MBA793 Must Read: Pre-Suasion by Robert Cialdini

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For small business, a high-speed fiber connection is only one piece of the puzzle. You need total solutions advantage from Comcast Business. It's the first-ever combination of the largest, fastest fiber-powered network, gig speeds with equipment and security included, plus a 5-year price lock. Learn more. Get started with a great offer as low as $60 per month at comcastbusiness.com/smallbusiness. Ends June 1st, 2026. Restrictions apply for new customers with 300 megabit per second internet and Security Edge. 1-year agreement. EcoBill and autopay required. Taxes and fees extra. Call for details. Welcome to the $100 MBA Show, the business podcast that cuts out all the fluff and goes straight to the good stuff every single day with our daily 10-minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher, Omar Zentholm. I'm also the co-founder of the $100 MBA, a complete business training and community online over at 100mba.net. And today's episode is a must-read episode. In our must-read episodes, I share with you a book that I've read that has greatly influenced me as an entrepreneur. I share with you its takeaways, its insights, and why you should read it too. Today's must-read is Pre-Suasion by Robert Cialdini. This book, Pre-Suasion, has been long awaited. Robert Cialdini's previous book, Influence, was a New York Times bestseller. And is a classic business book, but it was written 30 years ago. So when Robert Cialdini came out with this book, Pre-Suasion, everybody just couldn't wait to get their hands on it, including myself. The subtitle of this book is A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade. It extends the science of persuasion in several important ways. First off, I gotta say that this book is really well written and it's really well structured. At the start of the book, he breaks down exactly what we'll be covering in the book in each chapter, and I love this because later on I can reference certain parts right away. In this book, Robert Cialdini really focuses on the concept of how to get people ready to say yes even before you make an offer, so when you actually make the offer, there's no decision that needs to be made. They're already primed for it. I'm going to give you some of the countless examples he gives in the book on how he uses time and influence in this process, in this process of pre-suasion. I can't wait to get into this one because I loved this book. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. Today's episode of the $100 MBA Show is sponsored by SumoMe. We all know we need to build our email list so we can grow our business. Without an audience, we got nothing. But how do you invite visitors to your website to join your mailing list in a non-intrusive way? You wanna do it with class. With SumoMe, that's how. We've been using SumoMe for the past 2 years, absolutely love it. They got some great features for you to make sure that you don't actually have to invite people to join your mailing list every single time they visit your website. That way it's non-intrusive. You're only asked once. Best of all, you can install SumoMe on your site in seconds, and get this, you can get it for free. Just go to 100mba.net/sumome. Again, that's 100mba.net/sumome. So in this book, Robert Cialdini really focuses on how to get your customers ready, how to get your audience ready for your offer before you actually make it. And this could be one-on-one with clients, this could be with a sales page, this could be with a sales video, this could be on a webinar. Now, as I was reading this book, I got all these ideas popping in my head. I had to open up my notes app and start writing out some ideas of how to use these techniques in our business, how to use these techniques in sales. What I love about this is Robert is a huge proponent, a huge advocate of making sure that you do this ethically, that you sell and use persuasion in an ethical manner. He makes this very clear throughout the book, and he shows you how to do it. Robert in the book really drills how timing is very important, that you have to build your way to the point where when you actually make the offer, the person receiving the offer really can't say no. Let me share with you an example that he shares in the book. Robert Cialdini, who's a professor as well, planned to use a semester at another university to work on this very book. With no major commitments in his new role there, he knew he could block out time for research and writing. But before he started, he received a call from the dean of the school. The dean described a wonderful office that Cialdini will be working from, a new computer, and the support of all the staff. Everything sounded marvelous and even better than he expected. So in gratitude, Robert on the phone call said, "Hey, thanks so much for everything you've done." "this is great, this is perfect, this is more than I've expected. Is there anything I can do?" Then the second shoe dropped. The dean explained that one of the professors had been sidelined. Unfortunately, they've fallen ill. He asked Cialdini, "Would you mind just teaching one graduate business class?" At that moment, Cialdini had to say yes. He was in such great gratitude for what he just received from the dean. All the support, the great office, the new computer. How could he say no? The timing is so important. The dean presented Cialdini with a really surprising level of accommodation. So when Cialdini asked, "Can I do anything to help?" he gave him an answer. So again, at that moment, Cialdini had to say yes because he felt so much gratitude in that moment. Cialdini even says that if he asked me in a different phone call or maybe a few days later via email, it would have been a lot easier for me to say no. But because the stage was set in that manner, he pre-suaded him to say yes to teaching that extra class. What an example. But he shows you time and time in this book how you need to set up your offer, how the actual persuasion has happened way before you actually make the offer. You know, the dean had to set that all up. He had to make sure that he got him a great office. He made sure the computers stayed where they are. He did all the work beforehand. To earn his trust, and he capitalized on those efforts when he was on that phone call. This is called priming, but in this book, Cialdini also marries the priming concept with classic persuasion. For instance, social proof is one of the most commonly applied principles. Showing people that a large number of other people like them enjoyed your products or services is almost always effective, but social proof can sometimes backfire depending on the mindset of the individual. See, Cialdini, he is really, really smart. He's also very honest. He tells you that A lot of what I teach you is not 100% foolproof, but by using these techniques, your chances of success are greatly increased. So in this book, Cialdini marries the two concepts of priming and classic persuasion techniques. He talks about how you have to get people used to certain concepts before they actually get engaged with them, even if it has nothing to do with the actual concept you want them to engage with. Let me give you an example. He did a study where he had people draw short lines and had other people draw long lines, just drawing lines on a paper. Then he asked the two groups, the short line people and the long line people, to guesstimate how long the Mississippi River was. Yep, you guessed it. The people that drew long lines had more of an accurate guess. The short line people, their guesses were way too short on the length of the Mississippi River. I know this sounds a little bit crazy, but that's just how our brains work. When you get your mind used to certain things, it works. Ever wonder why in a sales video or in a sales technique, they show you a price, the value of the actual product that's way higher than the actual selling price? It's so your mind gets used to higher numbers. When your mind sees a number like $10,000, your mind starts to conceptualize that number, how large $10,000 means. Once your mind has kind of established that and you tell them, "Hey, this is valued at $10,000," or "Our competitors charge you this much," or "It will cost you this much if you had to do it on your own," and then when you present your price, let's say, for example, it's $2,000. In comparison, $2,000 is a whole lot less. Now, it's important to know that they're not comparing two prices. They're actually just comparing where their mind was. Their mind was at $10,000, a large number, and then it goes down to $2,000. And therefore $2,000 looks smaller. This is just rudimentary psychology. There's a big difference between going through that exercise where you pre-sway people beforehand versus telling people, "Hey, this is my program. It costs $2,000." They're not ready for that price. That's why they have sticker shock. "Whoa, $2,000 is a lot of money." A lot of money compared to what? Now, Robert Cialdini emphasizes how important it is to be ethical about this. Hey, you can't say $10,000 is valued at $10,000 if you can't prove it, if you can't show it. This is very important, and I definitely encourage you to do this. If you're going to give value, show them how that value was derived. Where's the math on that calculation? If they were to do themselves, add up the cost of doing it to themselves and show them the value. You're not just trying to pull some psychological game with no substance. These numbers have to come from somewhere, and they have to be backed up. The other point that Cialdini really focuses on in the book is the idea of trust. You have to build trust with your audience. If you want to ask for a sale later on. You have to prove to people that you're trustworthy, and a part of that is building a relationship. A part of that is sharing a part of yourself and allowing people to trust you, and therefore you can trust them. Now, trust is a lot easier to build when you're in person, when you're getting to know somebody, but it doesn't mean you can't do it online. There are so many ways to do this via video, via webinar. When it's one-on-one, they see you live, they see you reacting to their questions. You could do this via audio, via podcast. People can hear your emotion. People can hear what you're all about through your voice. So use these mediums to help you build trust with your audience. Literally think about it. How am I going to get closer to my audience so they can really trust me and really confide in me? Really think about it. Think about it. Think of your audience members. Think about the people that are on your webinar, for example. How am I going to build trust with them? How can I make sure they feel that they can trust me? What can I say? What can I share with them? How can I help them? Sometimes just giving an honest answer. One of the best tools to build trust is honesty. Say, for example, they ask me a question that I don't know. I can just answer honestly, say, hey, I don't know, but I want to help you out. So I'm going to look up that answer and email you later on. People really resonate with that. They say, hey, I'm glad that this person is just trying to BS their way through things. And by saying I don't know, it means that, hey, this person is not perfect and I can trust them because they're able to own up to the fact they're not perfect. Guys, I got more on today's Must Read episode, but before that, let me give love to today's sponsor, Tommy John. Over the years, we upgrade so many things: our cars, our phones, our TVs. But when's the last time you've upgraded your underwear? Yeah, your underwear. I can't tell you how nice it feels to wear comfortable underwear. I mean, it's the thing that's closest to your body, and being comfortable gives you confidence. I want to tell you about Tommy John. No, not the surgery. The revolutionary men's underwear brand that refined comfort for guys everywhere, including myself. In fact, I'm wearing Tommy John right now. I love their fit, and they're super light and comfortable. I absolutely love their undershirts. Their undershirts are so smart because they're a bit longer than normal undershirts, and they have this great fit. That means they never come untucked. I hate it when my undershirt comes untucked. It's the worst feeling when your undershirt is untucked but your dress shirt's untucked, so it bunches up and it just feels ridiculous. But with Tommy John, that never happens. I love that, and it's great for travel because when you're getting on a plane or getting in the car, it never comes undone. They have a pair of their socks and they stay up. They have this technology that keep your socks staying up. And get this, all of Tommy John's underwear is backed by their best pair you'll ever wear or it's free guarantee. I love that. Tommy John, no adjustments needed. Hurry to TommyJohn.com/MBA to experience life-changing comfort and get 20% off your first order. That's TommyJohn.com/MBA for 20% off. TommyJohn.com/MBA. Guys, to wrap up today's must-read, Pre-Suasion by Robert Cialdini, it's an absolute masterpiece. There's so much I want to cover, but I just don't have time for it. This really takes a deep dive on the psychology of convincing other people that what you have is what they need. There's a couple of things I really love about this book. One, Robert really, really explains things very well. He gives ample examples. He walks you through how to create these persuasion techniques within your business. So he's a good teacher. He actually shows you how to do it. Number 2, he really emphasizes throughout the book how to use these in an ethical way, how to do this the right way so you're not scammy, so you're transparent with your audience and tell them what you're all about. When you prime people before you actually make an offer, you're actually giving them an education. You're giving them the information to make the right decision. Often we don't give them enough information. Often we don't get them ready enough so they can say, "Yes, this is the right choice. You've given me everything I needed to put my head in the right state of mind." Pick up Persuasion by Robert Cialdini. I actually went through the audio version of this book via Audible, and the narrator of the book is actually fantastic. So if you're looking for a great audiobook, this is a great one as well. Guys, thank you so much for listening to The 100 OMBAs Show, and thank you for hitting subscribe. By hitting subscribe, you get all our episodes automatically. You also let iTunes, Stitcher, Overcast, whatever you're using, know know that you're a true fan, that you love the show, and that they should give us some love because you're subscribing. So by hitting subscribe, it helps us a lot get more exposure, but it also helps us make sure that we get you every episode automatically. Alright, that's it for me today, guys. But before I go, I want to leave you with this. One of the things I love about Must Read episodes is that it forces me to read a book every 2 weeks because I got to cover one, right? We have our Must Reads every other Monday. Reading a book every 2 weeks is It's not a stretch. You just have to get into the routine of it. Whether you're going through audiobooks or if you're going through, you know, books on your Kindle or even physical books. Dedicating the time for it, whether it's 30 minutes in the morning or 30 minutes at night, really helps. So what I encourage you to do is try to pick up the book that I recommend today and see if you can complete it within the 2 weeks before the next Must Read episode. I'm gonna check up on you on the next Must Read. So go ahead, take on the challenge. Pick up Pre-Suasion. We'll put a link in today's show notes. That's at 100mba.net/mba793. All right. I'll check you guys in tomorrow's episode. Until then, take care.

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