Product Description

Small changes can make a big difference in your powers of persuasion

What one word can you start using today to increase your persuasiveness by more than fifty percent?

Which item of stationery can dramatically increase people's responses to your requests?

How can you win over your rivals by inconveniencing them?

Why does knowing that so many dentists are named Dennis improve your persuasive prowess?

Every day we face the challenge of persuading others to do what we want. But what makes people say yes to our requests? Persuasion is not only an art, it is also a science, and researchers who study it have uncovered a series of hidden rules for moving people in your direction. Based on more than sixty years of research into the psychology of persuasion, Yes! reveals fifty simple but remarkably effective strategies that will make you much more persuasive at work and in your personal life, too.

Cowritten by the world's most quoted expert on influence, Professor Robert Cialdini, Yes! presents dozens of surprising discoveries from the science of persuasion in short, enjoyable, and insightful chapters that you can apply immediately to become a more effective persuader. Why did a sign pointing out the problem of vandalism in the Petrified Forest National Park actually increase the theft of pieces of petrified wood? Why did sales of jam multiply tenfold when consumers were offered many fewer flavors? Why did people prefer a Mercedes immediately after giving reasons why they prefer a BMW? What simple message on cards left in hotel rooms greatly increased the number of people who behaved in environmentally friendly ways?

Often counterintuitive, the findings presented in Yes! will steer you away from common pitfalls while empowering you with little known but proven wisdom.

Whether you are in advertising, marketing, management, on sales, or just curious about how to be more influential in everyday life, Yes! shows how making small, scientifically proven changes to your approach can have a dramatic effect on your persuasive powers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4473 in Books
• Published on: 2008-06-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 272 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781416570967
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Goldstein, Martin and Cialdini meld social psychology, pop culture and field research to demonstrate how the subtle addition, subtraction or substitution of a word, phrase, symbol or gesture can significantly influence consumer behavior. Interspersing references to Britney Spears, the Smurfs and Sex and the City with more academic concepts such as loss aversion and the scarcity principle, the authors illustrate the simple and surprising approaches that can hone a company's marketing strategies. Witty chapters detail the allure of the yellow Post-it, the tip-garnering capabilities of an after-dinner mint, how highlighting a product's weaknesses can increase its appeal, the powerful role of third-party testimonials, how doctors can convince patients to adopt healthier choices by prominently displaying academic credentials in their offices, and how mirroring another person's gestures can elicit a more generous response by strengthening a perceived bond. While written primarily for a marketing audience, this amusing book has equal value and appeal for executives, salespeople—even parents trying to persuade their kids to do homework. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"If you had a team of bright guys looking for research that you can actually use to improve your effectiveness, and they wrote it up for you with wit and style, putting it in nifty little reports of three to five pages, would that be useful? YES! This book is the trifecta: first-rate research, lively writing, and practical advice. Read it, enjoy it, use it."-- Dale Dauten, nationally syndicated King Features columnist and author of The Gifted Boss

Review
"This easy-to-read summary of the social-psychological research on persuasion really does tell people how to get to 'yes.' Since we are all selling something, including ourselves, all the time, everyone can, and will be, reading this amazing book."-- Jeffrey Pfeffer, professor, Stanford Graduate School of Business, and author of What Were They Thinking? Unconventional Wisdom About Management

"Yes! is the single best introduction to and distillation of research and wisdom on how to change people's minds, including your own."-- Warren Bennis, Distinguished Professor of Business, University of Southern California, author of On Becoming a Leader and coauthor of Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls

"Yes! is the Freakonomics of social psychology. This book changed my way of looking at the world. This thinking is the real deal. Don't miss out!"-- Daniel Finkelstein, Comment Editor, The Times (London)

"If you had a team of bright guys looking for research that you can actually use to improve your effectiveness, and they wrote it up for you with wit and style, putting it in nifty little reports of three to five pages, would that be useful? YES! This book is the trifecta: first-rate research, lively writing, and practical advice. Read it, enjoy it, use it."-- Dale Dauten, nationally syndicated King Features columnist and author of The Gifted Boss

Customer Reviews

Dale Carnegie's Classic How to Win Friends - Turns Scientific
Much like the Dale Carnegie classic, one could consider this the scientific version with current and updated studies and field tested facts. Though many will probably purchase this book primarily due to Robert Cialdini's authorship based on his polymath classic "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion", I had to rate this book (in my view a sequel) at only 3 stars. This somewhat lower grade is mainly due to the fact that it is very hard to surpass oneself after one has published a masterpiece (no disrespect to the other co-authors). Regardless, this book still holds its own and the stories are fast moving with heavy doses (50 to be exact) of social influences, such as:

1) Social Proof Studies
2) Reciprocation Tendency
3) Authority Respecting
4) Commitment & Consistency Response
5) Scarcity Reaction, and
6) The Liking & Loving Response

If you have previously read Influence, you will like this book. If you have not, this book is a good introductory start on the subject matter of social influences. If one really likes this subject and wants to pursue it in more depth, please also refer to other fine books on the subject such as, How We Know What Isn't So (very good), Mean Markets and Lizard Brains (Hidden Gem), The Psychology of Judgment & Decision Making (Classic), or Poor Charlie's Almanack (Charlie's Insights). Good reading and enjoy :)

Pretty good but why not read the masterpiece prequel first?
If you haven't read "Influence" by Robert Cialdini then I would strongly recommend skipping this one for now and starting with that one. Cialdini's original book was one of the best psychology books I have ever read. This one is more like a sequel and like most sequels, it is not as good. In Cialdini's "Influence", he talks about 6 weapons of influence:

1) Reciprocity
2) Liking
3) Social Proof
4) Authority
5) Scarcity
6) Commitment and Consistency

This book consists of 50 short chapters where these weapons are at work. Very entertaining and insightful, but I felt that the authors violated some of their own advice by having so many chapters and not organizing them in any particular way. For example, the chapters each demonstrated one of the weapons of influence at work and perhaps the book should have been organized more formally into 6 parts with each part representing one of the weapons. I was very entertained but I am not sure if the book will have any long lasting educational value unlike "Influence".

This is a quick read and I highly recommend it AFTER you have read Cialdini's "Influence".

Dr. Cialdini does it again! -- A must-read book!
This is Dr. Cialdini's most important publication since Influence: Science and Practice.

Based on real research, not merely anecdotal evidence. Its scientific conclusions are the basis for a whole new branch of psychology. Neuro-Linguistic Programming students, take notice. You could model these techniques.

This is essential reading for all marketers, sales people, lawyers, business owners -- anyone who wants and needs to understand ethical persuasion and negotiation.

Not to be missed!