Influence starts and ends with commitment, consistency, and truth.

Robert Cialdini has a book called Influence where he details his six principles of influence. It is quite insightful, and can be really helpful in a business setting. Most of these principles simply make your client or customer feel comfortable and feel good. Let’s look at them.

Authority:  many see it on the surface as a title, nice clothes, and an expensive car. But deep down, authority can only come from legitimate testimonials from real people who have been helped by you, and evidence of honesty and truth, as established by long-term follow-up of those clients.

Reciprocity:  give a gift, and people will want to return the favor.

Likeability:  be fun, likeable, and entertaining. Laugh at yourself. Enjoy the relationship.

Scarcity:  the less available something is, the more valuable it appears.

Social Proof:  People easily jump on the bandwagon. Especially if there is an underlying feeling of uncertainty, people will mimic the behavior of other people they feel are similar to them.

Commitment and Consistency:  allow people to make a commitment to you, or even better to themselves. Help them meet that commitment. Provide consistency, allow the conversation to evolve all the way to the decision without distraction or moving to another space or time.

Certainly these principles have use outside of business as well. But in the business world, many times you can really help a client or customer by influencing them to make a decision. Indecisiveness usually feels uncomfortable, and decisiveness makes people feel better.

So go ahead and use these principles to help make your sales in business, and know that you are helping people to feel good at the same time.