Social Engineering: The Art of Human Hacking

6.1. The Five Fundamentals of Influence and Persuasion

The five fundamentals of persuasion are crucial in obtaining any type of successful influence upon a target:

Setting clear goals

Building rapport

Being observant of your surroundings

Being flexible

Getting in touch with yourself

The whole goal of social engineering is to influence the target to take an action that may or may not be in their best interest. Yet they will not only take the action, but want to take the action and maybe even thank you for it at the end. This type of influence is powerful and can make a social engineer who possesses these skills legendary.

World-renowned NLP trainer Jamie Smart once said, "The map is not the territory." I love that quote because it blends perfectly with these five fundamentals. None of them are the whole sum on their own, but individually they are like points on a map that show you the whole territory of what you want to accomplish. The following section delves deep into the first ...