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Meet the MasterMinds: Robert Cialdini on Influence

Robert Cialdini is an expert on persuasion and influence. He is a psychology professor at Arizona State University, and the President of Influence at Work. He’s also the author of the classic book Influence: Science and Practice, now in its fifth edition.

We asked him about his latest thinking on how consultants should--and shouldn't--use the techniques of persuasion to influence clients and others.

McLaughlin: What led you to update Influence?

Cialdini: Well, I had two main reasons, one a strength and the other a weakness in my field of study. The strength is that we are always churning out new research. Social and behavioral scientists continue to study the factors that incline people to say yes to requests, recommendations, and proposals. That research has accumulated over the seven years since the earlier version of the book, and the results deserve an audience.

The weakness is that researchers usually publish their work in academic journals that are not readily accessible to the general public. And, even if people did find a study, they wouldn’t be able to understand the jargon and academese. So the book is an attempt to let the public know what we’ve found out.

McLaughlin: Why do you think it makes sense to study influence?

Cialdini: One reason I chose influence as my area of research is that it has always been a core skill that allows us to function in every domain of our lives, whether that’s as parents, as community volunteers, in our neighborhoods, or on the job. Whenever we interact with other people, we can be more effective if we know how to get our points across persuasively.

McLaughlin: When you want to sway the opinions or decisions of others, what do you think about first?

Cialdini: I ask myself, “What’s already present in this situation? What factor or psychological principle is already there—engine running?” If I can tap into the power of the situation, I don’t have to twist arms or pressure people. The challenge is to identify the existing influences and align myself with them.

The martial arts provide a way to think about this. Martial arts experts are able to align themselves with forces in the physical environment, for example, gravity, momentum, and inertia, and allow the inherent power of those elements to move through them. It turns out that similar factors are at work in the social environment that can empower us to move people in our direction.

McLaughlin: Could you give an example of a factor in the social environment that we might want to recognize?

Cialdini: Take consensus, for example, or what we call social proof. That is the idea that we follow the lead of others we perceive to be just like us as a shortcut to making good decisions. If all of your friends are raving about a new movie, a new restaurant, or a new piece of software, you can choose well without having to research those choices yourself.

Well, if consensus is already on your side, you would be a fool to ignore it. We just did a study to make this point. In about 70 percent of the hotel rooms these days, there’s a little placard somewhere in the room asking people to reuse towels and other linens. The cards have messages like: Do this for the environment; or join us in this effort; or be a socially responsible individual so future generations will benefit.

Although it’s also true, you don’t see this on the cards: The majority of guests who stay at our hotel do reuse their towels at least once. So in the Phoenix area, we put cards in the hotel rooms with the usual messages asking people to reuse their towels: Do this for future generations; Cooperate with us in this common cause, and so on. We varied these messages, and they all produced about the same level of response. But if we included a message that simply said the majority of our guests do reuse linens at least once during their stay, we increased linen reuse by 32 percent.

Hotel managers didn’t know to use the principle of social proof, but it clearly works. To get back to your question, if I go into a situation and see that the majority of people are acting in a particular way that is in keeping with what I am suggesting, I bring that to consciousness before I even try to present my case.

McLaughlin: The literature about selling places a lot of emphasis on the importance of the buyer liking the seller. Some people go as far as to say that people never buy from someone they don’t like. How important is likability?

Cialdini: It’s very important, but I’m going to suggest something that’s heresy. In every sales training program, the first rule is that you have to get the buyer to like you. I think that’s wrong. The first rule of sales is for you to come to like the buyer.

In every sales training program, the first rule is that you have to get the buyer to like you. I think that’s wrong.

When you feel sincere affinity and concern for someone, that person usually senses those feelings, and barriers go down. That’s because you are much more likely to protect that person’s interests, and so both sides win.

Besides, you can’t control what the person across the table feels about you, but you can control what you feel toward that person. So you might as well focus on what’s in your control.

People can tell when you like them. And everything changes in the hands of somebody who likes me. Maybe I believe an insurance agent or a stockbroker is a real expert. Well, expertise may not be enough. I want an expert who likes me and then I’ve got both sides covered.

And you are right to think that way. Because if we are honest, we know that we treat the people we like differently than the people we don’t like. If you have come to like your client, you will have that person’s back. But this really reverses the usual way of thinking about likeability.

McLaughlin: Some sellers seem particularly taken with the notion of offering something for free, relying on the tendency to reciprocate to influence someone to buy. Is reciprocity a powerful influence?

Cialdini: Yes, because all cultures abide by the norms for reciprocity. And that makes this principle valuable in the globalization of our affairs. Whether you’re dealing with colleagues in India, Kenya, Bolivia, or in the UK, their mothers, teachers, and scoutmasters all trained them in this rule: You must not take without giving in return. You are obligated to give back to those who have first given to you. So this rule is at work no matter whom we are dealing with.

McLaughlin: Let’s say you are in a competitive selling situation and the buyer selected your competitor in the past and was satisfied. How do you convince that buyer to look at your offering with an open mind?

Cialdini: I have two suggestions. The first relates to the principle of consistency. That is, people want to be consistent with and to justify what they’ve said and done in the past. So if somebody has already made a commitment, how do you get through to that person?

One of our partners works in the UK pharmaceutical industry. He says that a lot of pharmaceutical salespeople ask the wrong questions. When they approach a client who already uses a competitor’s product, they ask, “Can you tell me why you decided on brand X? They are trying to find ways to differentiate themselves, but it’s a serious error. That kind of question forces the client to go on record publically as advocating the benefits of the seller’s competitor.

Instead, our UK partner trains salespeople to ask, “Is there anything about X that you’re currently using that you would like to see improved? Now the person is committing to a flaw in your opponent’s product. And you can say well, here’s what we can do in that regard.

McLaughlin: What is your second suggestion?

Cialdini: Suppose somebody is strongly committed to a particular choice, and you have a product or method that you think is better. You should not say or imply that the person’s choice was an error because that just gets people’s hackles up. But you might say, I can see the logic in your choice, but circumstances have changed since you made that decision and here’s how.

So you don’t insult people. You don’t undercut the commitment they made because that’s in the past and you don’t care about that. You reset their thinking without undermining their wisdom or competence. That allows them to disengage from their earlier choice because external forces have changed to warrant it.

McLaughlin: Some people would say that using these principles of influence can give you an unfair advantage or can be exploitive. What’s your view?

Cialdini: I do seminars and workshops on the influence process and the ethical use of these principles is one of my key messages. Using influence in a manipulative or deceptive way is not only wrong morally, it’s wrongheaded practically. People hate to be fooled, and they will not return to do business with the person who pressured or deceived them.

Using influence in a manipulative or deceptive way is not only wrong morally, it’s wrongheaded practically.

This goes back to your first question. Instead of asking what tools can I use to manipulate people in the direction I want, ask yourself what’s already a natural part of the situation that you can bring to people’s awareness. Is there true consensus here? Am I really an authority on this topic? Does this person have an existing commitment that is consistent with what I want to say?

Your task is to be a detective in the influence process rather than a smuggler of it. Identify and channel the influences that are present and, in the process, accurately inform people of the factors that are truly relevant to their decisions.

McLaughlin: If you could give somebody just one piece of advice about using influence effectively, what would it be?

Cialdini: I have a colleague who says he has spent a big percentage of his professional career searching for the single most effective sales strategy. I saw him at a conference a few years ago, and he said “Bob, I found it. The single most effective sales strategy is not to have a single sales strategy.”

It’s a mistake to try to use the same principle, tactic, practice, or approach in every situation. That’s because you will face a different person and circumstance, and different times in every case. You need to find what is immediately relevant to that person, time, and place.

If you have great expertise with the particular issue, you bring that to the surface. Maybe you don’t have so much expertise, but many clients who are like your prospect have opted to do what you’re recommending, so you make sure that comes through. If the situation is one in which opportunity is scarce or dwindling, you honestly inform people of that to steer them correctly.

McLaughlin: Thanks for your time.

You can find out more at www.influenceatwork.com.