Marketing
by Robert Cialdini
What happens before you ask?
Robert Cialdini spent decades studying why people say yes. In Pre-Suasion he looks at the moment just before a request. Whatever someone is paying attention to right then shapes how they respond. The most successful persuaders he watched put much of their effort into setting up that moment.
Hear a sample · read by Laura
This is Cialdini's name for the points when a person is unusually open to a message. You needn't wait for one to come along. You can create it by drawing attention to the right idea just before you speak, so your request arrives when they're ready for it.
Whatever we focus on, we tend to treat as important and as the cause of what happens. In one study, people watched a filmed police confession. When the camera faced the suspect, viewers were more likely to think the suspect had confessed freely than when it faced the detective.
Some things pull our attention without asking, like sex, danger and anything unusual. Others hold it, like information about ourselves, unfinished tasks and mysteries. Cialdini started framing his lectures as mysteries to solve, and found students stayed with him to the answer.
Cialdini's earlier book, Influence, named six principles of persuasion. Pre-Suasion adds a seventh, unity, the feeling that someone is one of us. It grows from being together, through family or place, and from acting together, like singing, moving in time or making something side by side.
The moment before
What you show people just before you ask shapes how they hear the ask.
Attention
Whatever holds our attention starts to seem more important than it really is.
Openers
Ask someone if they see themselves as adventurous, and they are likelier to try something new.
Backgrounds
Shoppers on a sofa website with fluffy clouds behind the page cared more about comfort than price.
Unity
We say yes more readily to people we feel are one of us.
A story from the book
Researchers Naomi Mandel and Eric Johnson built an online furniture shop. Some visitors saw a welcome page with fluffy clouds in the background. Others saw coins. The cloud group cared more about comfort and leaned towards comfier sofas. The coin group paid more attention to price.
Hot take · true or myth?
The best persuaders spend most of their effort polishing the message itself.
Myth. Cialdini found the top performers worked hardest on what came before the message, arranging for people to be open to it before they heard it.
One thing to try
Before your next big request, decide what the other person should have in mind when they hear it, and bring that up first. Asking a colleague to help on a hard project? Start by asking about the tricky problem they cracked last year.
Knotd has the key ideas from 250+ non-fiction books, each in a few minutes, in plain words. Pre-Suasion comes with a Hot Take round to make it stick.
Get the whole book on KnotdOpen in the appWhat happens before you ask? Robert Cialdini spent decades studying why people say yes. In Pre-Suasion he looks at the moment just before a request. Whatever someone is paying attention to right then shapes how they respond. The most successful persuaders he watched put much of their effort into setting up that moment.
Privileged moments; What's focal is presumed causal; What grabs and what holds; Unity, the seventh principle.
Before your next big request, decide what the other person should have in mind when they hear it, and bring that up first. Asking a colleague to help on a hard project? Start by asking about the tricky problem they cracked last year.
Yes. Knotd has the key ideas from Pre-Suasion in a few minutes, in plain words, plus a Hot Take round to test them. It's one of 250+ non-fiction books in the app.
