How to influence your customers

As a business owner, you need to know how to influence your customers. You want them to buy from you and not your competition. A great place to start is the work of Robert Cialdini, a Professor of Psychology and Marketing who is an expert in persuasion, compliance, and negotiation.

After years of research, Professor Cialdini concluded everyone is subconsciously influenced by the same six principles. We can use these principles in business to influence our customers ethically.

1. Reciprocity

When someone sends you a Christmas card, you feel obliged to send them one back, don’t you? When you give someone something, they’ll want to give you something in return. It’s a natural, instinctive reaction.

If your business gives people something, they’ll be more inclined to give you their business in return. The question is: what can your business give away? It could be a free consultation, samples, a month’s subscription, or some advice.

What you offer depends on your business, but it must always be profitable for you (the sales that come after must cover the cost of the freebie) and useful or valuable in some way to your customers (otherwise it’ll influence them in the wrong direction).

2. Commitment and Consistency

This starts with you, the supplier. Make sure your service or product is consistent by using documented systems and processes. Next, you want to consistently show up in the right places at the right time with the right expertise. This will take you halfway to getting a commitment from your customers.

You can get the rest of the way by building a tribe. Make your customers feel like they are a part of something. One way to do that is a loyalty reward; give your customer something just for being customers.

You might also think about some consistent social media activities such as a monthly competition or customer of the month. Perhaps you have a product or service that lends itself to getting your customers committing to something and sharing their progress on Facebook.

See my guide on Social Media for more tips and ways to use Social Media to nurture your prospects.

3. Social proof

That brings us to perhaps our most important stop on the road to learning how to influence your customers. Most people will trust what others say about your business before they believe what you say about your business.

It’s simple, but nearly everyone forgets this. It will be a lot harder to make sales if people can’t see others talking about your business positively, which means reviews and testimonials. The more personal and specific they are the better, which is why video is the most powerful. Otherwise, include a photo and name with every testimonial on your website.

You can use a review platform, like LinkedIn, Google, or Trustpilot for extra credibility, but choose a method to collect reviews and stick to it. 2,000 reviews in 1 place are usually better than 1,000 reviews in 2 places. Reviews prove people used your product or service and liked it, which makes others more likely to try it themselves.

4. Authority

People believe authorities (sometimes even when they shouldn’t) simply because they’re seen as an authority (sometimes even when they aren’t one). And in this context, authority is synonymous with being an expert. If you’re seen to be an expert, you must be someone worth listening to. If you’re someone worth listening to, then what you provide must be worth money.

So how can you be seen as an expert? The easiest way is to be in the public eye, ideally on TV or in reputable media channels. Speaking at an event would be good too. Being a published author is another way to establish yourself as an expert, so could you write a book? I know this doesn’t sound easy, but write 20 blogs and you’re most of the way to a book.

But even if you don’t want to write a book, you can make sure that all your output is showing off your expertise. Whether that’s social media posts, ebooks, advertising or anything else you do. Always think about ways that you can prove to people that you’re the expert in your field.

5. Liking

No matter how big the business is, people still buy from people. We prefer to deal with someone we know, like and trust, so it’s important to be likeable. And how do you do that in a business sense? First and foremost, be a real person.

Don’t be afraid to share a little bit of yourself. Put something of your hobbies or interests on your social media or website. Not too much but enough to make you a real, likeable person. As a bonus, a certain number of your customers will want to share their interests with you. Now you’ve got something to talk about!

It’s important for this to be sincere. Not just because good people don’t lie, but because you’ll get caught out. This isn’t about bullshitting your way in. It’s about being genuine. Use natural language. Use photos of yourself on your website so people can see what you look like. Be positive, be helpful, be encouraging.

6. Scarcity

This one is straight forward but tricky to get right. Call it FOMO, sales fever, or simply human nature, but when something is in short supply (or looks like it is) people grab it with both hands. Think about the queue when a new iPhone is released, the rush for the January sales, or even any special offer ever.

It’s always only 50 copies available, or the offer ends on Monday, or “limited edition”, isn’t it? It might seem trite, but they keep doing it because they know it works. Try it for yourself. Run a special offer with a deadline. You’ll usually see more takers as the deadline looms.

So, there you go. Those are the six principles that show you how to influence your customers. And if you can implement these in your business, you’ll find it much easier to move people from lead to happy customer.