You’re in the business of influence.
It really doesn’t matter what your title is. You could be the EVP of Worldwide Sales, the Chief Marketing Officer or the VP of Human Resources – your job is about getting someone to do something.
Buy my stuff.
Believe in my message.
Follow my lead.
And yet, many see “influence” as manipulation or brain-washing or something vaguely unsettling. It isn’t. Using the best possible tools to help you get your message heard is smart business. And if you know in your heart that what you’re promoting in your words and deeds is in your market’s best interests, it’s your job to see the job at hand well done.
Do you believe your product works? Do you think your message is worth listening to? Do you want others to hear your message and get on board? Of course you do. Then I’ve got great news. We’ll teach you not only why the social psychology of influence matters – we’ll teach you how to implement it right now, right here, so you can put it to work today.
Why is this important?
You know what it’s like when your programs fall short. This isn’t just frustrating. In this day and age, it’s cause for worry. The good news is that your customers want to hear what you have to say. The bad news is they’re just not listening to you. It’s not your fault – you’re simply not tapping their psychological decision triggers.
Here’s a more vivid way of looking at this. We took a very sophisticated promotion aimed at CIO’s in Fortune 500 companies and turned what should have yielded a 2% to 3% return and instead turned it into a 33% return. What’s more, we did this in New York and New Jersey, one month after 9/11 – when no one was supposed to be buying anything. We did this by re-engineering every possible touch point so that each would tap the decision triggers of the intended market. And it worked.
So who are we, anyway?
Decision Triggers is Dr. Steven Feinberg and Stephen Denny. We work with corporate clients to improve their sales, marketing and business performance by applying the social psychology of influence to critical customer-facing initiatives.
Dr. Steven Feinberg has spent 30 years researching and applying the social psychology of influence in academic and professional settings. He’s also the author of the highly acclaimed book, The Advantage Makers: How Exceptional Leaders Win by Creating Opportunities Others Don’t (FT Press, 2008). Dr. Steve brings the perspective of the psychologist to the partnership.
Stephen Denny (me) is the business end of the partnership. I’ve spent 20+ years as a senior executive at brands like Sony, Iomega, Onstar and Plantronics. My first book, Killing Giants: 10 Strategies to Topple the Goliath in Your Industry, will be published by Portfolio in March, 2011. I’ve been applying the influence principles we use for over 10 years to complex customer facing initiatives and bring the implementation perspective to the partnership.
We help companies launch products, re-engineer programs that affect long-term behavioral changes, get rapid traction on promotions and create the right environmental assets – from websites to in-store experiences – for their customers.
We’ve developed a proprietary framework based on the social psychology of influence that taps your customer’s decision triggers and moves them to yes – faster. The 9 Principles in our framework can improve your results by up to 10 times what you hoped for. We have the proof.
What’s Next?
Read on. Comment on the blog, please – we enjoy the conversation. And please give us your email so we can keep you on our monthly newsletter, where we’ll dig a little deeper into how decision triggers can impact your business, as well as round up the best of what we’ve seen elsewhere.
