Best marketing & sales books according to Reddit
Reddit mentions of Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive
Sentiment score: 7
Reddit mentions: 10
We found 10 Reddit mentions of Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive. Here are the top ones.
- Free Press
Features:
Specs:
| Height | 8 Inches |
| Length | 5 Inches |
| Number of items | 1 |
| Release date | December 2009 |
| Weight | 0.45 Pounds |
| Width | 0.7 Inches |
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#7 of 583
This is going to get buried under the shitload of answers you are getting, but I hope you see this, or that it'll at least help someone else.
I've had this problem for a few months now : even hanging out with friends, I was losing the capacity of having a conversation. I started talking more and more about me, and the more I talked, the more I felt like a douche. So I took steps.
First, I started asking more questions about the stories people were telling, refraining myself to tell my side of the story, my view of the story, or just my story ('cause this behavior sucks ass). For a while, it was getting better, but it didn't feel natural.
After an evening at a friend's place, where we had a closeup magician doing a show, I realized that it was not only about what I was saying, it was about what I was thinking that made me feel like a douche. This guy, this magician, was so charming, so fucking captivating. It was my first time experiencing closeup magic, and I was just sold. After the show, I went and asked him how he was doing it. Not the magic tricks, but the social tricks. He told me that he read lots of books, and that basically, he was convincing himself before each show, to be who he needed to be. He was acting, he was playing a fucking nice guy who didn't give two shits about himself but only cared about others. And it caught on, became more natural. He mastered this skill, and went from doing magic shows all around the world (even Vegas) to giving conferences to leaders on how to be better managers.
After reading some of those books, and doing a bit of research, I understood what he was saying : Fake it until you make it. I actually discovered through some TED talks (amazing stuff) that you can fake it until you become it.
From my point of view, there's a couple of skills to master to become a good conversationalist. Body language is very important : to understand the body language of others to better adapt yours and be seen as non-threatening. You have to understand the science of influence, and how humans react to interactions with others. And to become a master at it : you have to be sincere. You can't fake honesty 100%. Somewhere along the way, your body language will screw you, or you'll slip and people will understand that you are faking it. That is why you have to become a character who doesn't fake it.
Here is the list of the books and videos I read/watched about those skills. Some where recommended on Reddit, others I just found them. The books are sorted by most important in my opinion. And even if I bought them (thrift or not), you can still find all of them online.
Hope it helps.
You should try reading 50 Scientifically Proven Ways To Be Persuasive, by Noah Goldstein, a man who's studied persuasive psychology for most of his adult life, and who explores the subject in great detail in his books. The tl;dr for purposes of this point is that, no, "Don't eat nuts" is not a good way to convey a persuasive instruction. It can even serve to be counter-productive, as it primes the mind for thoughts about nuts, which can actually stimulate a desire to eat them that wasn't previously there. A better way to convey the message really would've been to explain why the instruction was being given. It'd turn a "Whut, why? Mmm, I've got nuts in my bag, what harm could it do?" into "Oh, fair enough". It would ideally be followed up by periodic messages thanking everybody (specifically this - social persuasion is a powerful tool) for not eating nuts, and framing it as a favour to the crew and the girl.
Conventional thinking might tell you that "Don't do this" sets a rule that people will obey, but, well, that's just not how people work. People ignore rules all the time, when they feel like those rules are meaningless or don't apply to them.
I highly recommend Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive, which is basically a simplified and actionable version of his more popular book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.
Note: I have not read the latter book.
PsyBlog is also great (not related to Cialdini).
And of course, How to Win Friends and Influence People is a classic and is still relevant.
Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive
> Right, but they offered it.
This is you saying they offered the cash.
When I stated that they never offered the cash up front:
> Of course not.
So which is it? Is it they offered the cash up front, or the "of course not"?
The key here is CASH UP FRONT. Not CASH AFTER THE SACRED LOTTERY. You want to motivate people? CASH.UP.FRONT.
> The most common reason for crew to go over their permitted hours is weather delays. Does United control the weather?
DOES THE CUSTOMER?
You don't get it. You don't even comprehend the difference between "offering the cash up front over the PA so everyone knows about it" and "involuntary bumping". It doesn't require looking into the future or controlling the weather or whatever.
You got good at selling tickets? Great. You're so good at selling tickets that you oversell them? Super. Now get good at SELLING THE BUMP.
All the accounts I read were that the airline supervisor sounded annoyed at the passengers for not volunteering. Great fucking salesmanship to sound annoyed that people won't take you up on your shitty offer. The way they handled it probably elicited a "fuck you" right off the bat from every customer in there.
What you do is get a smooth motherfucker to get up on the PA to go, "Yo yo yo, our fuckup is your gain, I got $800 cash money for the next guy that steps up and takes the next flight. And you'll be laying the cut straight in first class with this big ass wad o' cash in yo pocket. You know what $800 cash looks like? This is what it looks like. (Holds up a giant wad of cash.) You won't even be able to sit right with this thing in yo pocket, but that's OK, because you'll be sittin' on that uncomfortable bulge in first class, and because we all know that $800 cash money feels real good, don't it? Yeah, this guy here knows what I'm sayin'. Man, if I were on this flight I'd take it. I have taken it before, and it is AWESOME. We'll put you up for the night and set you up for the next flight first class like a boss. And listen, between you and me, they might need a volunteer on that next flight too so if you want, you might be able to double this big ass wad of cash. (Holds up two wads of cash.) So step on up and get dis money before the guy with the shady look in his eyes next to you takes it." "Whoah whoah whoah fellas I can only do dis for 4 people, so 9 of you that just stormed the podium gonna have to go back."
You do that, you might still need to call airport security -- because the passengers are beating each other up trying to GIT DAT MONEY. It will look like Walmart on Black Friday. How is it Walmart is better at motivating customers to trample each other over a $50 VCR and the airlines can't peaceably move someone with up to $1300 cash? IT'S BECAUSE THEY SUCK AT THEIR JOBS.
There are probably multiple better ways to do this that break your little "Passenger's Dilemma" game that you're so deathly afraid of. You have to drop the "Sanctity of Lottery" madness though. That just has to go. It's counterproductive.
I just remembered something ironic. The last book I brought with me on a flight was this:
https://www.amazon.com/Yes-Scientifically-Proven-Ways-Persuasive/dp/1416576142
There is an entire science behind being persuasive. You ever read that book?
Maybe the airlines only understand the fist and boot because their mental toolkits are so limited. That's what happens most of the time when people feel like they have to resort to force. They're just frustrated because they're mentally limited.
> Because they have an airline to run. They're going to have to bump people in the future to solve staffing emergencies, and it's reasonable for them to attempt to preserve the efficacy of the tools they have to manage that situation. And the 80-220 people on the other flight also had the right to make their flight, too. Or did you think they should all miss their flight just because a doctor thought he was more important than the other 80 people on his flight? How is that fair?
Wow, not only is that hypocritical, that's not even any argument that I actually made.
I'm not saying that other people should miss their flights or whatever.
I'm saying UA should pay up. In the 0.0043% of instances where involuntary bumping occurs (UA 2016), they can pay the fuck up, cash money, up front, and avoid all of this bullshit. They have the money.
There were, what, 4 high school students on that flight. You think they wouldn't have snapped and been like, "Man, that's enough for a new iPhone 7. I'll miss a day of school, fuck it. Best.field.trip.evar."?
But no, UA insisted on this voucher bullshit, and then went from that to sacred lottery in zero flat. Because they don't want to fucking part with the cash, and the fist and boot are all they understand.
That's the fucking point.
As a 10+ year marketer, some of the other comments about particular books going out of relevance fast is correct; most of the marketing books in my bookshelf are already out-dated and some are only a year or two old.
That being said, one of the best marketing books I've ever read isn't technically a marketing book: Yes! 50 Scientifically ways to be more persuasive. It is AMAZING and there are so many lessons in there that I've used in different ways.
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I'm running a blog to try and help small businesses keep on top of marketing from a "DIY" perspective. In the spirit of not self-promoting I'll not link to it here; but if there is some specific topic you're interested in my covering, let me know, and I'm happy to queue up an article about it in the next few months!
This is poor behavior from a salesperson, but I also think consumers have some responsibility to be a little informed about what they're buying. Of course the "power balance" is going to be a little skewed towards the well-trained, well-informed salesperson but I think the buyer needs to take a little responsibility for themselves before they fork-over hundreds of dollars.
Two books really informed my perspective on honest salesmanship: Getting to Yes and Yes!. Hoakey titles, maybe, but really good information on ways to effectively sell and market your product or idea without using dishonest tactics.
Some that guide my everyday work:
Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive!
Competition Demystified!
Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger!
I think that with the integration of increasing perceived value techniques, Jeff Walker style Launch marketing, some persuasion supplementation, using stories in marketing, Neuromarketing, Web Copy techniques, and many others, all put together in combination - anything's possible. How possible something is I think depends on your perception, and how and if you are familiar with persuasion and how businesses persuade and make something sound 'fair'.
Second, I don't actually mind getting pirated. If those people want it and can't afford it, they should have it. I don't want to stop them. I don't view it as a loss.
I'd rather not go the route of donations... it's honestly too much work.
His statement is true if you consider that it's also true of men as well. People have very, very similar behavioural patterns, including, ironically, the notion that they're all unique snowflakes. Not quite 100% overlap, but enough that you can make predictions. It's the basis of books like 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be More Persuasive.
You can break down /u/n0c0ntr0l's statement like this: All humans are very similar because of their genetics, but women are just slightly moreso.