Influence- The Psychology of Sales

This is article is the first in a 4-part series I am writing to cover Robert Cialdini’s work in depth. This article is about his first book, Influence, and covers each of the six principles he identified as the strongest influential tactics used by sales professionals.

If you have never heard of Robert Cialdini please let me be the first to educate you on the work of the uncontested king of psychological influence tactics.

Cialdini’s first major best selling book, called Influence, was written in the 80’s and, after a brief period of odd un-notoriety, the book took off and has remained on the best sellers business list ever since.

Robert Cialdini is a powerhouse psychologist who self-experiments the tactics of persuasion in the arena of sales. If you ever want to learn why people buy things and how they come to that decision- his works are a must-read.

In his first book, Influence, Cialdini identified six psychological principles that get people to say ‘’ yes” and work almost every single time they are employed.

In this article, I will break down each of the six principles and offer an example of each of…