The Reluctant Entrepreneur: Turning Dreams into Profits

MASTERING THE ART OF PERSUASION

Among the thousands of books that have been written about marketing, there are a dozen that every entrepreneur should have in his library. Among them are the classics:

• Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins
• Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy
• Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples and Fred E. Hahn
• How to Make Your Advertising Make Money by John Caples
• Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene M. Schwartz

To those I would add Changing the Channel, the book I co-wrote with MaryEllen Tribby.

And at the top of my list is a book written by an academic, a guy who had no experience as a marketer. In fact, he didn’t even like marketers. His goal was to help consumers understand and resist the efforts of the marketing pros.

The book is Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini. It never achieved great popularity among consumers. But some savvy marketers found that Cialdini’s insights were very helpful for them. They started spreading the word. And before long, the book was a big hit with the very people Cialdini was doing battle with.

Influence became a business bestseller in 1984. Several updated editions followed, and the book continues to sell well. Cialdini has also become a much-admired speaker on marketing. In 2008, he published Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive with co-authors Noah J. Goldstein and Steve J. Martin. This book expands on Influence in many ways. It presents a number of counterintuitive techniques for ...