Pre-Suasion BOOK SUMMARY: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade | by Jays Geronca

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Today, I have the book summary of the much-awaited sequel of Dr. Robert Cialdini’s bestseller, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. Influence is about persuasion, the art and science of getting a YES. Pre-Suasion is about making people receptive to your message before you even say it. It’s about Psychological Framing, and it’s crucial.

Cialdini spent years researching people in the field of influence. These are salespeople, marketers, negotiators, politicians, etc. He found out that the top performers spent (a lot of) time crafting what they do and say (Pre-Suasion) more than the message itself. Pre-Suasion has a set of practical ways of making people more receptive to your message.

from HubSpot Blog

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Here is one example from the book. A Consulting Firm had challenges with prospects asking for discounts and questioning their fees. One day, they started their pitch with a joke, “As you know, I can’t charge you a million dollars for this…,” before saying their price. Nobody challenged their price anymore.

They incorporated the joke in every presentation. It was all by chance. They didn’t do it consciously. But they were applying the concept of Price Anchoring. The million dollars was only a joke, but it made the $75,000 price seem reasonable. Anchoring eliminated a significant objection that probably lost them clients in the past.

When people pay attention to something, it becomes more important to them, or at least seem that way. Mainstream and social media uses this to its full advantage. Media does not change your mind directly. But they can control what story or issue gets the most attention. They can control what people talk about. When several people talk about something (because they see and hear it everywhere), they assume that it’s important.

If you want to persuade anyone, find a way to capture, hold, and direct their attention.

If you argue in your work or personal life, you convince the other person by giving them reasons. That could be a hard way to change someone’s mind. A more powerful tactic is to change where the person is paying attention. Attention is limited. It’s a scarce resource. We can only pay attention to one thing at a time. When something comes up, we almost immediately forget the other thing. Politicians use this a lot. When a reporter asks something that puts a politician in a negative light, they don’t argue against it. Instead, they change the narrative. They might say that a project costs hundreds of billions in tax dollars and decades to complete (negative), but created jobs and contributed to the economy (new narrative, positive). It changes people’s perception of how they see the project.

from Advertising Week

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If you ask the right questions, you get the right answers. Asking targeted questions is a powerful way to direct people’s attention. Look at these two questions, for example.

Are you happy with your job/relationships?
Are you unhappy with your job/relationships?

Question #1 made you think and feel about the happiness in your life. Question #2 made you think and feel about the unhappiness. Questions have power, and they can guide your attention.

Before you can direct attention, you must grab it. Here are the best attention grabbers.

That is why you see many attractive people in advertisements in all forms of media. Attractive people make you look. But then you look at the product or copy headlines. That might lead to sales.

Be afraid, that is the message of the danger tactic. The health industry uses this as a powerful tool. The news, politicians, and political content creators use it too.

It can be something new, original, or unusual. The last novelty ad I saw was Twice, a popular K-pop group, singing their hit song What Is Love from 2018, in 2023, selling Oishi Crackers. When I was still in real estate, the top seller told us he used pink or neon green envelopes for his marketing mailers. That stands out from the sea of white mail envelopes people receive every day.

from Manila Bulletin

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How do you hold people’s attention? You need the most interesting person in the world. Who is it? Themselves. The most interesting person to anyone is themselves. Make the conversation about them, and it will make them pay attention. Think about all the advertisements through the years that feel like it’s directly talking to you. That was by design. You were the target market/demo for that ad.

Unity is the feeling that you are part of something bigger than you. It can be a shared group, identity, or worldview. Die-hard sports fans or voters of politicians or political parties will say “we won” or “we lost”, not they. You also see a similar language to religious people. “That is our church”, they say. The deepest and most significant Unity of all is the family. Blood is thicker. Use language or actions that make people feel they are part of something bigger. You are one of them.

Big companies use this tactic as part of their branding. We associate Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and LVMH with Luxury. We associate Walmart or Dollar General with convenience and low prices. We associate Nike with hard work and excellence in any field, not just athletics. Big companies have mastered creating these subtle connections in our minds.

Another way of creating Connections is using words. It bothers me sometimes that companies use the word investment to sell almost anything. A luxury bag is an investment, but so is that thousand-dollar course or NFT. Beware of how marketers use it against you.

The next time you want to persuade someone, keep 3 things in mind.

Where is it directed and can you hold it?

Are you part of the team? Part of them? And how do you demonstrate that?

What positive mental connection or association can you make to yourself or your product/service?

Also, use Pre-Suasion and Persuasion to protect yourself so that we wouldn’t be vulnerable to marketers, politicians, con artists, and fake religious figures. We can now spot the sheep from the wolves in sheeps clothing.

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