***** (of 5)
The bottom line: If you want to be more persuasive, buy this book.
I bought this book after reading Robert Cialdini’s bestseller, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, one of my all-time favorites. In that more comprehensive text, the author details many agents of influence that work upon us all in our everyday lives, often with most of us not even knowing it. Influence contains everything in Yes! and more, and I highly recommend reading the former first, considering the latter as a refresh later on.
Yes! highlights 50 techniques every person can use in order to persuade others. Systematically, each chapter starts with a question that deals with a specific component of persuasion, next a study is described that addresses the question and scientifically validates the answer(s), and finally a conclusion/strategy is developed based on the studies. Several examples are also given in each chapter as to how each strategy can be applied in real-life scenarios. Potential readers should be cautioned that the book is very business-oriented and frequently gives advice to managers and negotiators but Cialdini makes it very easy to visualize how the techniques may be executed by the layperson. In my opinion, the most insightful part of the book is not knowing what works but understanding why techniques work, and the psychology behind them.
Even though the book has 250 pages, it is a remarkably quick read.
Dr. C.H.E. Sadaphal
Influence: Science and Practice is another good one as well. It’s more scientifically oriented and goes alot deeper into the psychology of persuasion, geared more so for the academics who truly want to understand why.
Like ur review. Persuaded me to purchase it.