Strategic Discipline Blog

Which do you feel is more important, for you to be liked or for you to like the person you are trying to sell? You may disagree with this next statement, but if you think about it I believe you will discover it is true. Praise is the only information accepted and valued as much as when it is true as when it is false. What’s the point of this? The point is that it’s not important for the other person to like you. What’s important is for you to like them. Whether I like you or not will not determine whether I make a purchase, but rather if you like me I will be more inclined to purchase.

Therefore when we encounter anyone especially if we intend to influence them we need to discover areas of genuine similarity. Finding something you can sincerely like about them will make them more inclined to like you and thus be more inclined to be influenced by you. 

Have you ever been around someone you really didn’t like, but they just seemed to like, adore and may be even seem infatuated by you? If you have, you’ll recognize their ability to influence you. You may have seen this as you were growing up. Have you ever asked yourself, what does he or she see in this person? What they see, what they feel, is someone who genuinely likes them, and that’s what causes that person to stay in their life and have the ability to influence them.

So what can you learn here if you wish to increase your power to influence others? When you meet someone, or are in a influencing situation, recognize that the sooner you find something to like about them the closer you will be to being able to influence their purchase decision process. If they can feel your genuine affection and liking for them their likelihood of following you will be greatly enhanced!

The key to utilize this tool, is to look for similarities in those you wish to influence, compliment and praise them and then look for areas of mutual or cooperative purposes where their needs can be meet. 

Watch this very short video of an interview with Robert Cialdini on why he feels liking is the most important Persaussion Principle.

Isn’t it a relief to discover that you only have to like them? Getting them to like you can be much more difficult, although you may find in liking them they build up a genuine liking for you as well.

Developments like Wikipedia and Mozilla Firefox provide evidence of an evolving process of ideas coming into our society from something known as collective consciousness or what author Steven Johnson calls Emergence. What that can mean to your business and how to capitalize on the collective involvement of your staff and customers is the discussion of our next blog as we continue to explore the speakers who provided messages at the Fortune Small Business Growth Summit.