Inside Influence Report

Money Can Buy Happiness…But Not in the Way You’d Think

By Noah Goldstein, Ph.D.

For company bonuses, 2009 was a year to forget. If you were one of the lucky few to receive one at all (without being forced to give it back to the government or having an egg thrown at you by an angry protester), chances are that you saved the money or spent it on something you thought would make you happy, such as a new TV, laptop, cell phone, music player, or vacation.  And that makes perfect sense. After all, one major purpose of bonuses is to increase the happiness of the rewarded employees, and a great deal of research shows that happy employees are loyal and productive employees. But recent research conducted by behavioral scientists Elizabeth Dunn, Lara Aknin, and Michael Norton (2008) finds that how workers spend their bonus money is what really influences worker happiness. The general finding? Bonus money can buy happiness, but probably not in the way that you’d think.

Need a Good New Year’s Resolution?

Resolve to be More Influential and Ethical in 2010 by Attending
The Principles of Persuasion (POP) Workshop?!

Seats is limited for this March 25 & 26, 2010 class.

This is the only course on the ethical application of influence actually endorsed by Dr. Cialdini. The Principles of Persuasion (POP) Workshop is an inspiring, innovative and invaluable session for anyone seeking to improve effectiveness and productivity.

Based on his pioneering book, Influence: Science and Practice, the two-day workshop demonstrates how to ethically apply Dr. Cialdini's six principles to produce lasting change and avoid common influence traps. It teaches strategies on how to create and maintain trusted relationships, how to avoid bungling away critical "moments of power" and interactively shows how small, strategic changes can yield lasting results.

What you will miss out on by not attending:

• How to avoid bungling away critical "moments of power".
• The powerful Six Principles of Persuasion and how you can ethically apply them to produce lasting change in others.
• Yet unpublished information including amplifiers and activators for the universal 6 principles of influence.
• What scientific research tells us that is different from conventional wisdom about how to most effectively influence others.
• How to steer clear of common influence traps that are manipulative and lead to bad business decisions.
• How you can shorten the cycle to create and keep trusted relationships by being a "Detective of Influence".
• How to identify small changes in your current approaches to make big differences in people's willingness to say yes to your requests.
• How to know when using one specific Principle of Persuasion will be more effective than others.
• How the most recent social science research can be applied to improve your business outcomes.

To Register, click here.

To see what others like you are saying about this workshop, click here.

Big Think Influence Video Series

View the Big Think video of Dr. Cialdini on the neuroscience of influence.

ANNOUNCING: Now available in paperback for the first time!!

 

YES! 50 SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN WAYS TO BE PERSUASIVE
By Noah J. Goldstein, PhD, Steve J. Martin, and Robert B. Cialdini PhD

“Goldstein, Martin and Cialdini…demonstrate how the subtle addition, subtraction or substitution of a word, phrase, symbol or gesture can significantly influence consumer behavior.  The authors illustrate the simple and surprising approaches that can hone a company’s marketing strategies.  This amusing book has equal value and appeal for executives, salespeople – even parents trying to persuade their kids to do homework.” —Publishers Weekly

The power of social persuasion is uncovered in YES! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive– now out in paperback for the first time. YES! scientifically proves that it’s not what you say, but how you say it that really counts. Authors Noah Goldstein, Steve Martin, and Robert Cialdini explain the hidden rules of persuasion that will revolutionize how you advertise, act, write, and speak. In brief, bite-sized chapters, readers will learn vital lessons that will help make them more persuasive at work and at home. And they don’t just talk statistics – they highlight real-life anecdotes and vividly bring the lessons to life.

Among other surprises, YES! explains which single word will strengthen your persuasion attempts (the answer: because), whether to start low or start high to make people buy (starting lower will actually lead to a higher sale), how a new superior product can actually increase sales of an inferior one, and when offering people more make them want less. These lessons, and 46 others, await readers in YES! Regardless of whether you’re a salesperson, manager, marketer, negotiator, educator, policymaker, lawyer, heath care worker, food server, eBayer, or parent, this book is designed to help you become a master persuader.  Engaging, practical, and often amusing, YES! will teach you how to be more convincing to your colleagues and friends.

The Time Versus Money Effect

By Steve Martin, CMCT

From billboards and newspapers to TV commercials and online advertisements, references to time and money are commonplace in marketing and advertising campaigns. A survey of the recent issues of four popular, high circulation magazines (New Yorker, Cosmopolitan, Money and Rolling Stone) revealed that out of a total of some 300 advertisements almost half employed a reference to time or money in their message. But does mentioning time or money influence peoples’ evaluation of the product or service concerned? And if they do which is more persuasive – time or money? 

Campaigns that promote certain brands of beers have long used references to time and money in their advertisements. Take for example Miller and their “It’s Miller Time” commercials. In contrast Stella Artois take a money led approach by informing potential consumers that “perfection has its price” and that Stella Artois is “reassuringly expensive”.  It’s not just beer manufacturers that employ such approaches. Citibank, one of the world’s largest banking corporations, chose to focus on time rather than money in a campaign that proclaimed “there is no preset limit when it comes to spending time with your family”.