The 7 Principles of Persuasion (And How to Put Them to Work in Your Business)

The serpent knew about persuasion. 

He was the first-tricking Eve into eating fruit from the forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden.

Not a lot has changed in over 2,000 years.

The psychology of persuasion hasn’t anyway.

It has been used and exploited in all types of arenas from prisoner of war camps to quasi religious cults to the science of selling and the marketplace to the iPhone in your pocket.

Since time immemorial there have been a number of fundamentals of influence that have worked, and continue to work, to persuade others of our point of view.

A thirty five year study, based on clinical research and evidence by Dr. Robert Cialdini, an American professor of both marketing and psychology, identified seven principles of persuasion.

“Influence-The Psyschology of Persuasion” is Cialdini’s book and is well worth a look if you want to understand influence.

But I will make it easy for you…

These 7 principles can be put to work in your business or job or everyday life.

Applied in the area of small business and attempting to influence people to buy our products and services, they work as well today as they have down through the centuries.

These 7 principles are

1. Self interest

The consumer or potential customer wants to get the maximum for the least cost. This is self-evident but is often overlooked by small business owners.

But remember: it is the self-interest of your potential customer you need to be concerned about, not your own.

Your own self-interest will be served later.

2. Consistency

We are greatly influenced by people and businesses who are consistent, not those who change their message or opinion at the drop of a hat.

People have an in built need or desire to be consistent and the desire to be consistent is a prime shaper of our behaviour.

The reason for this is pretty simple-if we are consistent we appear to be rational, honest, intellectually strong, logical and constant.

To be inconsistent is to be flaky, two faced, uncertain and of negotiable beliefs and philosophy.

Being inconsistent makes decisions and life in general appear to be erratic and confusing.

The marketing message of your business, whether online or off, needs to be consistent.

Without consistency your potential customers/clients will wonder what you and your business really stands for and what you believe in.

Your website is an ideal platform through which to demonstrate your consistency and commitment to helping your visitors and potential new customers.

Email marketing can be incredibly effective in cementing your relationship with your website visitors to show what you believe in and how you can help your customers.

Consistency and commitment will also help you overcome one of the biggest barriers to succeeding online-the barrier of trust.

A subscriber to your website receiving a consistent and useful message on a regular basis will help you build trust and ultimately position you or your business as a trusted authority to whom your subscriber will turn when needing assistance.

Commitment and consistency

You will have noticed no doubt a certain tactic/strategy of certain salespeople.

They will almost always ask you a series of questions which elicit a “yes” response in the early stages of their pitch.

The key to the salesperson getting you on a path of his choosing is if he can get you to make a commitment at the outset; the desire to be consistent will take care of the rest.

The desire to be consistent often pushes us along a path that we know to be wrong but which we cannot depart from such is the power of the desire to appear consistent and which has been recognized by prominent psychologists such as Newcomb and Fritz Heider.

3. Reciprocation

Reciprocation refers to the sense of obligation most people feel when somebody does something or gives something for free which creates a tremendous sense of obligation in the recipient.

The rule for reciprocation is one of the most powerful factors at force in the attempt to persuade.

Giving somebody something for free creates a powerful feeling of obligation in the recipient.

It can be very difficult to say no and it is this feeling of obligation that leaves us exposed in attempting to resist a good sales pitch.

4. Social proof

We are hugely influenced by what others have bought and approve of which explains the enormous amounts of money that celebrities and sports stars can earn from endorsing products, services and businesses.

How else can we explain Justin Bieber?

Most of us assume that a course of action is more likely to be correct if other people are taking the same course of action.

Much as we all hate canned laughter on many tv programmes, tv studios still employ it because it is simply effective and works.

5. Authority

We are influenced by people and businesses in positions of authority and pay greater attention to so called experts, academics and people who can demonstrate authority than we might to the person working in our local supermarket;

“Follow an expert”-Virgil

We are influenced strongly by authority and expertise and who can resist the trappings of authority such as titles, nice clothes, nice cars, academic qualifications, uniforms and so on.

Authority is a huge factor in the ability to persuade and lead.

6. Liking

Liking is a tremendous and underrated source of influence. Are you more likely to be influenced by someone you like or someone you dislike or don’t know?

If the salesperson can get you to like him, he has a great chance of making a sale because we buy stuff from people we like.

The Tupperware party is a good example of the power at work here and the hostess ends up selling a lot of stuff to her friends, not because here friends want Tupperware storage containers but because they like the hostess.

She invited them to her home didn’t she?

7. Scarcity

The power of scarcity is clearly demonstrated at sales time in shops and stores or when great works of art are auctioned. This same principle is a very powerful source of persuasion in any business regardless of whether you are selling your goods and services online or on the high street.

“Get the last of the choc ices/wrapping paper/cheap bananas” is a refrain you will have heard many times-at football matches, on Moore Street, Henry Street, etc.

The bottom line is that these street traders know that scarcity works.

A good business website will have most or all of these fundamental principles of persuasion at work.

If it doesn’t it is a complete waste of time and money-an expensive, time wasting adornment which won’t add to the bottom line of your business.

The absence of these principles when you take your business online is a common mistake for 2 reasons:

1.       Many small business owners think that doing business on or through the medium of the internet is somehow different.

Yes, it is different but not as different as you might think.

Because the internet is only the medium through which you transmit your message and offer-the fundamental principles of persuasion outlined above stay the same.

If your website does not tap into these weapons of influence you are missing a great opportunity to sell more of your goods and services and acquire new clients and customers for your business.

2.      Most websites are designed by, surprise surprise, web designers who come from a “graphic artist” background rather than from a marketing perspective with an understanding of the difference between direct response and delayed response marketing.

It’s almost certain that you already put many of these principles to work in your everyday life, without even noticing it.

But if you are trying to persuade someone to do something-and who isn’t-you are intuitively using some of these principles anyway.

It’s no harm though to recognise the sound scientific, evidence based research  for the principles of persuasion.

And perhaps take a fresh look at some that we can easily overlook.