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Summary: Psychology of Persuasion Helped Me
Review: I'm not in sales but I have met the author of this book a few times and can tell you that after I bought this book my management skills were definitely improved. I found that communicating with my staff was much easier and that empowering others was a more attainable and reachable goal. I think what helped the most was the chapter on nonverbal communication. Simply being able to understand what people are thinking on more than one level has been able to help me to know how to respond more effectively. Employees often cloak their feelings and smile. The other way this book was helpful to me was in learning to build rapport effectively and I'd recommend the book to anyone for this chapter alone. I really found this book practical, useful, and it has proven useful in our company.
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Summary: Shows you how to sell
Review: The Power of Persuasion was really helpful to me in increasing my personal sales in insurance. Applying his Outcome Based Thinking, I was able to increase my in house closing ratio from about half to almost 65%, just using OBT. I know there is a lot more to absorb but I'm happy I saw Kevin talk in Las Vegas this spring and like his book, he was great. He stayed after his presentation and shook everyone's hand, answered every question and even coached people and then I got to talk with him. It was worth the wait. Thanks!
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Summary: One of the Better Books about Persuasion
Review: There are a lot of good books about influence. Levine's new book is good. Cialdini's old one is still useful. But Hogan's book stands out for a couple of reasons. First, I've never read any book about persuasion and influence that is both academic in nature and real world tested material. A lot of academics don't like salespeople and a lot of salespeople don't like Ivory Tower thinkers, but this book works for us and I think that the academics get a lot to sink their teeth into as well. The second piece of the persuasion problem is having a problem. When you have some salespeople that excel in communicating and others that don't, frankly a model or as Hogan calls it, a paradigm is useful. Essentially this simply means having an order or a sequence of events that is flexible enough to meet most situations while being simple enough to adopt by the vast majority of your salespeople. This is a strength of the book and Hogan's writing in general. Another thing I like about this book is that it takes fairly complex material and simplifies it to where you instantly are thinking applications for your services and not trying to figure out HOW to apply the material. There are weaknesses in the book as well. Hogan uses a number of stories in the book from the Bible. This leaves you with an occassional Zig Ziglar/Peter Lowe taste in your mouth. I've met Hogan and know that this is not his style today but you do feel it in the book. Another weakness is that the book, like Cialdini's is now a bit dated. Hogan's website corrects errant information in the book. Why he never revised this book is hard to say but at least the material has been updated for the public. If you had to pick the best pieces of the book, it would be about developing passion (something that we struggle with as sales managers) and his work in body language. I don't think anyone questions Hogan as the leader in the field of nonverbal communication. I also liked the material that appears in the gathering intelligence chapter. So few salespeople spend enough time figuring out who they are talking with...and instead to talk TO them. This book fixes that. This is a solid book, it is five stars and it is one of the better books in the field of persuasion.
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Summary: Influence Excellence
Review: The Psychology of Persuasion is a well written book about influence that outlines a unique model for gaining compliance. Most of the book uses examples from the field of selling though personal relationships are considered. The books strengths are it's discussion of words that hit the hot button, non verbal communication and building rapport. A second section discusses some advanced material that bring in NLP to shed light on how people process information and make decisions. The books weaknesses are the thin treatment given to brainwashing in an appendix which could have been expanded upon greatly IMHO. Aside fromt this, from start to finish it is like having a Bible for influence.
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Summary: Totally derivative
Review: If you have never read a book on influence and persuasion before, I can see how you might be impressed by this book. Unfortunately, as other reviewers have mentioned, that impression is wholly inaccurate and you'd be FAR better off with a book by someone who really knows what they are talking about, like Robert Cialdini's "Influence". To illustrate what I mean, consider this sentence from page 138: "It would be impossible to give the Meyer-Briggs personality test to everyone we want to persuade." Meyer-Briggs? Who is he, she or they?
The correct title is the "Myers-Briggs Type Indicator" or MBTI, created by Isabel Briggs Myers and Katharine Cook Briggs, based on Carl Jung's psychological types. Now I agree that it isn't going to make a lot of difference to your life if you never find out that Meyer-Briggs is incorrectly spelt. But I personally found myself wondering how a self-proclaimed expert could make such a basic mistake about the spelling of the title of one of the best-known personality inventories used in the Western world. Especially when the book was first printed 8 years ago - plenty of time, you might think, to spot and correct such an obvious error in future printings. But apparently neither the author nor the publisher did spot the mistake. And presumably no-one reading the book spotted it, or if they did it seems they didn't bother to write in about it. Or if they did write in, no one thought it was worth making the necessary correction
And that leaves me wondering what, and how many, other mistakes the book contains? Another obvious blooper appears on page 118, where we are told that you should: "Look around for automobiles that fall into [the No-haggle purchasing] category and you will be absolutely certain that the owner of the vehicle is someone who is a very poor negotiator!" "Absolutely certain"?
What a strange claim - and by definition obviously untrue.
How can you possibly *know* that someone is "a very poor negotiator" just because they are driving a certain car? Firstly it may not even be their car. It may be a company car, or a friend's car.
Secondly, they may be such an effective negotiator in business and earn so much that they just don't care what their car costs as long as they get what they want, NOW!
Thirdly, it might have been a present.
Fourthly, they may have bought it secondhand.
And so on. To tell us that the car someone owns can define their negotiating skills ABSOLUTELY is patently nonsense. The third error, identified by the author himself, starts on page 260 when he opens a discussion of the NLP eye accessing cues model.
In an online article the author now *claims* that the eye accessing model is not accurate and that he has carried out experiments (back in the late 1990's) to prove it.
Leaving aside the fact that there is also a website which demonstrates beyond any reasonable doubt the amateurish nature of these experiments, if the author claims to *know* that the eye accessing cues model isn't accurate, why is it still in the book three printings after the author's experiments? This looks to me like nothing more than a collection of bits and pieces of information culled from various other sources (including Cialdini?), with no particular skill or understanding.
Typical example: on page 104 (last paragraph) we read "Strategic movement was one of the best kept secrets in communication, until you read about it in this book!" Well, not exactly. In NLP circles this technique is known as "anchoring the room" and in my experience has been reasonably common knowledge since *at least* 2-3 years before this book was first published. I'd strongly recommend Cialdini's book, even if you've already bought this book.
You'll be amazed at how much extra information there is in "the real thing".
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Summary: This book WILL change the way you think.
Review: Wow. A book that puts it all together in one volume! And full of techniques that I'd never thought of before - easy to test out in the real world, too. I appreciated the many examples of putting them into action - actual conversations to go by. For the beginner it's a goldmine of information. For the advanced, there's indepth info about unconscious persuasion (cults and such) which blew me away. Hogan emphasizes ethics, important with this topic and good to keep in mind when influencing others - which you'll be able to do after reading this book!
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Summary: Don't Bother
Review: I don't know how these other people could possibly like this book. It is a sad attempt at a serious subject. It seems like Mr. Hogan took the concept of persuaion and put it in a blender with about a dozen of the most BS self help books and hit frape. Nothing orignal and nothing you couldn't get from a thousand other books of high quality and lower price. Read Influence: The power of persuaion. This is just a sad book. I guess they'll print anything these days.
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Summary: Powerful in Print and in Person
Review: I bought the Psychology of Persuasion because Kevin Hogan spoke at our annual conference last week. The book actually lives up to the presentation he gave. The body language material in The Psychology of Persuasion is complementary to Dr. Hogan's presentation and provides the reader with ideas and techniques I had never heard before. I've been selling insurance for 13 years and I have never read a book that was so geared to the salesperson and yet just as easily can be applied in any setting. The Psychology of Persuasion is well written, easy to understand and has plenty of reasons to be on the desk. (Power words, hypnotic language, body language, gathering intelligence, closing, and some really fascinating "mastery tools." Highly recommended!!!
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Summary: Read it again and again
Review: I have read so many different approaches to persuade and get to the top. There are many good ones, and this book is definately one fo the best. Like I said, read it again and again. As you are aware you are the only one between you and success. We all deserve the right to help ourselves ethically approach those around us and influence others to your way of thinking. Buy this book and rock and roll.
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Summary: Unique approach to influence
Review: The Psychology of Persuasion is a unique book about influence. What differentiates Persuasion from other books in it's category is that it doesn't only tell you "what" (which can be very helpful and interesting) but it tells you "how." So many self help books give you information. But as for the practical applications we are often left wanting. Hogan's ethical background is largely influenced by a Judeo-Christian tradition which he doesn't hide in the book...nor does he ever preach...thankfully. The ethical approach he takes is essentially that of Stephen Covey's as put forth in Seven Habits. Then with the foundation of win/win established, it is time to go to work. We learn about specific code words that change minds. "Because", "now", "imagine" and a plethora of others that seem to have been thoroughly researched as to their strength in the process of persuasion. Synthesizing his academic background with his real world experience in sales we are treated to a truly useful introduction to hypnotic language. Hypnotic language is roughly defined as language that allows someone to avoid the reactant response. (Reduce resistance.) Next up comes a core principle in all strategic thinking, the gathering of intelligence. In other words, McKay's 66 for five fingers. Hogan likes to keep intelligence simple. Uncover the keys to the other person's stories, get inside of those stories and then work within those "maps" if you will. His laying the foundation of intelligence (and ethics) with the old Gary Cooper movie, Meet John Doe, was either a stroke of brilliance or a lucky hit. The chapters on nonverbal communication are not as powerful as his body language programs are but I did find the information quite helpful. The diagramming of positioning of people seems to disagree with his more recent research into seating and standing to build rapport. I suspect the information in POP is still valid and that his more recent discoveries are probably simply the next step up. The nonverbal communication chapters seem to be the best documented of the book. His chapters on presenting material were more motivational than they were filled with the same degree of facts and specific applications. They aren't greatly lacking, they simply aren't the strength of the book. Getting to Yes, is dealt with remarkably briefly. Hogan believes in a very powerful model of influence where you eliminate resistance, paint a vivid outcome, work within values and the person you are communicating with simply MUST say "yes." This is probably not as simple as it really works in real life but I confess that his chapter on asking for confirmation, compliance or agreement is powerful in it's simplicity. The advanced section of the book contains material from an offshoot of various psychological backgrounds called, NLP. It differs from "traditional NLP" and some of the material is useful though I have seen little value in most of the NLP books I have read. The final appendices discussing Ethics and Brainwashing should have been full chapters. They act only as a foretaste perhaps of future books. Just as you are finished with each of the appendices you are ready for 200 pages more on each subject. He brings up the problems of Win/Win thinking. (How much of a win and for whom?) He brings up brainwashing and it's positive and negative uses. These subjects are all tantalizing. He refuses to judge most mainstream points of view though you sense the author has very distinct beliefs and views in these areas. Overall, The Psychology of Persuasion is a win for anyone who needs other people to comply with them. Quite good and well worth the time invested.
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