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Table of Contents
Module One – Introduction ... 10
Module Two - Influence 101 ... 36
The Truth About Influence ... 36
Old World Rules ... 44
New World Rules ... 47
New School Rules Of Influence ... 50
What Makes This Program Different ... 63
The Way This Program Was Created ... 66
Understanding The Mind ... 70
Information Processing Routes ... 74
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The Way The Program is Structured ... 78 Part I. Persuasion Mastery ... 79 Module Three - How People Are Wired ... 79 People Don‟t Even Know What They Want ... 85 People Become Confused Very Easily ... 86 People Prefer The Path Of Least Resistance ... 90
People Have Different Representational
Systems ... 91 Conscious vs. Subconscious ... 102 Module Four - The Persuasion Foundation .. 105 Emotion vs. Logic ... 106 A Word About Logic…. ... 114 The Triggers Of Mind Control ... 127
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Obligation/Reciprocity ... 128
Contrast ... 132
Holding Tightly Onto Surrounding Objects . 160 Attraction ... 163 People Skills... 164 Similarity... 167 Proof ... 169 Explicit Norms ... 170 Implicit Norms ... 170 Scarcity ... 175 Module Five - The First Tier Of Persuasion . 201 Module Six– The Second Tier of Persuasion 225
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Module Seven –The Third Tier of Persuasion
... 249
The Power Of Questions ... 250
Pacing ... 268
Leading ... 271
Story Telling ... 272
Know your purpose ... 273
Know your environment ... 273
Set the stage ... 273
Imagination leads to captivation ... 275
Create shock value ... 277
Keep it short and to the point ... 277
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Work on the same level of intelligence... 279
Be as vivid as possible ... 280
Switch time zones ... 281
One story at a time ... 281
Be conscious of the purpose ... 282
Proof leads to credibility ... 283
If they can relate, they will trust ... 284
Module Eight - The Fourth Tier of Persuasion ... 286
Overcoming Resistance ... 288
Reactance resistance ... 288
Persuasion in a Business Setting ... 294
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Keys to maintaining your ability to influence311
Part II. Influence Mastery ... 316
Module Nine - The Ten Human Needs ... 316
Module Ten - Personality Types ... 341
Openness ... 346
Identifying the Open Person ... 346
Conscientiousness ... 346
Identifying The Conscientious Person ... 347
Extraversion ... 347
Identifying The Extrovert ... 348
Agreeableness ... 348
Identifying The Agreeable Person ... 349
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Identifying The Neurotic... 349
Reformer (Significance, Power) ... 353
Skeptic (Power, Certainty) ... 356
Apprentice (Connection, Contribution) ... 360
Detective (Power, Significance) ... 362
Mediator (Connection, Contribution) ... 365
Entrepreneur (Growth, Significance) ... 367
Creative (Expression, Contribution) ... 369
Guardian (Comfort, Freedom) ... 370
Enthusiast (Adventure, Connection) ... 372
Motivator (Adventure, Connection)... 376
Pleasure Seeker (Adventure, Freedom) ... 377
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Commander (Power, Comfort) ... 379
Romantic (Love/Connection, Significance) .. 380
Module Eleven– The Decision Making Process ... 382
The Decision Making Process ... 384
Thinker ... 386
Influencing the Thinker... 391
Skeptic... 403
Influencing The Skeptic ... 410
Follower ... 420
Influencing the Follower ... 424
Leaders ... 431
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Enthusiast ... 445 Influencing the Enthusiast ... 450 Module Twelve – Conclusion ... 456
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Module One – Introduction
Welcome to the Code of Influence. Before we get started, I wanted to tell you a little bit about myself and why I decided to put this program together. After all, you did invest your hard-earned money into this product. Therefore, I think it only is appropriate that I share with you exactly who I am and what qualifies me to deliver the information in this program to you.
(In most products that are sold for a profit, this is where the creator basically assures customers that they have invested their money wisely in someone who knows what they are talking about, preferably a guru or an expert, rather than some idiot who just likes to hear himself talk).
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Well, in actuality, I guess I‟m a little bit of both. But before we get into that, I‟ll tell you exactly who I‟m not. I am not a college graduate. I‟m not a celebrity. I haven‟t changed the world.
And I‟m not some guy who has stumbled across some secret that is going to change your life with no effort. And obviously, I‟m not a liar.
What I am and always have been is a person who loves answers. I like to understand the way things work. I like to understand how a certain results are achieved. Sometimes the result itself doesn‟t engage me as much as the mechanics needed to accomplish the result.
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The reason why I am so fascinated by mechanics is because once you know the
formula for a particular outcome, the
possibilities and permutations are endless.
And that is what really interests me.
One question that I‟ve always wanted to answer is “What’s the most important thing in life?”
What‟s the one thing that would make everyone‟s life better?
What‟s the one thing that equips people with true power, peace and happiness all at the same time?
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Is the answer to the Big Question love? How about money, health or perhaps freedom? Is it relationships, family or what about personal security in all of its forms?
Well, I guess the answer is different for everyone.
Some people feel that money can solve all of their problems while others can be perfectly happy being broke, as long as they are surrounded by people who truly love them.
For some people, money, fame, fortune and notoriety are meaningless. What matters to
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them is whether or not they are living their life‟s purpose and achieving their life‟s mission.
Others will do whatever it takes to achieve celebrity status, as anything that remotely resembles plain or “ordinary” to them seems like failing.
Once I understood that everyone‟s happiness and fulfillment depended on different things, I began to wonder what people needed to do to make themselves truly happy.
Well, the logical answer to this question is that it depends on a person‟s desire.
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If the desire to become a doctor or lawyer is what will make someone happy, then that person needs to focus on education more than anything else.
If it‟s the desire to have a big family, then the person should focus on procreation.
If it‟s the desire to help the poor, then the person should learn about philanthropy.
Seems pretty logical, right?
Then why do we see people who graduate from Ivy League schools at the top of their class fail to find the right jobs, while people who are less qualified and less intelligent find them easily?
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Why do we see people who have all the great qualities of a life partner die alone, never having the pleasure and fortune to find and experience true love?
And on the contrary, why do we see people who are not equipped to be anyone‟s partner in life wind up finding themselves in countless relationships, breaking people‟s hearts as they go?
Why is it that even we follow the rules of what „logically‟ makes sense, we sometimes don‟t get the results, while others who follow them less (or don‟t follow them at all) do?
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These facts led me to think that perhaps there is a common denominator in this thing called life. I started to think that perhaps there was this one thing that if you lacked, your chances of achieving your results are drastically reduced. And at the opposite end, perhaps with this common denominator, you can easily make up for short falls and failures in life.
Or in the case where you don‟t really have short falls, your results can be immensely magnified.
I realized that there is indeed a common denominator, and it is the ability to influence others. The reason why is simple: every result in life involves human interaction on some level. Whether it‟s through the process of
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achieving the result or sharing the fruits of the result once it has been achieved, human interaction (and relationships) is involved on some level.
And even in cases where it‟s not so much about the result, relationships are what nurture the soul. Influence Abundnace Wealth Fame Romance
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The soul craves interaction with other spirits and minds to magnify the human experience. Without relationships, a sane mind begins to go insane.
So regardless of what you want out of life, you have to realize now that you will need the involvement of others at least on some level to achieve it or truly enjoy it.
It‟s that simple.
Your ability to influence others is going to supersede every other attribute that you have, including your talent, education, intellect, skill
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level, persistence or whatever else you bring to the table. Without the ability to influence, you can‟t fully capitalize on any of those things.
What good is it to graduate from Harvard if you can‟t influence someone to hire you?
What good is it to work hard if you never get the right people to notice and help you move up in the world?
What purpose does it serve to have a talent if you can‟t influence others to recognize it?
I think you get my drift. And if you don‟t, why the heck did you buy this program anyway? (Just kidding.)
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I realized this back in elementary school when my parents were called in to talk to the principal about my disruptive behavior. I was what most considered “a teacher‟s nightmare”. I was always calling out in class, constantly joking around and I put most of my energy into being a class clown. I focused on trying to make other students laugh.
I was never really interested in school work; especially math. In fact, I often have recurring nightmares about being a senior in high school wondering how I‟m ever going to graduate when I can‟t pass Math to save my life.
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To this day, I can still only perform basic arithmetic (and I mean basic!). English and writing, however, were different for me. While I wasn‟t exactly excited about those subjects, I didn‟t despise these subjects because they came much easier to me. You see, growing up as an only child, things can get lonely at times, which is why I often used my imagination.
I have always felt that the greatest gift that anyone could have was the ability to imagine. Imagination has countless benefits and opens the door to endless possibilities, because it enables you to visualize the future that you want. This is essential if you want your future to really come into fruition. Another great benefit of imagination is that it enables you to discover radical solutions that may not
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necessarily be your regular options - through the use of your own natural creativity.
So when it came to writing, I was never got caught up in whether or not what I was writing was right or wrong or whether it was fact or fiction. I simply just used my imagination and let everything flow, like an effervescent fountain that never ceased.
When I found myself in unfavorable situations where options were limited, I did the same thing. I imagined what the result would look like if I did have options, and then I used my creativity to make these options a reality.
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As I got older, I realized that I would only do well in life if I chose a path that included the things that truly interested me. I know that seems like a fair statement to make about anyone. But I‟m on a whole other level. It is virtually impossible for me to spend any time doing something that I don‟t enjoy or find interesting.
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I have great respect for those who can endure the pain of doing the grunt work to get to the end, but I personally hate it and will only do it when there is no other option.
Take exercise, for example. I‟ve tried to tell myself that I enjoy it, but I know in my heart I‟d rather be doing something else besides sweating profusely on an elliptical machine for 45 minutes. But unfortunately, that is one area where only I can do the grunt work needed to achieve the results, so I do it and move on.
Back to my point…since I realized that I would really only become exceptional at something that I enjoyed and I really only enjoy music, finding answers and writing (and I know I‟m no
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rock star), I decided that my path in life would involve writing about the answers that I have
found about this fascinating common
denominator called influence.
Plus, I‟ve always done fairly well in sales. At the age of sixteen, I had a cold calling job in finance, which resulted in people sending me (a young punk of a kid) thousands of dollars over the phone after a 10-minute conversation.
After that experience, I had another cold calling job. As it turned out, I came in number one in most payments received from customers.
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I then went into fitness corporate sales. I chose fitness because I feel it‟s truly something everyone needs. And in that business, I continued to excel winning countless awards and gaining promotions.
About 6 years ago, I realized that I could make more money selling through my writing skills than I ever could trying to sell face to face. So I began to develop the craft of copywriting for some of the biggest names in internet marketing including Dr. Joe Vitale, Steve G. Jones, Mike Litman, Dr Joe Rubino and Kristen Howe, among others.
These people are highly respected in their markets, and it‟s not hard to understand why. Each of them brings an extremely high level of expertise to their area of knowledge.
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My job was to get the rest of the world to see that through my writing.
I was basically hired to ensure that the majority of people who visited their websites made a purchase, because they were convinced that these internet marketers had something truly powerful to offer.
And after roughly six years, tens of thousands of dollars, royalty checks, huge deals, joint ventures, business dinners and trips across the US to exclusive parties, I‟ve decided that I now want share what I‟ve learned and used to make myself and others financially free and successful
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with the rest of the world. (Of course, this includes you…if you‟re interested).
And so that‟s where we are right now.
The Code of Influence is a blueprint which embodies everything I‟ve ever discovered about using the common success denominator called Influence to achieve success spiritually,
emotionally, physically, financially and
mentally.
It is the result of years of research, testing and real world applications of various bodies of knowledge including psychology, NLP, body
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personality types and decision making processes all blended together.
What I‟m about to share with you here is not only fascinating; it works.
Believe when I tell you that this information can change your life.
I know that it sounds cliché and you‟ve probably heard that a million times, but if a guy from Brooklyn, NY who barely graduated high school can achieve financial freedom, find true love, have a family and cultivate deep meaningful relationships using this information, anyone can.
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There‟s only one catch. You have to actually do something with it.
They say knowledge is power right? Or as Napoleon Hill said: “Specialized knowledge put
to use is power.” Knowledge by itself is useless
if you don‟t put it to good use. It‟s like being in the middle of a great war with all your books on military strategies. Unless you can apply what it is in those books, you are in a really rough spot.
After all, that‟s how everything great and everything that has truly made an impact has happened in the history of the world. Someone discovers something, whether it is how to build something or how to make money, and then
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other people basically feed off that information to expand and improve it.
And so that‟s what every self-improvement or personal development product on the market offers: specialized knowledge that can be applied to change your life for the better.
I mean isn‟t that why we buy these products anyway? Isn‟t it because we believe that what we will learn will in some way, shape, form or change us forever? Perhaps it will make us richer, smarter, more likeable, more successful, more talented, more focused, or more attractive …I think you get the point.
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Well, the reason that I know so much about how this stuff works is because I have spent nearly 15 years of my life immersing myself this self-improvement stuff and, in the process, spent quite a bit of money. I have read countless books, listened to hundreds of audio programs (I prefer audios) and attended a good amount of seminars in my day. In truth, the majority of the stuff I have listened to or read has been pure fluff. A small portion of it has been insightful at best and interesting at the very least. And a select few programs and books truly succeeded in helping me to create more of an awareness or “expand my mind” to what I consider to be the truth (the truth varies for all of us) and more importantly to take action.
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As you‟ll quickly learn, action makes everything else effective. Inaction makes anything and everything worthless. Without action, you‟re nothing more than a spectator watching the movie called “your life” passing you by.
Don‟t get me wrong, for years I was a spectator. I would immerse myself in all kinds of self-improvement/personal development resources and tell myself, “This is the one… “This is the book, tape, or CD that is going to change my life.”
Like many people, I was subscribing to the dream that external sources actually changed people‟s lives. I was looking for something to do the work for me. In reality, we change our own lives. We may become inspired or
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triggered by an external source, but what happens after that is the result of a conscious decision that we make.
Make a conscious decision today to change your life by taking action.
Take this information and put it to use in your life.
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Module Two - Influence 101
The Truth About Influence
Welcome to Module Two - Influence 101.
Here I‟m going to give you a brief history on influence and discuss why this code works so effectively. Many people believe that influence and persuasion is the same thing. But in reality, persuasion is really just a part of influence. It is merely a component that can be used in the influence process but persuasion in and of itself is not influence.
The main difference between persuasion and influence is that persuasion is when you use a
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set of tactics to gain compliance from someone or to get them to do what you want them to.
Influence is a state of your identity. It‟s your presence. It‟s who you are. And when you attain that state of being truly influential, you gain what is known as conversion (as opposed to compliance) from someone
Compliance is when someone does what you want them to but you haven‟t necessarily affected their belief system. What you‟ve affected is their thought process only. In other words, you‟ve gotten them to act in a way that they may not necessarily agree with deep down inside but they have complied nonetheless. They may just comply because of outside factors like social norms or immense, short terms rewards.
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Conversion on the other hand is much more powerful. Conversion is when you completely change someone‟s belief system. When you can do that, they will fully buy into your message. When they fully buy into your message, they will follow you even if you don‟t say anything at all.
You become more of a symbol for what they agree with and identify with. In essence, you begin to share an identity with them. There is
big difference if you share not only your
message but your identity. Who you are right now becomes a part of the other person‟s identity, too.
Influence is extremely powerful because it can in essence be used without any direct effort.
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Oftentimes, the most influential people are able to gain conversion and compliance from others simply because of what they've done in the past or who they are. The number one attribute of influence is credibility. Credibility ultimately
makes you trustworthy, smart and
knowledgeable. You appear experienced and capable of being whoever it is that you're trying to be.
Take Oprah Winfrey, for example. Oprah has an immense credibility. People will listen to just about anything that she says simply because of what she has done in the past. Oftentimes, we will see companies use celebrities that have
credibility to influence others through
commercials. That's the reason why hundreds of thousands of companies send their products to the Oprah Winfrey show every year with the hope that she will speak about them. Even if it's
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for just 30 seconds! They are well aware of the powerful effect that even a 30 second endorsement from Oprah Winfrey can have.
This is simply because her influential power is immense.
Influence is about who you are and how people perceive you. Some people assume that influence is always a positive thing, but nothing could be further than the truth. Influence is the impression that you make on other people. It could be positive or negative.
Adolf Hitler had an extremely powerful ability to influence as well, as he influenced an entire nation to do what he wanted. The problem was that he used his power negatively.
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In and of itself the power to influence truly is neutral. It is up to the influencer to decide whether it will be used for good or bad. My hope is that you take everything that you learn in this program and use it for ethical reasons. Don't use this information to manipulate or coerce people into doing things that will benefit you when you know with your heart that it might not necessarily be good for them. When you do this, your influential tactics will ultimately backfire and have a negative effect on you.
So why is that the case? The fact is that reputation also contributes a lot to someone's ability to influence. If you have a reputation for being someone who is smart, knowledgeable or incredible, people will want to listen to you. Similarly, if you're a reputation for manipulating people or influencing them to do things that
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don't really benefit them, people will be less likely to listen to what you have to say.
Eventually, your reputation will precede you to the point that you're incapable of influencing anyone with any self-respect.
Reputations are extremely powerful.
Sometimes the statements about you and your reputation don't even have to be true. Just the simple fact that a good amount of people are making a statement about you will create the social validity needed by others to believe that the claims are indeed true. We'll talk more about social validity in later modules.
Aristotle first began to speak about persuasion and influence in ancient Greece. In fact, the first book ever written on persuasion was by
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Aristotle. It was titled “The Art of Rhetoric.” Every single thing that he wrote about in his book is still extremely relevant to the world of persuasion today.
Essentially, while Aristotle identified certain scientific aspects of persuasion, he also delivered his body of knowledge in a way that led us to understand that it could be perfected into an art form.
Now, according to Aristotle, there are three essential components to persuasion that must be in place in order for it to work. These components include Ethos, Pathos and Logos.
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Old World Rules
Ethos refers to the character of the person that is doing the persuading. Aristotle believed that audiences could indeed be effectively persuaded if they felt that the person who was trying to persuade them was credible. On the other hand, if they viewed this person to be sleazy or untrustworthy, any attempt to try to persuade them would be continuously resisted.
Ethos
Logos
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Aristotle also pointed out that Ethos is not a thing or a physical, tangible quality that resides within a person, but rather it is how an individual is interpreted by the person that he or she was trying to persuade.
Ethos could include the way they dress, their reputation, the way they carry themselves, their body type, the words that they use, the way they make eye contact, or their base of knowledge in whatever they are speaking about. Essentially, it is how the audience perceives the credibility of the persuader.
Pathos is the psychological state of the person that you are trying to persuade. This is the
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audience‟s state of mind. The emotional state of the listener can impact the outcome of the persuasion. People generally make decisions differently depending on the mood that they are in. For example, when people are upset, angry or in a bad mood, their judgment differs greatly from when they're in a good mood and are extremely happy. When it comes to Pathos, you must know the person‟s state of mind at the moment as well as that person's desired state of mind.
Once you determine the difference between the two, you can really begin to put this knowledge to use and work it to your advantage. By helping people get from whatever their current state of mind is to where they want to be, you will gain full compliance from them.
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Logos is the third prerequisite that Aristotle believed must be in place. This is the substance of your message or the meat and potatoes of whatever it is that you're trying to convey. According to Aristotle, human beings are generally reasonable people who make logical decisions that will somewhat makes sense to them.
New World Rules
The prerequisites and concepts that Aristotle had are key concepts in today's world. However, you must understand that the rules of persuasion have changed over the years.
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Today, it is more difficult than ever to persuade anybody for a multitude of reasons. The first reason is that we are living in the age of information. Aside from money, information is regarded as one of the highest forms of currency. With so much information being thrown at people on a daily basis via the Internet, TV and tons of marketing campaigns, people today are a lot more skeptical. Therefore, they do a lot more investigating when deciding whether or not information is valuable to them.
The second reason why the rules have changed
is because aside from information
overwhelming people, it is also much easier to access than it was in the days of Aristotle. Back then, there were no places like libraries,
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much less the Internet, where people could access thousands of pages of information on virtually any topic known to man. This lack of information is part of what gave Aristotle the ability to persuade as he did.
In today's world, people are more educated. They have access to an abundance of readily available information and anyone can get it in mere moments.
So in today's world of persuasion, there are three roadblocks that you will generally have to face. The first roadblock is the fact that people have access to more information than they did many years ago. The second is that consumers
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are more doubtful and skeptical. It takes them more time to review information.
In the third is the fact that the Internet has opened up a wide array of choices that never before existed for people.
New School Rules Of Influence
Within the world of persuasion are universal principles. These principles are neither good nor evil or positive or negative. They simply exist – the same way that the principles of gravity exist.
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The laws of influence and persuasion can be used in many different ways. Make no mistake; there are thousands if not millions of people out there that are using the principles of persuasion in negative ways. The reason that they're able to do so is because these principles work. My hope is that anyone reading this book will use the principles and powerful technique here not only enrich their lives, but also enrich the lives of the people they are trying to influence so that there is always a win-win situation.
Rule # 1 You Must Have an Audience - Let's face it; persuasion and influence are all about gaining the help and/or the compliance of other people. In order for this to happen, there must be other people involved. It doesn't matter if it's one single person, or hundreds or even
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thousands of people, in order for the persuasion process to take place – but there must be more than one party involved.
Rule # 2 You Must Get their Attention and Engage them– In order for the persuasion process to even begin, you need to get someone to listen to you. The only way that you can get someone to listen to you is by gaining his or her attention. The best way to ultimately get someone's attention is to create a reputation or brand for yourself so that people automatically know who you are and what you have to offer before they even speak to you.
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Once you become an expert in your field, people will know exactly who you are and what you are about. Until you get to that point, you need to begin to focus your energies on how to get the attention of people who have no clue who you are. There are many different ways to get someone's attention. The first is by striking up a conversation about something that you know interests them. You can do this by simply observing them. Just take a close look at their clothing or even their immediate environment. These things could tell you a little bit about their interests, and you can begin to open up your presentation by relating to them in that aspect.
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Rule # 3 There Must Be a Mutual Understanding - There must be a mutual understanding between both parties. You must understand the various components of your target, and he or she must understand your message. Second to having an audience, you must understand your audience and they must understand you.
The fact of the matter is that you could be giving a speech on where people can find $1 million, but if you're saying it in a way that they cannot understand, chances are your message will be lost along the way.
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Aside from your audience being able to understand you, you must understand that those rules play into each other. In order for them to understand you, you must communicate to them in a way that they understand. You can only know that by knowing about them first.
Make no mistake, persuasion and influence are all about understanding how the other party sees the world and delivering your message in a way that is congruent to that view. It is never about the way you see the world.
Remember, if everyone saw things exactly the same way, there would never be a need to try to influence or persuade someone. We would all be living in harmony, making the same decisions and doing the same things without a hitch.
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But this is the real world – and in the real world, there are as many different beliefs about people and the world at large as the grains of sand on the beach.
This leads me to my next part of this chapter. I want to discuss something called adaptive persuasion. Adaptive persuasion is what makes your ability to influence so powerful. We're all different and we have different values, morals and beliefs. Ultimately, as we see the world in different ways, it is essential that you constantly adapt to the way the other party is seeing things when you are making your presentation to them.
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We see adaptive influence mostly in one-on-one sales conversations and sales presentations. It involves constant change in the presentation, which does involve more work. But ultimately, this approach will yield better results than non-adaptive influence, which I will get into a moment.
Adaptation is an extremely important part of all life on Earth. Every single species that lives must learn to adapt in some way shape or form at some point in life. Adaptation essentially is when you change a thought or a behavior in such a way that ultimately provides you with a better benefit.
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Non-adaptive persuasion is when you create a presentation or a message with the same intention of influencing another party, but it does not change as it is presented from one person or group to another.
An example of non-adaptive persuasion would be what we see in website sales copy marketing and advertising. In cases like these, mental triggers that resonate with most people or subliminal messages are implanted into the presentation.
The theory (and hope) is that because these messages or mental/emotional triggers resonate with most people, they will influence the general population of people being exposed to
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them. The good part about adaptive influence is that you create a message once and it forever does the work for you. But in exchange for that positive aspect, you trade the fact that your results will never be as good as those that you will see when practicing adaptive persuasion.
I have been a salesperson virtually all my life. In sales, we measure different ratios of a salesperson. Generally speaking, there are three ratios that we measure. The contact to appointment ratio is the number of people that agree to make an appointment out of the people that we have contacted that day. The second ratio is the show ratio, which is the amount of people that actually showed up to an appointment after they agreed to make one. And the third ratio that we measure is the close
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ratio, which is the amount of people that actually made a purchase versus the amount of people that you made the presentation to. In the sales industry, a good close ratio is between 70 to 80%, meaning that for every 10 people to whom you made a presentation, between seven and eight actually make a purchase.
In the world of Internet marketing, a perfect example of non-adaptive influence is website sales copy. When you arrive at a website that is marketing some sort of product, the website sales copy is the text that you read on the page that is designed to convince you to make a purchase. This presentation is created once and is plastered on the website forever with the hope that everyone who reads it will decide to take out their credit card and make a purchase.
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The conversion rate of the website sales copy is reflected as the amount of people that made a purchase after visiting the site. Ask anyone in the Internet marketing world what a good conversion rate is, and they'll tell you between five and 10%. That percentage is dramatically different than the 70 to 80% that we see in one-on-one sales, which take place in adaptive persuasion. The reason why the results are so different is because in adaptive persuasion, we can keep changing the presentation based on the feedback that we are receiving from the other party to make it more effective. This cannot be done in non-adaptive persuasion, which is why the success rate is so much lower.
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Rule # 4: Know the Game – You must know the game when it comes to influence. There are certain laws or principles that exist that you have to follow. The only way you can follow them is by knowing exactly what they are. Years of research and scientific evidence have shown us a great deal about the way people think, the way they behave, and ultimately, how they can be directed to think and behave in certain ways.
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What Makes This Program Different
Although there are many programs that claim that true influence can happen in a matter of moments, it is my opinion and experience that they are dead wrong! The type of process that they are really talking about has to do more with persuasion; not influence.
As I stated earlier, persuasion is merely just a component of influence. It can be used in both short term situations such as trying to make a sale or talk someone off of a ledge or it can be used as tool that eventually leads to influence. As you will quickly learn, people feel more comfortable doing business with, comply with and agreeing with people with whom they have shared these actions within the past. Therefore, the more you persuade someone to do
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something, the greater the likelihood of you persuading them again and again and again.
And that‟s really what this program is about - long term influence. This is what also what separates this program from many others. Most programs on influence/persuasion are about short term results “How to get someone to say yes instantly by changing one word” or “How to increase your compliance rate by 30% by reframing.” Don‟t get me wrong; all that stuff fascinates me too and it will definitely help you become a master influencer but in reality, it‟s just a part of the code. Truth is most people who have studied influence/persuasion have already heard about all of those tactics. They are nothing new. In fact, you can read about most of
them for free on my website
www.InfluenceMaster.com. Don‟t worry, I‟m still going to include all those super cool mind tricks in this program because they are an important part of persuasion and I know people
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love them but please understand that true influence is not only about getting anyone to say yes in 10 seconds or less; it‟s about relationships. It‟s about getting them to say yes in 10 seconds or less and then getting to say yes in 5 seconds or less over and over and over again until eventually they say yes before you even say anything. They just subscribe to your message and what you stand for. They become a true fan.
And that‟s what this program is going to show you. Here I‟m going to reveal the full Code of Influence, not just a part. That‟s what you paid for when you invested your money in this and I promise you won‟t be disappointed.
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The Way This Program Was Created
The research into the field of behaviorism, what makes people do certain things, how people think and act and how influence is achieved still widely debated among different people. This program is the result of bits and pieces from the work of Sigmund Freud, B. F. Skinner, Kurt Lewin, Leon Festinger, Erik Erickson, Abraham Maslow, Paul MacLean and Ivan Pavlov.
To put it simply, many of these psychologists formed platforms for others to build on and in some cases, their theories rivaled one another. After years of intensely studying their work and building relationships with others, I have taken bits and pieces (those bits and prices which I agree with and believe are correct) and broke them down into a simple code which I believe
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represents what it really takes to influence the mind of someone else.
I‟m not a psychologist. I was never a good student. My attention span is extremely limited to things that really interest me so for me studying psychology interested me for the most part from a perspective of finding out how to influence others. Therefore it is the areas which contribute to this process that I studied intensely. These areas include behaviorism, social psychology, conditioning and personality theory.
It is my belief that these areas tell us how a person can be influenced. And based on my interpretation of what I‟ve discovered, I have developed (what I believe to be) an extremely effective code of influence.
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The code (at its outer most layer) consists of 4 main parts: The Mechanics, The Human Needs, The Personality Type and The Decision Making Process.
The Mechanics - The mechanics simply refers to your understanding of how the human mind works and which approaches work at what times.
The Human Needs - Each one of us has a dominant human need. It‟s the reason we wake up each day. It‟s what our soul is centered around.
The Personality Type - There are 12 personality types. Within each one is a different belief system and paradigm of the world.
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The Decision Making Process - While many factors can dictate how we make decisions, most people have a certain way of making very important ones.
It is my belief that these four components will lead you to influencing
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Understanding The Mind
According to the Triune Brain Model which was popularized by a physician and neuroscientist by the name of Paul MacLean in the 1960′s, there are 3 major regions to the brain:
The Reptilian Complex – Also known as the R-complex or the “reptilian brain” is the oldest part of the brain and is what MacLean believed
Reptilian Complex Limbic System Neo Cortex
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was the first brain that humans developed over 100 million years ago. The reptilian brain is responsible for our survival instincts and processes like breathing, circulation, digestion and fight/flight responses.
The Limbic System – This region supports functions like long term memory, emotion and
behaviors like finding food and
self-preservation.
The Neo Cortex – The youngest (or most recently developed) region of the brain is the area that most people refer to when they speak of the left and right hemispheres of the brain. This region in responsible for planning, logic, creativity, imagination and dreaming.
In a perfect world we would be functioning in a fully conscious state using mostly the Neo Cortex but the truth is that doing so involves
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amounts of mental work and energy that most people are simply not willing to invest. Instead, they function primarily on “autopilot” in a survivalist state of mind most of the time. To keep things simple, people like to reserve their cognitive resources, not expend them.
So rather than consciously pondering every decision that comes our way, we instead function primarily on “autopilot” in a survivalist state of mind most of the time. In doing so, we
take mental shortcuts when processing
information. These mental short cuts take place on deep subconscious levels so we don‟t even realize what‟s happening.
The shortcuts work based on comparison. Every time we are presented with a piece of information, we subconsciously cross-reference it with similar information that we‟ve come
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across in the past and make a split-second decision.
There are times however when we do move away from the Reptilian brain and begin using more of the Limbic System and the Neo Cortex. It really depends on how important the subject matter is to us.
If it‟s something that we believe will have a huge impact on our life, we tend to process the information differently than when it doesn‟t. This brings us to the different paths we take when processing information.
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Information Processing Routes
Peripheral Route – This is the route which requires less thinking and involves a lot of heuristics or mental shortcuts we discussed earlier. Here the person being influenced isn‟t really focusing so much on the content of the information itself as they are focusing on way that the information is being presented. It is in this state of mind that the triggers of mind
control and things like framing work
exceptionally well.
Central Route - The central route occurs when the person being influenced is actively processing the information and paying very close attention to what‟s taking place. During the central route the person is taking A LOT of things into consideration. Firstly, they are looking at the source of the information which is you. They are first trying to see if they can
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identify with you. Then then they want to determine if you are a credible source. After that, they are deciding whether or not you are trustworthy. After that (and I know this may sound superficial but I assure you it‟s true) they
take your level of attractiveness into
consideration. And then they begin to analyze your message
Short Term vs. Long Term
Short-term influence is what you use in one-on-one interactions where your goal is to gain immediate compliance. This could include a sales presentation, a negotiation or a debate where you are trying to change someone's opinion on something. In short, it is to be used in situations where you are trying to gain immediate compliance from someone and (here
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is the key point) the decision (in most cases) doesn‟t involve a lot being at stake.
So for example, short term influence works well when trying to convince someone to make a purchase on something or agree with you about a topic that isn‟t that close to their heart. And in those situations, they are effective.
BUT, when you‟re dealing with decisions on a much larger scale where there‟s much more at stake, you must influence a person a much more differently.
Now my belief is that the majority of products and resources available on influence are flawed for 2 reasons.
The first reason is because they assume that persuasion and influence are the same thing. Because of that false assumption, they provide
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solutions that are based on short term persuasion and can really only be applied in those circumstances.
The second reason that I feel they are flawed is because most of them are based on tactics that will only work when one is processing information through the peripheral route; which as I just explained doesn‟t happen all of the time.
That‟s where this program is different. It will provide you with what you need to truly influence someone by first persuading them in the short-term and repeatedly persuade them while at the same time build a relationship with them over the long-term.
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The Way The Program is Structured
While it consists of 12 modules, the Code of Influence is essentially divided into 2 parts. Part one will focus on short-term, immediate influence or persuasion tactics where your target is using the Reptilian brain and processing information peripherally.
And in part two, we will move more into individualization by focusing on your target‟s needs, personality type and decision making process. Much of what you will learn here will help you when your target is processing information centrally.
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Part I. Persuasion Mastery
Module Three - How People Are Wired
As we have previously discussed, people make decisions based on emotion and then use logic to justify those decisions afterwards. Because of this trend, getting people to change can be very difficult. Most people are resistant to change. This is especially true when it comes to long-term change. It is much easier to get people to agree to short-term decisions. The reason for that is that people are stuck in their ways and habits are very hard things to break.
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This can be challenging, in particular, if a person's habits have caused him or her to behave in a way that is different than what you are asking in your attempts to persuade. Most habits are developed based upon previous behaviors. So generally, when you do something, you're doing it in the exact same way that you did it previously. This is what is known as “wiring.” People are wired to do things the same way all the time. The only way to get them to change their wiring is by first getting them to acquire new behaviors.
I remember when I first started reading about habits; I found that the general rule is that it takes three weeks for 21 days to form a new habit. Well, new evidence is showing us that it really takes around 5 to 6 days to form a new habit. So essentially it really takes five days to create a new understanding within the brain.
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The problem is that there is a huge misconception that new habits erase old habits. And this is simply not true. The person still has a choice even though the brain has been conditioned to think in a different way.
So in other words, getting people to go to the gym for one day is a simple thing to do. But asking them to do it for the rest of their life can be a lot more challenging.
The fact of the matter is that beliefs are very personal to people, and changing them can be difficult. This is especially true considering the fact that people will specifically look for proof or evidence that supports whatever existing beliefs and they may have. That's why the first step in using emotions to guide a person's decision is to begin your presentation from a place that is in line with their beliefs. That will
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essentially open up the initial door and enable you to get in and bring their guard down.
In order to change someone's belief, you must change the emotional attachment to that belief. Never try to use force to do this because all you will do is put this person into fighting mode where he or she will try even harder to protect the belief. A better approach is to ask people questions to help them see things in a different way and ultimately form different beliefs.
They key here is that the belief must be there. The conclusion must be theirs and they must own it. If people do not feel like they are the ones that made the decision, they will ultimately feel resistant toward you. Another way to appeal to people's emotions is by showing them something called social norms. Social norms are basically a synopsis of the way the majority
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of people think or behave when it comes to a certain topic.
Most people do not like to be considered outcasts, and so if you can show them that their decision is in line with what most other people do, they will begin to form a more positive emotion towards whatever it is that you're asking them to do. Another reason why using social norms to persuade people is so powerful is because it gives them an excuse to be wrong. You see most people do not like to admit they were wrong or incorrect on a certain topic.
Generally speaking, the only way that somebody can be wrong or incorrect is due to a fault in his or her thinking. But if they can justify that they were wrong due to a lack of information, they will feel better. Therefore, if you present a piece of missing information to
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people, they can use that as an excuse for the reason why they were wrong in the first place.
Pain is a greater motivator than pleasure, and people will do more to avoid it than they will to gain pleasure. In other words, people's fears can motivate them to do just about anything. The reason behind this is that again is something extra. This is because a gain puts you in a more positive space, whereas a loss puts you in the
Disadvantage
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negative. No one wants to be in a worse situation than he or she already is in. This is why many people will work harder when there is a chance that they may lose their job, as opposed to getting a promotion.
People Don’t Even Know What They Want – Now, most theories on persuasion involve finding out what the other person wants and then essentially creating a presentation that adapts to his or her needs. Through this method, others will be in compliance with what you're asking them to do. The problem here is that in reality, people don't even know what they want. So trying to determine what they want when they don't even know is extremely challenging.
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Each person has both a conscious mind and a subconscious mind. The conscious mind works from a logical standpoint; it can calculate, compare, and contrast in various functions that involve thought application. The subconscious mind works much differently. It works extremely quickly and computes at very high speeds. In other words, the subconscious mind doesn't think. It just exists and acts automatically.
Interestingly enough, the subconscious mind is also capable of instantly categorizing and assigning labels to people that we meet.
People Become Confused Very Easily –
When trying to influence someone to make a decision, keeping his or her choices limited is
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extremely important. You'll learn later on in this book about the law of contrast. This states that the perception of something changes the moment that it is compared to something else. This is the reason why a somewhat attractive woman looks extremely attractive when she standing next to a woman that isn‟t really that attractive at all.
The law of contrast is actually a powerful tool, because you can completely change the way something is perceived by your target. The key to using it effectively, however, is to make sure that you're not changing the perception of too many things by offering too many choices. I remember when I was working in the fitness industry, I was working for this large chain of fitness providers and a new CEO had all taken over the company. He had no fitness experience at all. He was a master when it came to retail, but did not really understand how a fitness business worked.
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He assumed that by offering many different types of memberships, we could appeal to many different types of customers. So he began to offer things like senior memberships, family memberships, gym switchers memberships, couples memberships, etc. These changes actually did not cause any increase in membership sales.
And because of this situation, an all-new CEO was brought in by the Board of Directors with specific instructions to increase membership revenue. This CEO (unlike the first one) did have fitness experience; in fact, he had extensive fitness and sales experience. The very first thing that he did was to reduce the membership options to just one option and maybe two in certain clubs. This change had a dramatic impact on the amount of membership
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revenue that was generated, because the customer was not confused anymore.
Getting someone to join the gym is a very emotional decision, because it involves extreme commitment. There are so many different excuses to not join that are running through the customer's head. As a result, offering more choices just confuses the potential customer even more. This is the case in any attempt to persuade someone.
So regardless of whatever it is that you're offering, always keep your choices extremely limited. The smaller the better! Statistically speaking, if a person is presented with just one choice, odds are he will accept that choice more times than he would decline it. If you present a person with two choices, the odds are more likely that he will not choose either. When you begin presenting someone with more choices,
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the odds become even better that he will not choose any option.
People Prefer The Path Of Least Resistance –
As much as all of us would like to say that we are motivated and love challenges, the truth is that most people prefer shortcuts or the easy way out of something. It's no one's fault, it's just the way our brains are conditioned. Part of the reason why people prefer the path of least resistance is because people associate resistance with pain.
And as I mentioned earlier, people will do more to avoid pain and to gain pleasure. When you structure your presentation, it is always important to focus on rewards and what people have to gain. But it's even more important to focus on what they may lose if they don't take
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action. This will help overcome any associations that they have with experiencing pain from complying with your requests. People are influenced more by the way a question is framed or presented rather than the content of the question itself.
People Have Different Representational Systems –
Generally speaking, there are three different ways that people interpret information. One of the biggest mistakes that people make when trying to influence or persuade others is to deliver their presentation based on what they think is right, what they think is fair and what they think makes sense.
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In other words, people assume that the most effective way to gain compliance from others is by sharing their own perspective or point of view. The reality is that when you are trying to persuade someone, you must first gain his or her attention. This can be quite challenging, because most people really don't listen, they just simply remain quiet and wait for their turn to talk.
Every time you make a presentation based on your point of view, all you do is reinforce the behavior characterized by people not listening to you; they're just simply waiting for their turn to talk. The key to gaining their attention quickly and engaging them is to construct your presentation around their view of the world, as opposed to yours.
Remember, if everyone saw the world the same way and shared the same opinions, there would
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be no need to influence and persuade. Everyone would naturally be in compliance with one another. The method by which you construct your presentation around their view of the world is by determining their representational systems.
Representational systems are nothing more than the way we think, talk, understand and represent the world. In neuro-linguistic programming
(NLP), there are three recognized
representational systems, which include visual, auditory, and kinesthetic.
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Visual people relate to the world generally by
the way they see things. When they speak, they will use terms like, “I see, what you're saying” or “I can see why you would think that way.” Visual people like to see the world in terms of pictures. Therefore, creating a visual story or painting a picture for someone with this representational system will be more effective than anything else you might attempt. They also like to observe others and may be
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fascinated with photography or things that generally involve visualization. These people also tend to enjoy reading and watching movies.
What's interesting is that they usually remember names as a result of a visual cue that they received. For example, when they first meet a person, something about that person's face would remind them of the person's name.
Visual people are also very concerned with their appearance, and they work better when following directions that are clearly written down. When trying to influence a visual thinker, your best bet is to provide him or her with written documentation in the form of directions, proof or a general explanation of what you're speaking about.
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Next on the list are auditory people. Auditory people assimilate information by tuning in or listening to hear what it is that they are being told. They also enjoy talking with others. Conversation is something that they find very interesting.
For auditory people, the world is represented by sound. Therefore, to get their attention and engage them, you must say something that sounds very appealing to them.
Just as visual people like to look at directions, auditory people would rather hear directions read out loud by someone else. Retaining the information that they are looking at can be difficult. However, it is much easier for auditory people to hear the information.
