There are some books you read.
And then there are books that become part of the way you think.
Robert Cialdini’s Influence is one of those books for me.
It’s easily in my all-time top five.
I was looking through journal number five from 1997 this morning and found a page I’d titled:
“How to use the six weapons of influence to sell your house for top dollar fast.”
That page reminded me of something I’ve done for more than 30 years.
Whenever I find an idea that really impacts me, I try to turn it into a mental model I can actually use.
I’ll write the principles down in my journal and then ask:
How can I apply each of these to what I’m doing right now?
In this case, I went through Cialdini’s six weapons one by one:
Reciprocity.
How can I go first and give something of value?
Liking.
How can I humanize this and tell the real story in a way people can connect with?
Scarcity.
What is genuinely limited or going away?
Authority.
What objective proof can I bring in that makes this more credible?
Commitment and consistency.
What small step can someone take that naturally moves them further down the path?
Social proof.
How can people see that others like them are interested too?
The interesting thing is that none of these have to be tricks.
In fact, they’re most powerful when they’re true.
Real scarcity.
Real authority.
Real evidence.
When you thoughtfully engineer all six around something you’re selling, they start reinforcing each other.
And that creates a perfect storm of influence.
Here’s something worth trying:
Take whatever you’re selling right now.
Write those six words down the side of a piece of paper.
And spend 30 minutes asking:
How could I genuinely bring each of these into the way I’m presenting this?
That little exercise has been sitting in my journal since 1997.
And I’d still recommend doing it today.