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The Book in One Sentence
- Yes! shows how small changes can make a big difference to your powers of persuasion—both at work and at home.
Yes Summary
1. When people feel uncertain about a course of action, they tend to look outside themselves and to other people around them to guide what they do. Hotel guests were 26 percent more likely to reuse their towels after learning that the majority of guests recycled their towels at least once during their stay.
2. It’s usually beneficial for people to follow the behavioral norms associated with a particular environment, situation or circumstances that most closely match their own. Hotel guests were 33 percent more likely to reuse their towels after learning that most of the people who had previously stayed in their room recycled their towels at least once during their stay.
3. Conveying the idea that a behavior is common practice gives strong negative social proof for engaging in that very behavior. Theft tripled when visitors saw a sign conveying the message that many other Petrified Forrest National Park visitors had stolen wood.
4. People tend to change their behavior to align with the norm regardless of whether they were previously behaving in a socially desirable or undesirable way. Homeowners increased their energy consumption after learning that they had been using less energy than their neighbors.
5. Offering people more makes them want less. Employees were less likely to choose a company-sponsored retirement plan when given more options.
6. Sometimes, all you need to do to influence a person’s behavior is to add an option to do nothing. Adding an option to do nothing increased the likelihood that participants would do something and invest extra time and energy in an activity by a big margin.
7. To increase the perceived value of a freebie—e.g. a free security program or gift with purchase—inform or remind customers about the true value of the gift. People were willing to pay around 35 percent less for a pearl bracelet when they saw it bundled with the target product as an add-on than when they saw it as a stand-alone product.
8. To bypass a buyer’s “compromise choice”—a product that falls between what they need, at a minimum, and what they could spend, at a maximum—introduce a third, more expensive product. When Williams-Sonoma introduced a bread-making machine superior to their bestseller, sales of their existing bestseller nearly doubled.
9. When you next find yourself in a competitive situation, arrange, if possible, to appear towards the end of the selection process to place yourself at an increased advantage. In an analysis of Eurovision Song Contests held from 1953 to 2003, artists who performed later in the competition were typically awarded higher marks than those who performed earlier.
10. People generally prefer lists that use familiar numbers regardless of what is being rated. When talking about your company’s rank internally, use the same ranking language as when pitching customers.
11. When a fear-producing message describes danger but the recipients are not told of clear, specific, effective means of reducing the danger, they may deal with the fear by “blocking out” the message or denying that it applies to them. As a result, they may not take action at all. Participants were more likely to get tetanus injection when they received a plan identifying the specific actions they could take to secure it.
12. Reciprocity obligates people to repay others for what we have received from them. Iceland granted American chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer citizenship because “he put Iceland on the international map,” to quote one Icelandic news reporter.
13. The more personalized a request, the more likely one will agree to it. People were more likely to fill out and return a survey when it was accompanied by a handwritten sticky note requesting its completion.
14. To make a gift or favor more persuasive and influential, give the recipient something significant, unexpected, and personalized. Food servers increased their tips by 23 percent by returning to their diners and placing a second mint on the table.
15. Negotiators who offer an early concession and then accompany their concession with a request for a favor appear to place themselves at an advantage. Not only do they create a more collaborative climate for a deal to take place, but they also increase the chances that a deal will take place. Compared to the 40 percent of buyers who agreed to a deal as a result of a straightforward price discount, the addition of a requested favor increased agreement to 62 percent.
16. When trying to solicit cooperation from other people, offer them help in a way that’s genuine and unconditional. Hotel guests were 45 percent more likely to reuse their towels after learning that the hotel had already donated to a charity on behalf of its guests.
17. To make a corporate social responsibility (CSR) program work, persuade decision-makers that it’s worthwhile. Second, look for ways to publicize the charitable deeds that you practice without bragging or appearing self-righteous. Participants who were told about a winery’s support of a charity rated the wine as tasting much better than those who had not been given the additional information.
18. If you do a favor for a colleague or an acquaintance, that favor is likely to have the most impact on that person’s desire to reciprocate within a short period following the favor. If you’re the recipient of a favor, however, you need to be aware of the tendency of people in your position to downplay that favor as time goes by. Recipients of a favor perceived it as more valuable immediately after it was performed but less valuable as time passed.
19. When people comply with a small request, they’re more likely to comply with a similar or larger request, later, due to their need to be consistent. Homeowners agreed to have an unsightly billboard placed on their lawn after agreeing, two weeks earlier, to have a small sign placed in their window.
20. To influence or persuade others, label a trait, attitude, belief or label to a person and then make a request of that person that’s consistent with that label. Potential voters were 15 percent more likely to vote in an election when researchers labeled them as “above-average citizens.”
21. When people are asked to predict whether they’ll engage in a socially desirable behavior in the future, they’ll feel compelled to say yes because that’s what wins social approval under those circumstances. Further, after most (if not all) of these people have publicly stated that they’ll perform the socially desirable behavior, they’ll be motivated to behave consistently with the commitment they have just made. A restaurant owner reduced the percentage of no-shows by having his receptionist change what she said from, “Please call if you have to cancel” to, “Will you please call if you have to cancel?”
22. Commitments that are made actively—like writing down goals—have more staying power than those that are made passively. When students completed a form stating they were willing to volunteer, they were more likely to appear as scheduled.
23. To increase the likelihood that people will remember and carry out the commitments they make, ensure that the request is accompanied with prompts that help people to create a concrete plan for where, when and how they will go about accomplishing what they have agreed to do. Voters were more likely to vote in an upcoming election when they were then asked how they planned to travel to the polling station on election day.
Editor’s Note
James Clear dedicates an entire chapter to “implementation intentions” in his book, Atomic Habits.24. To ensure that a marketing message is persuasive, you need to free people from their previous commitment but also avoid framing their previous decision as a mistake. The most productive way is to praise the previous decision and describe it as correct at the time they made it. Pointing out that the previous choices they made were the right ones given the evidence and information they had at the time can help to free them from their commitment and allow them to focus on your proposal without the need for loss of face or inconsistency.
25. A person who has already performed a favor for another is more likely to do another favor for the other than if they had received a favor from that person. Benjamin Franklin won over a rival legislator by asking to borrow a rare book from his library.
26. Talk to people when commuting to increase your network. People instructed to proactively make a connection with a stranger on public transport reported that they had had a significantly more positive journey experience compared to those who were asked to actively seek solitude.
27. When you want assistance from others, simply pointing out that even a small offering on their part would be acceptable and worthwhile to you is likely to be an effective strategy. People were twice as likely to donate to a charitable cause when told, “Even a penny will help.”
28. If you are in the business of offering goods or services through any kind of competitive bidding process, start the bidding at a fairly low price to enhance the final sale price. When the initial price for an item is high, you’re likely to think it’s worth more than if the initial price were lower.
29. When giving a presentation to people who don’t know you very well, prepare a short biography of yourself. Or, arrange for someone else to introduce you to your audience. Participants rated an author more favorably—especially likeability—when the author’s agent sang his praises as compared to when the author read identical comments himself.
30. Lone decision-makers can’t match the diversity of knowledge and perspectives of a multi-person unit that includes them. Further, the solution-seeker who goes it alone loses another significant advantage—the power of parallel processing.
31. To avoid “captainitis”—a leader’s tendency to overlook the influence that their perceived status and expertise has on those around them—invite others to give their inputs. Accident investigators have repeatedly recorded disastrous instances of an obvious error made by an airline captain that was not corrected by another crew member.
32. To improve group decision-making, promote criticism and skepticism of all viewpoints, especially those favored by the group’s leader. Astute leaders should always ask for the thoughts of others before they make their positions known, thereby ensuring that they have access to a team’s actual thoughts, opinions, and insights rather than those that tell the leader what he or she wants to hear.
33. By encouraging others to persuade us that we may be leaning in the wrong direction, we place ourselves in a position where we gain a greater understanding from a genuine argument. The best policy for leaders is to create and sustain a work environment in which co-workers and subordinates are encouraged to openly disagree with the majority viewpoint.
34. To maximize influence on employee’s future behaviors, devote a sizable portion of their training on how others have made errors in the past and how those errors could have been (and can be) avoided. Firefighters’ judgment improved after undergoing error-based training.
35. Mentioning a small drawback of a product creates the perception that the company advertising the product is honest and trustworthy. Avis, the world’s second-largest car rental company, highlighted a weakness in their memorable motto “Avis. We’re #2, but we try harder. (When you’re not #1, you have to.).”
Editor’s Note
Dan Kennedy talks about “creating damaging admissions” and “addressing flaws openly” in his book, The Ultimate Sales Letter.36. To increase your trustworthiness in the eyes of others, be sure to follow your discussion of a drawback with a virtue that’s related to, and neutralizes, the drawback. During the presidential debate against opponent Walter Mondale, Ronald Reagan acknowledged that he was old, but stated, “I want you to know that also I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent’s youth and inexperience.”
37. If you find yourself in a situation in which you’ve made a mistake, admit it, and follow up immediately with an action plan demonstrating that you can take control of the situation and put it right. When companies explained failures in their annual reports, those that pointed to internal and controllable factors had higher stock prices one year later than those that pointed to external and uncontrollable factors.
38. In cases where problems are due to technical glitches rather than human error, make all the relevant people aware to signal that you have control over the situation. MBA students assigned greater blame to the Office of Information Technology when they believed the disruption was caused by human error rather than by technological error.
39. We tend to feel especially positive towards some subtle things that are associated with ourselves, such as our names. Those who received the survey from someone with a similar-sounding name were nearly twice as likely to fill out and return the package as those who received the surveys from names that were not similar.
40. “Mirroring”—matching the behaviors of others—creates feelings of liking and strengthens bonds between people. Food servers increased their tip size by nearly 70 percent by matching their customer’s verbalization after receiving the order.
41. Experiencing “retail rejection” can increase our motivation to buy, wear or consume products from the very people who are disrespectful to us. When people were rejected by fellow university students, they were subsequently much more likely to buy a university wristband.
42. People can often distinguish between authentic and inauthentic smiles. Restaurant patrons who perceived their food servers to be authentic in their positive displays were more satisfied with their service.
43. Pointing out the fact that your products, services, time and help are limited places greater value on them to the point where people appreciate them and you more. In October 2003, thousands of people stopped their cars and blocked a major motorway just to see Concorde’s final take-off—something that had been visible every single day for the previous thirty years or so.
44. Framing a message by focusing on what the audience stands to lose is more persuasive and influential than what they stand to gain. Homeowners were up to 300 percent more likely to carry out recommended energy efficiency improvements in their home when they were told that they would continue to lose an average of 50 cents a day than homeowners who were told they could save 50 cents a day.
45. Always accompany your requests with a strong rationale, even when you think the reasons might be fairly clear. People were more likely to let a stranger cut in line to use a photocopier when they used the word because—even when followed by a completely meaningless reason (“Because I have to make copies”).
46. Before asking your audience to generate multiple reasons in support of your position, consider just how easily they’ll be able to do so. If the task seems like a relatively difficult one, ask them instead to generate just a few reasons. Advertising copy that asked readers to name ten reasons to choose a BMW led to lower evaluations of the BMW and higher evaluations of Mercedes than the copy that asked the readers to name just one reason to choose a BMW.
47. Statements are often more persuasive than questions because we favor messages that are clear and convey a sense of certainty. Participants who received products that were accompanied by a statement preferred them and found them to be much more interesting than when the same products were accompanied by a question.
48. To make your marketing messages lively, keep an element of novelty in the words you choose while maintaining clarity. If, on the other hand, you are faced with the challenge of persuading risk-averse people, then it is even more important to use easy-to-understand language.
49. Rhyming phrases are characterized by greater fluency, meaning that they’re mentally processed more easily and are therefore more persuasive. If you’re responsible for writing slogans, mottoes, trademarks or jingles, consider using rhymes. They should increase not only the likeability of the message but its perceived truthfulness as well.
50. What you experience first determines the perception of the next thing you experience. A home improvement company was able to increase the sales of one of its top-of-the-range backyard hot tubs by over 500 percent by (a) telling prospective customers that many buyers of the top-of-the-range model reported that having it was like adding an extra room to the house and then (b) asking them to consider how much it would cost to build another room on to the side of their house.
51. People are more likely to stick to programs and tasks if you offer them evidence of how they’ve already made progress toward completing them. People who were given a loyalty card with two already affixed stamps were more likely to claim their bonus than those who did not have a head start.
52. Naming influences consumer preferences. Ambiguous names, such as millennium orange, prompt consumers to try to discover, in the absence of any meaningful information, what the makers of the product are trying to convey with that name.
53. We tend to feel less satiated when we consume things slowly, especially when those things are part of a wider variety. Our “recovery” from satiation can also be influenced if time is left between consumption periods.
54. Memory aids ensure that marketing messages don’t fade. Any major advertising campaign needs to integrate the essential images, characters or slogans of the ads into the in-store product displays and product packaging the consumer sees when making a purchase decision.
55. Viewing ourselves in a mirror causes us to act in more socially desirable ways. Children took fewer sweets from a confectionery bowl when they had to look at themselves in a mirror beforehand.
56. Feeling sad affects our decision-making abilities. Sad buyers were willing to purchase the item for around 30 percent more than were emotionally neutral buyers. And sad sellers were willing to part with the item for around 33 percent less than were their emotionally neutral counterparts.
57. People’s decision-making abilities can be impaired by events, not because they induce negative feelings, but rather because it is an emotionally charged issue. Participants who had earlier practiced thinking in an unemotional manner were willing to pay more for the set of ten CDs than for the set of five.
58. We’re more susceptible to influence and persuasion if we’re distracted. People walking around an outdoor baking sale were more likely to purchase a cupcake when the vendors referred to them as “half-cakes” rather than “cupcakes,” but only when this was followed by, “They’re delicious!”
59. Coffee makes us more receptive to influence and persuasion. Participants who had consumed caffeinated beverages before reading controversial arguments were 35 percent more favorably disposed towards that position than were those who drank an unadulterated drink.
60. Personalization boosts ad performance. The most effective kind of personalization is nonintrusive.
Recommended Reading
If you like Yes, you might also like:
- Triggers: 30 Sales Tools You Can Use to Control the Mind of Your Prospect to Motivate, Influence and Persuade by Joe Sugarman