Harnessing the Power of Persuasion with Dr. Robert Cialdini

Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, and welcome to Service Drive Revolution. We have an exciting conversation for you today with Dr. Cialdini, the author of the Psychology of Persuasion, also the author of Pre Suasion and just an incredible teacher and fan of human behavior. And this is in the ramp up to our Top dog event on October 22nd. Now listen to who we have. We have John Tafford from Bar Rescue speaking. We have Dr. Cialdini. We have Chase Hughes, the author of the Ellipsis manual, and celebrity trainer Matt Biamonte. Plus much, much more besides the fact that I'm going to be giving away my truck to the service manager of the year. Even though it's a couple years because of COVID it's been extended. But it all is going to happen on October 22nd and 23rd. If you don't already have your tickets, make sure you go to Chris Collins Inc.com to sign up. Now, in my conversation with Bob, he gives us one little secret.

About how somebody got a job offer for every interview he went to just by doing one simple thing. And he talks about much more. So here is our interview with Dr. Cialdini coming up right now on Service Drive Revolution.

Bob, I'm so excited to have you on today. How are you doing?

I'm well, Chris.

So I.

You are as well.

I went back and found my original version. And so this. I'm gonna say that this is 93. And I was looking through my notes where I've highlighted. I mean, this book is so iconic, but my. My highlights and what I underlined and what I noticed here is that you actually dedicated this book to me.

It says this book is dedicated to Chris.

Can you imagine my excitement? Your son must be named Chris.

My son Chris. That's right.

Well, you had a good taste in naming your son, at least.

Yeah, well, he was about 13 at the time.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

That's fun. So you are a legend and an icon in the automotive industry that we could say the godfather of persuasion. Can you kind of tell us, like, how did you get interested in studying persuasion?

You know, I think first of all, I've always been interested in human behavior and this particular aspect of human behavior, persuasion. There's not a single person I've ever met who isn't interested in how to be more persuasive on the one hand, or how to recognize when people are trying to persuade us and they might want to be aware of what exactly that person was doing. So I always thought that this was fascinating. And then I started Studying it as a researcher at my university, in my laboratory, using college students as my subjects for the studies I was doing. And I realized, wait a minute, that may be showing me how this works on college students in a laboratory on a college campus, but it doesn't tell me how it works in the real world. What's most powerful there? The people who know that are the people who do it for a living. People whose profession involves getting others to move in their direction. But they aren't. They're not going to tell me their secrets just because I asked for it. That's proprietary. So I began enrolling in their training programs, as many training programs as I could possibly get access to. I learned how to sell.

Insurance from an office. I learned how to sell.

Portrait photography over the phone. I learned how to sell nutrition supplements door to door. I didn't stop there. I learned how fundraisers get us to say yes. I learned how military recruiters get us to say yes. I looked at all the professions where people's business involves getting others to move in their direction, and what I found surprised me.

So tell us what you found in those training programs and what most surprised you about what you discovered.

What I found that surprised me most is that there were only six universal principles of influence that were taught in every training program and in every profession. Influence. Profession. And I decided, oh, there's a book here. People would want to. Want to know what those are. I put one to a chapter in that book that you showed us at the beginning, and it has sold more copies than I could have sensibly imagined. Because people are interested in persuasion.

Yeah.

It'S on everybody's top five list. When I've done my videos on top books, because people are always asking me, what are the top books? It's up there with Dale Carnegie's how to Win Friends and Influence People.

It's top three for me. So it's amazing that it's had that effect. I know that you plan on covering each of the principles in more detail during our Top Dog event, and you're going to talk about how they specifically apply to dealership service departments. But is there something else that you're going to include in your coverage of those universal principles of persuasion?

There is. I also have written a book called the Small Big. Right. What's the smallest change we can make in our persuasive appeal that will produce the biggest success in our persuasive outcomes? For each of the six principles that.

I describe in the book and I will describe in the program and you know something, when I describe these small bigs, when I say, and here's the smallest thing you can do to engage, let's say, the principle of scarcity, that people want more of those things, they can have less of those things that are rare, that are scarce, that are dwindling in availability. Here's the smallest thing you can do. You know what happens, Chris? The room falls silent.

You could hear a pin drop. People want to know the smallest thing they can do that will produce the biggest effect. So in our program, in the Top Dog event, I'm going to talk about the six principles of influence, the universal ones, and I'm going to talk about the smallest thing you can do to harness the power of each of them.

Can you give us an example of the small big for one of the universal principles?

So one of the principles is commitment and consistency. People want to be consistent with what they have already committed themselves to publicly, especially in your presence. If they've said or done something after that point, they want to be seen as consistent with what they've said or done. They don't want to be seen as a liar or somebody who's wishy washy or doesn't know what they said before and so on. So they want to be consistent. I have a friend who used this principle to get three better jobs in a row. He would go into.

Interviews, job interviews, where there was an evaluator, sometimes more than one evaluator, you know, who is, are going to ask him questions and see if he's suitable for the job. And he was having no luck at all. And, and then he read the chapter on commitment and consistency and he started doing one small thing differently at the outset. He would always say, I'm very glad to be here, thank you for inviting me, and I want to answer any question you have for me. Right? That's what he would always say in the past. This time he said, but I'm curious, I wonder if you could answer a question for me. Why did you invite me here today?

What was it about my resume, about my candidacy? And he heard them commit themselves to his strengths, all the things that were positive about his candidacy and how it fit with the job descriptions and so on. And then those evaluators were committed to him and they would be consistent with that. Throughout the remainder of the interview, he said he's gotten three better jobs in a row doing it this way, first getting them to make a commitment to his strengths, the things that were positive.

About him, that's amazing. He was qualified for those Jobs.

Right, Right.

Because we're always talking about and always trying to get better at hiring. That's something you could use to get hired, but it's also something you could pay attention to when you're being interviewed. If somebody asked you that right off the top, it's genius.

Or if. If you're being. If you're evaluating somebody and you want them to really think well of you, you can ask the question, so what was it about our dealership that brought you here?

What is it about us that you see as a good fit? Now, this person is making a strong commitment to you and will continue to feel that way compared to rivals that he might be interviewing with.

Yeah. That's amazing. I love that. So I know that you've written the book Pre Suasion. So that's your latest book that you released. What's Pre Suasion? And are you going to talk about that as well at the event?

I'm definitely going to talk about Pre Suasion, which involves arranging for people to be in a state of mind, to have a mindset that fits with the recommendation or request or proposal that you have yet to send to them. Right. But you put them in a place, a state of mind that is congruent with the message you want them to adopt. And we'll talk specifically, for example, about how we can put customers in a state of mind that focuses on quality of a service rather than its price.

There's research that shows that if you can put people in that mindset now, they're going to make choices for quality over price in the remainder of the exchange.

Yeah. The thing I love, Bob, about your books, Pre Suasion and Influence, is how they're just based on case studies and you're doing it one way, this way, and then making a change. And then what effect did that change have on the, you know, on the average or on the benchmark? I love your style. We are so lucky to have you at top dog. One question, because I haven't looked, but I will. Who did you dedicate Pre Suasion to?

I dedicated it to my grandchildren.

We're now at a point where I have grandchildren. And here's what I did to put myself in a mindset, to write the best possible book I could. Right. I put a picture of my grandchildren next to the computer screen where I was writing the book. And every time I looked over there, they were looking at me.

And I knew that I dedicated this book to them. Chris, it had better be a good book.

Yeah, well, that's very sweet, too, though. I mean, how lucky they are to. To have. You know, to have you put that much love and care into it with them in mind. You know, that's special.

It's really special.

You know, I just spent a long weekend with them. I hadn't seen them in a while. Covid is screwing everything up with grandparents and grandchildren. But I just spent a long weekend with them, and, man, it was the right thing to do because I was able to show them the new book and say, you see this book? I've dedicated it to you.

That's fun.

And if you. When you have kids and you go into a library and you find that book, you take it down and you show it to your kids and say, you know what? Your grandpa dedicated this to me.

They're gonna love you. They're gonna. They're gonna have a new respect for you.

Is that a version of pre suasion?

It is. It's absolutely free suasion.

I love that. That's so sweet, though, years ahead, are you. Are you living up to your fulfillment of a grandfather and spoiling them? Because that's your role.

I am. I am absolutely doing it. Their parents limit my time with them.

Because they're not allowed to do that.

You're supposed to be because I'm spoiling them.

Give them candy, get them bouncing off the walls, and then give them back.

Here's my rule.

If they ask for something, I say to myself, is this going to harm them? If not, they get it. Their parents say, no, no, no, no. They can't get everything they want just because it doesn't harm them. No.

That'S the right way. That's what grandparents are supposed to do. That's so sweet. Well, thank you so, so much, Bob. It's so great to talk to you. And I can't wait until the Top dog event. We're so lucky to have you, and it's going to be such a great time. And they're going to walk out different than they came in with a new perspective and some tools that they can implement immediately and see a change in results. So thank you for coming on, and I'm excited.

That's the key. Chris, takeaways. I want people to have takeaways from this presentation that they can use the next day.

Well, that's. That's it. Thank you so much.

All right, so long.

For now, thanks so much for watching this episode of Service Job Revolution. We're uploading new stuff every day, so make sure you subscribe and click the bell icon so you don't miss out. If you have a question you'd like us to answer on the show, call 8333 Ask SDR and we'll answer your question on the show. That's 8333 Ask SDR. For special deals on our books and training, head over to offers.chriscollinsinc.com now that's offers.chriscollinsInc.com I'm Chris Collins, and I'll see you in the next video. Sam.