[Building and wielding influence creates a unique kind of gravitational pull with clients and prospects. Robert Cialdini, through his decades of behavioral and social science research and foundational book Influence, outlined the universal principles of influence and the science of moving people in your direction. Each of these principles are governed by fundamental psychological forces he has observed that directs human nature.

Applying this vital skill and enhanced level of engagement to your financial services business has been a goal of many advisors, but requires a strategic commitment to realize, not just a tentative, tactical approach. It is becoming increasingly vital in our environment of accelerating change and information overload, to learn to apply these levers of influence, not to be exploitive, but to help people make decisions in our increasingly VUCA world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity.

To learn more about applying these principles to a financial services practice, we reached out to Institute member Matt Halloran, co-founder of Proudmoutha leading influence accelerator company and done-for-you podcasting service provider for advisors and industry experts.]

Bill Hortz: What areas of Cialdini’s work have been most helpful in how you built your services to help advisors increase their influence?
Matt Halloran:
First and foremost, we are influence accelerators. That is the heart of what we do. So, who better to take inspiration from than the "Godfather of Influence” Dr. Robert Cialdini — the author of the foundational book on the topic, Influence. By the way, he recently published a new and expanded edition in 2021!

We built our services to include incorporating the seven areas of influence that Dr Cialdini outlines in his book: reciprocity, commitment/consistency, social proof, authority, liking, scarcity, and unity. 

Hortz: How have you applied Cialdini’s principles to your services to help advisors build their influence through podcasting?
Halloran:
Great question! Let me quickly address how we apply some of the principles.

Authority: This is one of my favorites! We had an advisor client who said, “Matt, I don’t care if anyone listens to my show. The minute I say I have a podcast, a prospect immediately looks at me as an authority figure!” Doing something that others are not doing allows you to look more like a subject matter expert. Who else has a podcast? Not many. 

Liking: Part of our podcast growth strategy is to have the advisor show who they are, what they are like, what they like to do, and, most importantly, their personality! When someone finds out that you have the same interests that you have, everything changes. When a listener sees themselves in you, the topic, a story or a guest, your connection with them grows exponentially. 

Reciprocity: The most important thing we do is help our advisor clients freely share their personality, ideas, and advice with their audience. And, once an advisor has provided value for say 27 minutes (the length of a typical podcast), it is totally OK to ask the listener to do something in the form of a call-to-action. This sparks the process of reciprocity. The more you give, the more you can ask for!

Scarcity: We make sure our advisors are not publishing too much, too often. We want their audience to crave the podcast and content we create for our clients. Our two-podcast-per-month run rate is by design. It creates scarcity! We also use the principle of scarcity with the kinds of guests our clients have on their shows. You have to go through a very structured process to become a guest. This makes not just the audience feel the principle of scarcity, but also the guest. 

Unity: The newest universal principle Cialdini added with his latest edition describes how individuals can be convinced that a communicator shares a meaningful personal or social identity. This is where people connect and say yes to someone they consider “one of them” through a shared experience, history, geography, or way of thinking. When you have a shared experience with someone and openly share it, that person feels connected with you. This is why we want our advisor’s voice and personality to come through in every recording.

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