The Psychology of Persuasion: How To Persuade Others To Your Way Of Thinking

In the beginning of the book Kevin wanted me to do a self evaluation before I could read further. I put the book down. Not another self eval I thought. A few days later I thought well why not. So I unwillingly did the exercises with ease. I was surprised! It felt good that I knew enough about myself that I could breeze through the questions that I wrote in ink. Then I started to read the book. Wow! I'm glad the majority of people on earth don't know about this book! Yay for me! I want Kevin to have the sales, but shhhh don't tell anybody....This book is amazing! It makes me wonder if some of the self help guru took some of Kevin's words... Anyway this book is deep and full of examples. Where do I start? Well I guess I'll start with myself. Because of the psychology factor in the book I was able to get more of an idea of the type of person I am (Director/Analytical) but it's more than that. One of the points that stand out for me is the term "values." I've seen that word a lot in various self help books but for whatever reason I didn't "get it." The way Kevin explains it I got it. He says to ask questions to get the intel. Means values and ends values: Means values are objects or actions. Some of Kevins examples of means values include houses, cars, investments, computers, traveling, children, marriage etc. for me this was exciting intel. Ends values are the 'feelings associated with those means'. Some of Kevins examples are love, fun excitement, happiness, freedom, security, adventure health, power etc. a lite bulb went on in my head. This is important terms of understanding myself and others. There is soooo much more! I've read plenty marketing, copywriting, negotiation and self help books, but this book is a masterpiece that ties it all together. If you read this book first (several times) you will become a MP and everything else will fall into place! Excellent work Kevin Hogan!

In April 2006 as I was starting a new job in Sales returning to work from time off as a widow, a GF in Biz Dev lent me two books on Sales. One of them she pulled out and showed me the intriguing opening pages of each chapter which had a visual representing how each chapter built upon the other so we had a whole picture of how to effectively and ethically persuade others. She looked me in the eye, nodded, and said, "THIS one, THIS one you will want to read and implement." Boy, she was NOT kidding! Kevin Hogan provides a wonderful combination of academic cool research and clear practical steps that any sales person (who is NOT a sales person in some aspect of their life, I ask you?), entrepreneur, spouse and parent can actually understand and APPLY in their life. After each Law he demonstrates, Hogan provides not just one example that is so abstract that it's of no use. Oh no! Hogan instead provides 10 clear cut examples from a cross-section of life which anyone can SO easily copy and apply to your field that he makes Persuasion just SO easy. And he is always reading cutting edge research. So this is not dull dry (sorry, you know what I mean, meaning no disrepect to academia) research which we can't understand. Not at all! 13 years later, Psychology of Persuasion is still the number one sales book I recommend every sales person and entrepreneur read and apply. It is clearly a must addition to your library!

Very interesting book. Gives some good information on how to persuade people to see your point of view and even agree to it. It goes over the 9 basic rules that a person thinks about before he makes his final decision on anything. And it also gives you different ways to persuade people and examples of how it is used. This is the first persuasion book that I've purchased and reading it gave me some very good insight on not just persuasion but on life itself. It also made me want to know more about persuasion and influence. People that should pick up this book: Anyone that wants to get more out of life.

This book has so much valuable information to help you influence others to get more of the results you want. And it gives you this info in bite-sized chunks you can use and build on. The book builds on the terrific work that Cialdini has done and reported in his books, which any student of influence will also buy and study. Hogan expands Cialdini's number of persuasion principles ("laws") from six to nine and fills the book with examples to teach you how to use them and scores of influence methods and techniques. When we do choose to persuade someone, we want certain results. Anyone who consistently uses this book's simple model of outcome-based thinking will reap dollar benefits at least hundreds of times greater than the price of this book. And Hogan teaches you this in just ten pages. Each chapter ends with a short summary in outline form. This helped me grasp the information the first time I read the book and has made it easy for me to quickly review the material when I've gone back to it. I highly recommend that you buy and study this book, and then review the short chapter summaries from time to time.

As a sales professional, this has long been one of my favorite books on how to persuade effectively. Kevin Hogan offers ten specific topics for detailed discussion, and then he offers concrete real-world examples for each one of them. When I read in the Wall Street Journal yesterday that this was one of the few allowed books in the common area library at Goldman Sachs, I was reminded to pick it back up and read through it again. Now I have another page and a half of ideas to implement that will help me be a more effective sales pro.

This book will teach you everything you need to know about persuasion, conversation, eye contact, and rapport. This book could potentially turn an autistic man into a charismatic salesmen.

I have been a salesman all of my life (I remember incidents back to the age of 5). This is the best redition of the subject of persuasion that I have ever read. It is honest, clear and presented in a way that the "art" of persuasion is "learnable". Many self help books merely confuse and create insecurity. This book does not. ROBERT A ROSENBLUM

This book is silly at times, religious at times. Makes some sense. And is also laughable at times.

Good book

This is definitely one of my better purchases. Insightful, well explained and presented with an excellent structure. And if that didn't warm the cockles of your heart - Kevin Hogan also approaches the idea of persuasion from a moral and positive PoV. His fundamental principle is 'WIN/WIN' - How to ensure a situaiton benefits both parties. A handy little thing to keep in the back of your mind... "am I benefitting enough for what I'm being requested?", "can I sway the other person with a more certain WIN?" So am I writing to tell you all how, using the tactics in this book, I single-handedly convinced the Government to put £1 million of tax-payers money towards Neopolitan ice cream? No. In fact, I've barely used the tactics at all (I may have used some without knowing, but that's not particularly helpful). I don't work in a field requiring selling/persuasion and generally aren't in a position where I need to persuade peers to my way of thinking... So why the glimmering review? What results could I possibly have seen? (After all, results are what matters with books like these - it's all well having a nice theory, but it needs to work!) Simple - I have saved myself a ton of time, money and hassle by spotting the times when these very same tactics are being used against me. Y'see - Even if you don't intend to use the tactics for your own purposes, it pays off to arm yourself with this knowledge. Knowing how the media, con artists and companies will attempt to sway you, will allow you to become resistent to their tricks and spot them before you end up signing your life away... something well worth the price of the book. To read this is a bit like equipping yourself with a 'persuasion radar'... you suddenly start becoming aware of tricks being used against you. Even if you cannot identify them immediately, you still get a funny feeling telling that something's wrong. I've had it several times, where I've rejected a seemingly logical and fair deal because something didn't sit right. On referring to the book later on, I generally found it was one of the tactics - almost word for word. So whilst I can't accurately comment on the effectiveness of the materials - What I will say is that this pretty much covers every trick in the proverbial book, and gives you several real-life examples of how each is used. It also brings in elements of sociology, psychology and non-verbal communication - which is always handy To be honest though, I can't see why this wouldn't be a brilliant study-aid to those who want to use the materials inside. The structure is very well laid out (Splitting up the persuasion process into its vital elements) and you're given several examples and exercises to help practice and ingrain the ideas for your own purposes. Whilst I haven't had a chance to put these to rigorous testing - the fact that I've seen all the tactics he's outlined at least hints he knows what he's talking about! Peace

J'aime ce livre ça prouve que c est un psychologue expérimenté et intelligent qu'il a écrit

GOOD BOOK!

This is my 2nd or maybe 3rd book on the subject. Its useful to learn to be persuasive and to learn when such tools are being used on you! Unlike other books this one stood out because not only did it cover the major aspects of persuasive techniques it also provided a framework of how they can be applied through the 'Paradigm of Persuasion'. This does help you to understand how persuasion techniques can be applied to an even greater level of effectiveness. The book manages to cover all the major topics in the field and is a bit more of a how-to book than others that are available. What I also liked about this book was that it provided a few good example scenarios of the "Master Persuader" and how one would apply said techniques. Overall the book is well written and concise and most importantly it delivers. A downside to the book is that it does seem to be oriented towards consultative salespeople and I am concerned that this might deter people from what is otherwise a very good book. And what you learn from it can be applied to nearly all social interactions from motivating family or dealing with co-workers. Assuming you take the time to practice it. While the book does provide great tips, it is however much harder to apply "on-the-fly" without a lot of experience and practice. If however you are a salesperson these techniques would be really valuable in developing a sales pitch or sales script. For everyone else I'm afraid its going to be a little more involved to practice in real life situations. However, the best thing about this book is that it highlights the techniques so well that you develop an awareness of when these techniques are being used on you. This was the case with me, only a few days after finishing this book I was approached by agressive charity workers that bombarded me with a few techniques including the law of reciprocity, the law of social proof, and the law of consistency. It was a first hand experience of how powerful these techniques were and how difficult it was to say no. However the awareness that this book brings you allows you to develop a conscious choice rather than a psychological and mechanical YES. So this is where the book shines and provides a great deal of value for the reader. If you're a salesperson (I'm not) or a person thats just looking to be a little more persuasive, or even just a person whose tired of being manipulated by persuasive people, this is a great book and a welcome addition to anyones collection.