Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Covert Persuasion: Psychological Tactics and Tricks to Win the Game

Rate this book
Praise for Covert Persuasion:

"This book is a treasure trove of ideas you can use to turn a 'no' into a 'yes' almost instantly-in any sales situation."
-Brian Tracy, speaker and author of Create Your Own Future and Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life

"Hogan is the master of persuasion. I urge you to persuade yourself to buy this book and everything he's ever written and recorded. It will help you understand yourself, understand others, and succeed. This information is bankable."
-Jeffrey Gitomer, author of The Sales Bible, Little Red Book of Selling, and Little Red Book of Sales Answers

"There's more wisdom in this book than in 500 pages on the same subject. Whether you need to persuade your lover, your spouse, your boss, your clients, your friends, or yourself, this powerhouse collection of mind tricks and secrets will give you the upper hand. In today's competitive world, this is the persuasion wizard's manual you need to control circumstances and get what you want."
-Dr. Joe Vitale, author of Life's Missing Instruction Manual and The Attractor Factor

"When you read Hogan's writing, it feels like you're getting sage advice from a master. Would you like other people to decide on their own (or so they think) to go along with your every whim? Then this is the book you've been looking for."
-David Garfinkel, author of Advertising Headlines That Make You Rich

"There is more practical information on the dynamics of selling and communication in these pages than you could ever acquire in a lifetime on your own through trial and error. Take advantage of the authors' wisdom and read this book!"
-Todd D. Bramson, Certified Financial Planner and author of Real Life Financial Planning

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

110 people are currently reading
1174 people want to read

About the author

Kevin Hogan

81 books66 followers
Kevin Hogan is the author of 22 books. He is best known for his international best selling book, The Psychology of Persuasion: How to Persuade Others to Your Way of Thinking.

In the past decade he has become the Body Language Expert and Unconscious Influence Expert to ABC, Fox, The BBC, The New York Times, The New York Post and dozens of popular magazines like Forbes,Investors Business Daily,InTouch, First for Women, Success!, and Cosmopolitan.

He has become the go-to resource for analyzing key White House figures.

Hogan has taught Persuasion and Influence at the University of St. Thomas Management Center and is a frequent media guest. Articles by and about him have appeared in Success!, Redbook, Office Pro,, Selling Power, Cosmopolitan, Maxim, Playboy and numerous other publications. He was recently featured in a half dozen magazines (including wProst) in Poland.

Kevin is a dynamic, well-known international public speaker, consultant and corporate trainer. He has trained persuasion, sales and marketing skills to leaders in the government of Poland, employees from Mutual of Omaha, Boeing, Microsoft, Starbucks, Cargill, Pillsbury, Carlson Companies, Fortis Insurance, Great Clips, the State of Minnesota, 3M, The United States Postal Service and numerous other Fortune 500 companies. He recently spoke to The Inner Circle and at the Million Dollar Roundtable (MDRT) convention in Las Vegas.

His keynotes, seminars and workshops help companies sell, market and communicate more effectively. His cutting edge research into the mind and keen understanding of consumer behavior create a unique distillation of information never before released to the public. Each customized program he leads is fit specifically to the needs of the group or organization. Kevin will give your people new and easy to implement ideas to achieve excellence.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
134 (24%)
4 stars
162 (29%)
3 stars
172 (31%)
2 stars
53 (9%)
1 star
27 (4%)
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
101 reviews25 followers
January 15, 2017
می گه هدف اینه که مخاطب رو متقاعد کنیم بدون اینکه متوجه بشه! یعنی با استفاده از ابزارها و تکنیک هایی بدون جلب توجه، نظر خودمون رو به مخاطب القا کنیم و اون رو مجاب کنیم تا تصمیم مورد نظر ما رو بگیره، اما به نحوی که فکر کنه خودش به این نتیجه رسیده.
باورهای افراد بر اساس منطق شکل نگرفته و طی عمر فرد بارها و بارها ازشون دفاع شده. در نتیجه تغییر و کنار گذاشتن این باورها به سادگی ممکن نیست. اگه باورهای فرد عمیق باشه، مثل باورهای سیاسی و مذهبی، حتا داده های واقعی مخالف اونها رو هم که بهش نشون بدی، اونا رو نادیده می گیره. در نتیجه سعی نکنین این کار رو انجام بدین. نگین که اشتباه می کنن. بلکه مطلب خودتون رو روی همین باورها بنا کنین و اونها رو تایید کنین. مطلب رو طوری ارائه کنین که نتیجه منطقی باور های فرد به نظر برسن.
همچنین تشویق اونها به تجسم خودشون در آینده در حالی که به نتیجه مورد نظر خودشون رسیده باشن کمک می کنه تا متقاعد بشن.
پنجاه و پنج تکنیک اومده که می شه با استفاده از اونها فرد رو متقاعد کرد.
یک کمی در مورد داستان گویی مطلب داره. و یک مقداری هم در مورد طرح پرسش و کلمات متقاعد کننده قدرتمند. یک فصل هم به نتیجه محور بودن اقدامات فرد برای متقاعد کردن و شروع کار از آخر به اول صحبت می کنه. و یک فصل هم به طرح پرسش اختصاص داره. پرسش ها مهم هستن چون اگه مستقیما به فرد بگیم این کار رو بکن، سریع مخالفت می کنه و موضع می گیره اما می تونیم با طرح پرسش به شیوه ماهرانه طوری وانمود کنیم که انگار خودش به این نتیجه رسیده.
هرچند توی تیتر یا مقدمه اشاره ای نشده و مطلب تخصصی هم نیست اما کتاب برای فروشنده ها و بازاریاب ها نوشته شده. مثال ها و زبان و ساختار بعضی از قسمت ها صریحا این افراد رو مخاطب قرار داده. اون اوایل که تازه شروع به مطالعه توی این زمینه کرده بودم سمینارهای نویسنده خیلی برام جذاب بود. البته الانم شاید همین طور باشه چون توی سمینارها مطالب بهتر و منسجم تری ارائه می کنه. انتظار داشتم بیشتر از تکنیک های هیپنوتیزم کلامی مطلب داشته باشه. چند جا اشاره شده بود اما کوتاه و مختصر.
بد نیست؛ اما خیلی هم خوب نیست. معمولی.
Profile Image for Janis.
35 reviews
April 30, 2011
This book is worth the price just for pages 133 to 140. It is a book you have to work, not just read. If you don't get anything out of this book, it is because you didn't put anything into it.
Profile Image for Mehmet.
12 reviews
January 17, 2022
Kişisel gelişim kitaplarını pek sevmeyen biriyim. Bu kitabı okuduktan sonra neden sevmediğimi bir kez daha anladım. Bana pek bir şey katacağını düşünmüyorum. Kitapta sürekli empati yapmalıyız, kendimize inanmalıyız, inanırsak başarırız şeklinde motive edici cümleler var. İyi de bunlar bilindik şeyler. Kitapta müşterilerle nasıl iletişim kurulması gerektiğine dair bazı yararlı bilgiler de var. Örnek diyaloglar da verilmiş. Onun dışında 300 sayfa olmasını gerektirecek bir durum yok. Bu yüzden 2 yıldız verdim.
Profile Image for Christopher Armani.
Author 49 books10 followers
October 26, 2020
Interesting, entertaining and educational. There is a ton of quality here and I'll be going through it a third and fourth time, at least. I've been through it twice now, and there is still a lot of wisdom to be mined from these pages.
74 reviews6 followers
May 5, 2020
This was a good book, with many tips and tricks on how to influence people. Its based a lot around sales but most of the infomation can be used in every other area of life.
129 reviews2 followers
July 10, 2021
Super on the fence. Plenty repeated from other books. Writing is poor. And the whole thing feels dated. But... some great material and in some cases some GREAT ideas / presentation.
Profile Image for Thomas Geib.
62 reviews36 followers
March 21, 2019
Jam packed with information. I could reread this a few times and continue to draw useful information from it. This book has definitely sparked my interest in psychology and persuasion. It used many sciencetic study's and gave many real world examples of how to use many of the tricks and techniques in this book. The beginning had a bit of fluff promoting the book I wasn't too fond of but other than the annoying self-promotion this book is a must read.
28 reviews
January 29, 2025
Covert Persuasion would be better titled 55 Persuasion Tactics, as it’s the strategies in section 4 that truly offer value. The rest of the book feels like filler material, with little to no practical application or substance. If you're looking for actionable insights, I’d recommend skipping straight to section 4. it’s where the real takeaways lie.
10 reviews
June 8, 2025
Can’t say liked or disliked it.

Book repeats itself quite often and some part is so boring to read over and over again. But I enjoyed reading some pages. Especially the story parts.

Overall, if you are in the sales business maybe this book will help you to improve your selling strategy and skills. If you not (like me) this book is not for you beacuse you can find it boring too.
Profile Image for Mehmet Kutup.
69 reviews
September 30, 2017
Çok eğlenceli bir kitap, katılmadığım yönleri olsada bütünlük olarak başarılı. özelikle satış alanında çalışanlar için yararlı olacaktır. uygulamada bu taktikleri kullanmak zor ve zaman alici
Profile Image for Sebastian B..
7 reviews
March 18, 2018
Perfect book for reasoning with and persuading others. Book concentrates largely on salespeople but others can draw a lesson, too.
Profile Image for SehriSimit.
17 reviews2 followers
May 22, 2020
Kitap 3.5 puandan ne aşağısını ne yukarısını hakediyor. Faydalı maddeler de bulunmakta.
Profile Image for Cihan Akdere.
239 reviews1 follower
October 15, 2020
Ozellikle satis odakli calisan kisilere uygun olacagini dusundugum, icerisinde faydali bilgilerin oldugu guzel bir kitap.
Profile Image for Mba.
65 reviews1 follower
November 2, 2020
If you want to work in sale sth. Read it. Otherwise it is boring.
Profile Image for Thomas Edmund.
1,085 reviews82 followers
April 15, 2010
Not much could be more foreboding than an introduction that was more marketing than introductory. One can’t help but wonder if the reason the book has to be promoted so much is because it actually can’t stay up on its own merit.


In saying that Covert Persuasion wasn’t an awful non-fiction piece, but it was definitely lacking. With awkward prose and the worst use of examples I’ve ever seen (they used firefighters rushing to help with the World Trade Centre attacks as an example of buyer’s remorse.) The book is essentially psyc 101 + marketing 102 written out.


The book begins in chapter format and then midpoint becomes a 55 point list, and never quite gets out of the boring style of list a phenomenon, define and give an example. Also the book kinda departs of its central thesis half the time; while many of the techniques explained could be persuasive most of time it just feels like an interesting psychological fact.


In a spasm of irony the book itself is too much a work of persuasion, full of self-promotion and advertising. Many of the first points made (piece of advice, if your book is flawed at least shove the flaws till later so that people aren’t turned off as soon as they open the thing) end unfinished with a website address or a ‘buy this brilliant other book to learn about it’. The most annoying part was when one of authors told a story about themselves earning far too much money and inserted parenthesis to explain how awesome they were. ‘See how I used self-deprecation there?’ the author says while explaining how they asked for 5000 for one talk.


I’m not an expert on the marketing texts out there, but I suspect this book would be a good boost if you’re a salesperson in need of a little inspiration. However if you’re anything like me needing to persuade people to do the neigh on impossible, such as convincing employers to hire people with intellectual disabilities, then this book doesn’t quite cut the cake.



Profile Image for Maurizio.
2 reviews10 followers
January 21, 2013
There's plenty of good ideas in this book but isn't as magical as the autor think it is, in my opinion. If the ideas are really good you dont need to write this, just the concept and the reader will conclude himself about the info. I'm not expert in english but i think the text its very confusing sometimes. Some ideas are really interesting so i give 2 stars instead of 1. Lost interest about page 30.
Profile Image for Trever.
588 reviews14 followers
August 6, 2016
This is possibly the worst book I have read this year, these tricks to win the game are just what cheesy sales people say to you in the mall to get you to buy things. When it says psychological tactics it means it has no psychological meaning or notes to say it really does work.

Poorly written book, bad, just bad.
Profile Image for James Pritchert.
159 reviews2 followers
January 29, 2015
This is an action packed book with tons of hands on tips for making a sale. However, it is not just for sales people. All of us have to sell something, and in my case it is generally ideas. So this book is an excellent reference for those times when I need to project the salesman in me to make my programs work.
Profile Image for د.أمجد الجنباز.
Author 3 books807 followers
November 13, 2012
كتاب جميل في فن الإقناع
لكنه مليء بنفخ العضلات من المؤلف وهو الأسلوب الذي لا احبه

اعجبني اكثر كتاب المؤلف الأقدم
The psychology of persuasion
ففي كتابه القديم ركز على قوانين الاقناع وليس على الطرق
Profile Image for Belal Khan.
123 reviews19 followers
May 20, 2014
This is a powerful sales and marketing book. If you're interested in things like sales, NLP, or copywriting, then this book is a must read. Very practical steps accompanying core concepts presented in this book. I've gone through it twice already and still find great gems to apply.
Profile Image for Tamer.
36 reviews
January 5, 2021
Üniversitede satış ve pazarlama dersinde satış esnasında işe yarayabilecek yöntemleri içerdiği için okuduğum kitap. Satış teknikleri kitabı gibi gözükse de sosyal hayatta da oldukça işe yarıyor. Belki de kendi alanında okunabilecek tek kitap denebilir.
Profile Image for Josh Young.
5 reviews
Read
June 20, 2013
Pretty good, plenty of tactics and things to consider if you're looking to persuade some one or protect yourself from it.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.