Most of us think we’re rational.

I know the readers of this blog are smart, rational people, so I’m sure you are aware that you really don’t know what your brain is doing sometimes.

There is a slight gap between the time we say something an we realize what we say. Fortunately, most of us don’t have to do this on national TV

Our prospects brains give us many openings to hook onto. How are you using them?

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Quoted from MySpace.. Read the Full Article Here

Fiat is taking over Chrysler after Daimler lost billions trying to do exactly the same thing. Time Warner and AOL ended up in a fiasco. GM lost Saab, Ford lost Jaguar and Land Rover and today we have the battle of Kraft taking over Cadbury.

Why do most of these mergers and acquisitions end up in disaster?

Because they don’t know the code… they don’t know their own code – their corporate code. They don’t understand that a corporation is a culture (rituals, myths, heroes) and has a code. They also don’t know the code of the company they want to acquire or merge with. Of course they end up experiencing a “Culture Clash” and “Cultural War”. Then they have no idea of the country culture code, (see how the Cadbury people in ..England.. are reacting to the American take over or the Danone disaster in China).

To succeed you need a corporate Psychologist-Anthropologist. You need a corporate culture Match Maker who can identify each corporate culture code and facilitate the creation of the NEW culture while keeping the best of each of the old cultures.

Royal Bank lost most of the brilliant people from Royal Trust when they acquired Royal Trust. Daimler lost ALL of the Chrysler executives when they took over Chrysler (most of them went to GM).

What is the value of a company if all of the brilliant people leave?

Mergers and acquisitions should bring more than the sum of their parts. How do we do that? By creating a new corporate culture that integrates the best of each original corporate culture. This new corporate culture should have “babies” with both companies DNA.

Continued on Dr. Rapielle’s MySpace blog

Robert Cialdini talks about persuasion psychnology at affiliate summit las vegas

Attendees at Affiliate Summit West being held at the Rio in Las Vegas this week got a chance to learn how to apply Robert Cialdini’s persuasion principles to getting a higher response and conversion in their marketing efforts.

The keynote by Cialdini included many of our favorite stories… the hotel towel studies, the power of “but” used between a negative and positive and emphasis on how leading with a con, specifically an objection that the target audience will perceive.

One story I did not remember hearing before was the Cialdini’s doctoral student’s thesis on the power of scarcity of information about a scarcity. Studying orders from imported beef, they broke the client pool into 3 groups. They were given distinct messages:

There is an allotment of beef available for orders

The will be a limited amount of beef available

We have just heard from our exclusive source that there will be limit

Group 1 was the baseline with with a result of 10. Group 2 more than double their orders when told of the scarcity (24) and then there was group 3.. told that an exclusive weather bureua source had shared information that there would be a scarcity due to weather conditions. That yield 6 times the orders (61).

When you have news to share, let people know that it’s new, that you made an effort to get it to them, and then how they can benefit.

I talked briefly with Dr. Cialdini about his new focus.. a book due out by the end of the year. I wanted to share this with you as soon as I found out and raced to post this.

I know this headline got your attention. I read about it in this report.

Sean D’Souza of Psychotactics fame wrote a simple 12 page report that give you the essence of what triggers make a good headline and his testing method.

Then he gave me permission to share it on this blog.

Another persuasion gift. No strings attached. Right Click here, download now and enjoy

Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational, comments on a study that measured honesty while wearing designer goods

Dan’s blog is a must read

“I believe in Harvey Dent”

How the joker left his mark, and the way we will be marketing in the future. A case study in the persuasion game played before the release of Dark Knight

I’ve said that South Carolina residents must be especially lacking in common sense to warrant a special note on gas pumps reminding them that there is a law against taking gas without payment.

But this trip.. I saw a new sticker with a graphic and a new line added at added to the bottom of the sticker. Yes! tells us that this will be more persuasive (assuming they still have an extraordinary drive off problem in South Carolina.. I didn’t check)

Malcom Gladwell’s new book Outliers is coming out this week.

In this video, he describes how we aren’t capitalizing on our resources. Made me think.. are we persuading as well as we could?

Watch The Pitch, Poker and the Public:

This video asks the question “Can you go corporate without losing your soul?” It explores some of the advertising and influence industry’s giants through the lens of the greatest persuader of them all; P.T. Barnum. As it turns out he never said, “There is a sucker born every minute”. Hear why you think he did, hear how Joan Jett’s career was launched by the man who launched it, hear from the creator of the Marlboro man and from the greatest pitchman alive today as well as one of the greatest Texas hold’em players to sit at the poker table. These men have been in the business for decades and have learned valuable things about creating perceptions to turn a profit

poker, persuasion, influence, sucker, barnum, ben mack,

Due to brisk sales and phenomenal word of mouth, the new book, Yes!
50 Scientifically Ways to Be Persuasive by Noah Goldstein, Steve Martin
and Robert Cialdini has moved to the New York Times Business Best
Seller List. We at INFLUENCE AT WORK, are totally thrilled and want to
thank you all for your enormous response, good wishes and gracious
comments. If you would like to send the authors your wishes as well,
just click Yes!.

Yea!!! Go team!

Thanks to eveyone reading this blog who participated in our viral campaign to promote the book

persuasion book, influence book, cialdini