Persuading Prospects with Cialdini: Completing the Trigger List

The Product Architects specialises in strategic product design and our secret sauce has always been co-creation, fast-paced prototyping, user validation and iteration. But we've noticed an increased demand for strategy workshops in the last few months.

To intensify interaction during strategy workshops, we invite participants to work collaboratively on a series of exercises. Of all these exercises, our Cialdini poster stands out as a participant favourite (90% popularity vote).

Cialdini's persuasion framework gets us to think about how seven triggers can steer user behaviour. These triggers are a powerful behavioural tool that convinces users. Each trigger also provides a unique perspective that forces workshop participants to think differently about the value proposition.

In our previous article, we covered three triggers (Scarcity, Unity and Reciprocity) in detail. Let's bring the rest of this framework to life: we'll explain the next four triggers and highlight their application with relatable examples.?

Social Proof

As social creatures, we like to follow the crowd. We are inclined to follow popular opinion and tend to be biased towards things other people already like.?

Sony and Bosch have comparable products in the same price range. Although they are both excellent products, if one has over 400 five-star ratings and the other only has 300 five-star ratings... Then I know which one you are going to choose.

Workshop task: We ask participants to think about different ways to provide social proof. This can range from testimonials to ratings and more.?

Authority

Humans prefer to follow expert advice over any other kind of advice. By associating a product with an expert, celebrity or authority figure that has established themselves within a field, people believe in the endorsement.

When Michael Jordan tells basketball players to use Air Jordans, many will follow suit. To date, he is still the most successful Nike sub-brand.

Workshop task: How can you increase your authority as a brand or company??

Liking

We buy into and trust ideas from people we like. According to the principle of liking, we're more likely to say yes to a request if we feel a connection to the person making it.

If two restaurants provide comparable food quality, you'll likely return to the one that is more welcoming and has polite staff. Another example: European banks promote facts whilst US investment banks put up pictures of loving families alongside the explanation of their investment services. They play on emotion and are generally more successful as a result.

Workshop task: We invite participants to think about how they can make their product or service more lovable and likeable.?

Consistency and Commitment

People will defend the path that they've started down, even if it proves to be less optimal. We also distrust inconsistency as it invokes less trust. This is why companies need to be consistent in their messaging across all channels: any inconsistencies can be perceived as deception. However, the key idea is to get users to invest time and effort into a product as they will have a harder time retracting their commitment.

Providing a free three-month subscription that automatically rolls into a paying subscription is an excellent example of this strategy. IKEA is another example: IKEA doesn't even assemble your product, but you are inclined to love the piece more as you've invested time and effort to assemble it yourself.

Workshop task: How can you make users invest some time or effort into your value proposition? Can you lure them in and then ask for more commitment??

If you want to include triggers into your product or service, then give this framework a try. You will be pleasantly surprised by the results. If you want to use our workshop poster, then get in touch with us or drop your email in the comments and we will send a copy to you.