. I bought the tickets months before the show. I bought them knowing my wife would be more than seven months pregnant at the show. Still I was certain that she’d want to dance in the fields of Wisconsin. In the middle of July.

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The Unbelievably Simple way to Improve Participation

Good day PRL readers!

Last week we touched on ways that you can negatively influence an outcome: The Poochie Effect. By immediately presenting a solution to a question, we shut people out of the solution process and remove their intrinsic desire to be valuable.

Lead people to your conclusions with Pacing. Flicker, US Army, CC-By-2.0

Today I want to talk about pacing. Pacing is when you get early agreement in a conversation, and slowly lead somebody to reach your goal.

Pacing is the opposite of the Poochie Effect, and it’s essential to Persuasion and Social Hypnosis. (more…)
What can Poochie the Dog teach us about Persuasion?

Have you watched The Simpsons cartoon?

In Season 8 of The Simpsons, the Itchy and Scratchy Show decides they need a new character. There’s a meeting of the animators. The boss asks them to come up with a name for the new dog character.

“The rest of you writers start thinking up a name for this funky dog; I dunno, something along the line of say… Poochie, only more proactive,” he says before slamming the door.

“So, Poochie OK with everybody?” is the result of the meeting.

Great episode and this scene shows us how influence from authority can limit our creative thinking.

via GIPHY

If a boss or somebody of higher authority than you presents a solution to a problem, your subconscious will shut down. You’ll see that authoritative idea as the winner. You won’t reach a state of flow.

I call this the Poochie Effect. (more…)