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Those who don’t know how to get people to say yes soon fall away; those who do, stay and flourish.
The principles—reciprocation, liking, social proof, authority, scarcity, commitment and consistency, and unity—are
Each principle is examined as to its ability to produce a distinct kind of automatic, mindless compliance from people: a willingness to say yes without thinking first.
reciprocation, liking, and unity for when relationship cultivation is primary; followed by social proof and authority for when reducing uncertainty is foremost; followed in turn by consistency and scarcity for when motivating action is the principle objective.
expensive = good. Research shows that people who are unsure of an item’s quality often use this stereotype.
According to the Cornell research, you should beware if a review: lacks detail.
includes more first-person pronouns. If you’re anxious about coming across as sincere, apparently you talk about yourself more. That’s probably why words such as I and me appear more often in fake reviews.
has more verbs than nouns.
in figure 1.3, a letter that came across my desk several years ago from a university student to her parents.
sell the suit first, because when it comes time to look at sweaters, even expensive ones, their prices will not seem as high in comparison.
It is more profitable for salespeople to present the expensive item first;
Presenting an inexpensive product first and following it with an expensive one makes the expensive item seem even more costly—hardly
The company maintained an unappealing house or two on its lists at inflated prices. These houses were not intended to be sold to customers but only to be shown to them so that the genuine properties in the company’s inventory would benefit from the comparison.
the rule of reciprocation. The rule says that we should try to repay what another person has provided us.
My boss is reaching retirement age and I am thinking maybe I will be able to move out after he retires because for now I feel obligated to stay since he has been so nice to me.
people are more willing to do a favor for someone they like.
“Wow, it didn’t matter which of us he was sitting closer to or had more in common with or was talking to; I was the one he owed, and that mattered most.”
I’d warn against minimizing the favor in all-too-common language that disengages the influence of the rule of reciprocation: “No big deal.” “Don’t think a thing about it.” “I would have done it for anybody.” Instead, I’d recommend retaining that (earned) influence by saying something such as, “Listen, if our positions were ever reversed, I know you’d do the same for me.”
one study showed that mailing a $5 “gift” check along with an insurance survey was twice as effective as offering a $50 payment for sending back a completed survey. Similarly, food servers have learned that simply giving customers a candy or mint along with their bill significantly increases tips;
a gift to my child is a gift to me.
after accepting a gift, customers are willing to purchase products and agree to requests they would have otherwise declined.4
The beauty of the free sample, however, is that it is also a gift and, as such, can engage the reciprocity rule.
In one Southern California candy shop, researchers examined the buying patterns of customers who either did or did not receive a free piece of candy as they entered. Receiving the gift made recipients 42 percent more likely to make a purchase.
along with her invoice, she started sending a small gift—a packet of high-quality stationery, a small box of chocolates, a Starbucks Card—and has seen the delay in his payment cut in half.
in the name of reciprocity, we often give back more than we have received.
One way to increase the chances I will comply is first to make a larger request of me, one that I will most likely turn down. Then, after I have refused, you make the smaller request that you were really interested in all along.
if the first set of demands is so extreme as to be seen as unreasonable, the tactic backfires.
If I want you to lend me $10, I can make the request seem smaller than it is by first asking you to lend me $20. One of the beauties of this tactic is that by first requesting $20 and then retreating to $10, I will have simultaneously engaged the force of both the reciprocity rule and the contrast principle.
those referred by a friend proved 18 percent more loyal to the bank over a three-year period and 16 percent more profitable.
For all his success, the formula he employed was surprisingly simple. It consisted of offering people just two things: a fair price and someone they liked to buy from.
Why Do I Like You? Let Me List the Reasons
Physical Attractiveness
There seems to be a click, run response to attractive individuals.
attractive individuals get paid considerably more than their less attractive coworkers do.
Similarity
We like people who are like us.
in negotiations, bargainers are much more likely to come to an agreement after learning of similarities with their bargaining opponent (“Oh, you’re a runner; I’m a runner!”).
How to use it in online marketing: Use the language of your audience. Using words, phrases, and slang common to the group will work even better.
Social media and emails are perfect to interact with your audience. Make sure you first reach out to them without asking them to do anything—just as you would with your friends.
Compliments
compliment him or her not just on the behavior but, instead, on the trait. You’ll probably see more of it.
Contact and Cooperation
“The nature of bad news infects the teller.” There is a natural human tendency to dislike a person who brings us unpleasant information, even when that person did not cause the bad news.
the students had previously learned that to be liked, they should connect themselves to good but not bad news.
“Since 95 percent of the people are imitators and only 5 percent initiators, people are persuaded more by the actions of others than by any proof we can offer.”
98 percent of online shoppers say authentic customer reviews are the most important factor influencing their purchase decisions.
The principle of social proof says so: The greater the number of people who find any idea correct, the more a given individual will perceive the idea to be correct.
by loudly labeling her attacker a stranger—“I don’t know you!”—a woman should greatly increase her chances for receiving assistance.5
ads presenting increasingly larger percentages of customers favoring a brand (“4 out of 7” versus “5 out of 7” versus “6 out of 7”) get increasingly more observers to prefer the brand;
“If one person says you have a tail, you laugh it off as stupid; but, if three people say it, you turn around.”
