Six Influence Patterns Part 2
By: Admin
Date: 12 / 11 / 2014
Date: 12 / 11 / 2014
You and your team are always influencing your customers, whether you mean to or not. So why not influence them with intention and purpose, to create a better experience for your customers and bring more revenue to your business?
Last month, I covered three of the six principles from Robert Cialdini’s Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, and explained how they can help you increase your sales. The last three principles are covered in this article. Note: All the examples given are for a restaurant.
Principle 4: Consensus
Whilst deciding what to do in an unfamiliar situation, people often look to see what others in the same situation have done. You can leverage this by providing information on trends and similar mass movements of others and by showing evidence of others’ successes.
Testimonials about your product or service do exactly this and serve as proof from third parties about the benefits of the product. When you say what you sell is great, your customers will see this as you bragging, but when they hear what someone else has said, that is taken as proof.
Examples:
Principle 5: Commitment & Consistency
When a person’s behavior is relatively consistent, we know what to expect from them. We tend to like people who act consistently because it means there will be no surprises, and one of the strongest human needs is a sense of control.
By having your customers make a small commitment you are more likely to be able to influence them to add to this commitment. They’re need to stay consistent to their word comes into play here.
Examples:
Principle 6: Liking
We tend to like (and be influenced by) people similar to ourselves. That is because they mirror and reinforce who we are, what we believe in, and what we value. If you find similarities and opportunities for cooperation with your clients, you will not only achieve your goals, but also those of your customer.
Examples:
Name tags help build familiarity and liking for your staff
Is this all just manipulation? Cialdini suggests that we are always influencing people whether we want to or not; he says, ‘you cannot NOT influence others’. So why not do it effectively rather than by accident or random? You be the judge…
TIP: Share this and last month’s article with your team. Discuss times when the possibility of influence was overlooked and ask them to come up with their own examples of how you could use the six principles of influence in your business.
About ActionCOACH
Brad Sugars founded the brand Action International in 1993 when he realized there was a disconnect between business advice and implementation. The answer was Action! Brad Sugars created a business coaching company so that business owners throughout the world can realize their goals in business. Today the company is known as ActionCOACH. To learn more about business, visit Brad Sugars Review blog!