Six Factors for Influence
As the pace and complexity of modern life increases, the reaction of customers to our business offerings has become more guarded. By understanding what causes people to comply, we are able to tune into why people are guarded and how to engage our customers influentially.
Rudiments
Robert Cialdini has researched and reported on our human condition as species of influence. We have all acted irrationally in various situations. Why people buy or comply with requests is not necessarily a methodical process. More often than not, it is a reactive and irrational response to those that know how to use the tools of influence. However, the average consumer has become more closed to being influenced because “we have created our own deficiency by constructing a radically more complex world,” as Cialdini proves out.
Six Influencing Factors
If you are asking the question, “How do I sell,” you are missing your audience. This has nothing to do with the thinking a customer has. You are a customer also outside your business. You are not asking how a vendor can sell you. However, if you can answer effectively and understand the building blocks for “Why People Buy” then you will grow in influence and results. Here are the six factors for why we comply:
- Reciprocation: This is a powerful force which triggers within people. The ease with which we receive catalyzes an impulse within people to reciprocate. If you learn how to add value first – something that truly is valuable to the customer – you will be able to influence from a person’s desire to reciprocate.
- Consistency: We do not live well with inconsistency from our self-perception. Learn to converse and connect with your customer in such a way where your value offering aligns with how they see themselves. We buy what we think we are. There are two variables in this discussion to observe.
- Social Proof: The power of testimonials either en masse or by celebrities affects our thinking about a product or service. Repeated studies have exposed how we follow the crowd and depend on their action as validation for our decision.
- Liking: Likeability is essential for influence. Without it, a person does not buy. People depend heavily on the stereotypes of appearance and association to draw conclusions about likeability. Much of this mechanism for influence lies in the visual.
- Authority: Credibility comes much from how a person’s authority is perceived. Do you communicate and represent authority on your product, industry and service?
- Scarcity: The perceived value of your offering increases with how much is available. There are a variety of implementations of this principle. In the Information Age, special knowledge can increase influence. Knowledge is the processing and refinement of information.
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