Pre-Suasion - by Robert Cialdini (Paperback)

About the Book

Examines the art of effective persuasion to argue that its secret lies in a key moment before messages are delivered, sharing strategies for how to psychologically prepare one's listeners to render them most receptive.

Book Synopsis

The acclaimed New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller from Robert Cialdini--"the foremost expert on effective persuasion" (Harvard Business Review)--explains how it's not necessarily the message itself that changes minds, but the key moment before you deliver that message.

What separates effective communicators from truly successful persuaders? With the same rigorous scientific research and accessibility that made his Influence an iconic bestseller, Robert Cialdini explains how to prepare people to be receptive to a message before they experience it. Optimal persuasion is achieved only through optimal pre-suasion. In other words, to change "minds" a pre-suader must also change "states of mind."

Named a "Best Business Books of 2016" by the Financial Times, and "compelling" by The Wall Street Journal, Cialdini's Pre-Suasion draws on his extensive experience as the most cited social psychologist of our time and explains the techniques a person should implement to become a master persuader. Altering a listener's attitudes, beliefs, or experiences isn't necessary, says Cialdini--all that's required is for a communicator to redirect the audience's focus of attention before a relevant action.

From studies on advertising imagery to treating opiate addiction, from the annual letters of Berkshire Hathaway to the annals of history, Cialdini outlines the specific techniques you can use on online marketing campaigns and even effective wartime propaganda. He illustrates how the artful diversion of attention leads to successful pre-suasion and gets your targeted audience primed and ready to say, "Yes." His book is "an essential tool for anyone serious about science based business strategies...and is destined to be an instant classic. It belongs on the shelf of anyone in business, from the CEO to the newest salesperson" (Forbes).

Review Quotes

"Robert Cialdini is perhaps the foremost expert on effective persuasion....Cialdini' s latest book, Pre-Suasion, builds on that work, arguing that the best persuaders aren't merely eloquent charmers with well- crafted, finely tuned arguments; they're also creative preparers who focus on finding the best ways to launch their offers and ideas....The book provides a vast catalogue of research and techniques, many of them marketing related."--HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW

"[Pre-Suasion] is sure to be an important contribution to the fields of social psychology and behavioral economics...detailed, readable, and fascinating, this book may cause the reader to wonder whether unbiased decisions are possible."--Publishers Weekly

"A fascinating and engaging glimpse into the world of persuasion, and it's a lot more pervasive and evanescent than we might think."--BizEd

"An utterly fascinating read on how the most important drivers of persuasion aren't the words we choose in the moment, but how we set the stage beforehand. Robert Cialdini is the world's foremost expert on influence, and you will never look at it the same way again."--Adam Grant, professor of Management and Psychology at the Wharton School, and author of Originals and Give and Take

"Best Sales and Marketing Book of 2016."--Geoffrey James, Inc.com

"Books employing social science are very popular these days, but so are books on workplace culture. Pre-Suasion reminds us that there is a connection between the two, that using insights from behavioral science and social psychology can yield huge dividends if used accordingly and ethically."--800CEOREAD

"Digging down into how people make decisions at a primitive level is the specialty of author Robert Cialdini, a guru to salesmen and marketers since the publication of his 1984 book Influence. In his new book Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade, he returns with more tips about how to slither your way into people's minds and rearrange what you find there."--New York Post

"Exhaustively reviews the research not on how to influence others but on how to make people ready to be influenced....chapter after chapter piles on the experimental evidence from the field and the lab....Scholars, teachers and researchers will find the endnotes invaluable, because here, with his usual clarity and charm, Mr. Cialdini addresses academic concerns--such as the debate about the persistence and strength of change that can be produced in a brief lab study or field intervention--and explains many studies in detail, with more anecdotes to illustrate them....the overall message of this book is compelling."--The Wall Street Journal

"Extends the science of persuasion in several important ways....an essential tool for anyone serious about science-based business strategies. Pre-Suasion is well worth the long wait, and is destined to be an instant classic. The book belongs on the shelf of anyone in business, from the CEO to the newest salesperson."--Forbes

"Fascinating and useful read. An instant classic."--Michael Mauboussin

"No psychologist's research has been used more often or successfully than that of Robert Cialdini, who literally "wrote the book" on influence. Now, he's done it again, showing us the power of the moment before an attempt to persuade. This is classic Cialdini--authoritative, original, and immediately practical."--Richard H. Thaler, Charles R. Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, co-author of Nudge, and author of Misbehaving

"Robert Cialdini's Influence is, by a wide margin, the book that I recommend most often. Pre-Suasion may be even more shockingly insightful."--Chip Heath, Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business, and co-author of Switch and Made to Stick

"The great social psychologist RobertCialdini has written another timeless and indispensable book about thepsychology of influence. I'll be recommending it for years and years."- Amy Cuddy, author of Presence