“Influence has never been more important”

The opening line from a fascinating breakfast with Dr. Robert Cialdini , the author of what Charlie Munger described as “The book that I give most often as a present and is my top recommendation.”

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A book that sold more copies last year than in any of the previous 40 years since it’s publication. Robert talked about moving from an age of facts to an age of factions. Throw in AI for good measure and is it little wonder this book is at its most influential.

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The book explains the seven levers of influence (Reciprocity, Liking, Unity, Consensus, Authority, Consistency, Scarcity) and has a wealth of fascinating examples from across all sorts of different contexts. I’ve had the privilege of hearing Steve Martin talk to these levers of influence on a number of occasions, and each time I reconnect with the content my mind goes into over-drive about the potential application of the techniques to my context.

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This morning it was brilliant to hear about how Bose Corporation sold 45% more headphones from the application of loss aversion (scarcity) to their marketing, as well as to hear about how The Scouts transformed their fundraising efforts through the application of unity.

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At Evelyn Partners we have seen the benefit of professional help on this topic from Steve and the INFLUENCE AT WORK (UK) team as we think about our approach to client engagement. Similarly, when I was at easyJet we employed the team to help us overhaul our inflight retail menu. In both cases, the disciplined, scientific approach delivered quantifiable benefits to the business and crucially also to our customers.

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My biggest takeaway from this morning, though, was staring me in the face throughout the discussion. “Influence at the heart of all change”. I was sat listening to anecdotes about how influence and persuasion can transform your relationship with your (external) customers. But what I was thinking about was how much less focus I’ve placed (/ seen placed) on the use of the influence levers for internal change and transformation. I wonder if that’s because the techniques are “assumed” or if we just decide it will be harder to prove the ROI of “investing” in deploying expert capability on internal change vs. in how we take our products to market.