In my summary of Robert Cialdini’s Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, I supply succinct explanations of the principles of reciprocity, commitment and consistency, social proof, liking, authority, and scarcity. These principles, alongside my fetish for sales manuals such as The Ultimate Sales Machine, are the bases for my recommendations.

As an exercise to improve your understanding of the principles, see if you can identify which of the six principles justify each suggestion. In some cases, more than one principle applies.

1. Mail your customers a small gift, such as a seasonal greeting card that says “I like you.” Do so on a regular basis.
2. Tell your customers that you are offering the same deal to their competitors.
3. See if you can get potential leads to commit in writing to a future purchase.
4. Borrow a trick from the Chinese in the Korean War, and get customers to argue for the merits of your product. Make sure to not reward them with large rewards lest they rationalize their arguing as extrinsically motivated, rather than motivated by your character.
5. When negotiating, ask for more than what you want, but still be reasonable. Later, make a concession. Agreements in which concessions were made are more likely to get upheld at a later date; this way, both parties feel like they win.
6. Offer your visitors a free trial. Once using the app, they may begin to rationalize reasons why they like it. Moreover, once the trial expires, they will miss it; people value things that they are about to lose more than they value things they are about to gain.
7. However, when your visitors get a free trial, be sure to frame their behavior as a customer intent on a future purchase. This will affect their identity.
8. Show favorable testimony from satisfied customers, or other relevant celebrities.
9. Hire physically attractive sales representatives.
10. Research your sales prospects’ interests on Facebook, and send sales reps with similar personal interests.
11. Compliment your customers
12. Eat out with your customers or get them drunk: they will associate you, and your business, with the positive feelings experienced while undertaking these activities
13. Dress well.
14. Drive a nice car.
15. Use your title when introducing yourself and put any advanced degrees in your email signature.
16. Have an extremely expensive (but still reasonable) option, and present it first.

Do you think this is manipulative? Of course it is. But your competitors are doing it. (In case you missed it, that was an example of social proof and scarcity.)

Anyway, I recommend that you purchase Influence: Science and Practice if you are intrigued by this list. It’s specifically focused on the tactics of persuasion. You can get it from Amazon here.

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