The Psychology of Persuasion: How To Persuade Others To Your Way Of Thinking Hardcover – May 31, 1996

In the beginning of the book Kevin wanted me to do a self evaluation before I could read further. I put the book down. Not another self eval I thought. A few days later I thought well why not. So I unwillingly did the exercises with ease.I was surprised! It felt good that I knew enough about myself that I could breeze through the questions that I wrote in ink.Then I started to read the book. Wow! I'm glad the majority of people on earth don't know about this book! Yay for me! I want Kevin to have the sales, but shhhh don't tell anybody....This book is amazing!It makes me wonder if some of the self help guru took some of Kevin's words...Anyway this book is deep and full of examples. Where do I start?Well I guess I'll start with myself. Because of the psychology factor in the book I was able to get more of an idea of the type of person I am (Director/Analytical) but it's more than that.One of the points that stand out for me is the term "values." I've seen that word a lot in various self help books but for whatever reason I didn't "get it." The way Kevin explains it I got it.He says to ask questions to get the intel.Means values and ends values:Means values are objects or actions. Some of Kevins examples of means values include houses, cars, investments, computers, traveling, children, marriage etc. for me this was exciting intel.Ends values are the 'feelings associated with those means'. Some of Kevins examples are love, fun excitement, happiness, freedom, security, adventure health, power etc. a lite bulb went on in my head.This is important terms of understanding myself and others.There is soooo much more!I've read plenty marketing, copywriting, negotiation and self help books, but this book is a masterpiece that ties it all together.If you read this book first (several times) you will become a MP and everything else will fall into place!Excellent work Kevin Hogan!

In April 2006 as I was starting a new job in Sales returning to work from time off as a widow, a GF in Biz Dev lent me two books on Sales.One of them she pulled out and showed me the intriguing opening pages of each chapter which had a visual representing how each chapter built upon the other so we had a whole picture of how to effectively and ethically persuade others.She looked me in the eye, nodded, and said, "THIS one, THIS one you will want to read and implement."Boy, she was NOT kidding!Kevin Hogan provides a wonderful combination of academic cool research and clear practical steps that any sales person (who is NOT a sales person in some aspect of their life, I ask you?), entrepreneur, spouse and parent can actually understand and APPLY in their life.After each Law he demonstrates, Hogan provides not just one example that is so abstract that it's of no use.Oh no!Hogan instead provides 10 clear cut examples from a cross-section of life which anyone can SO easily copy and apply to your field that he makes Persuasion just SO easy.And he is always reading cutting edge research. So this is not dull dry (sorry, you know what I mean, meaning no disrepect to academia) research which we can't understand.Not at all!13 years later, Psychology of Persuasion is still the number one sales book I recommend every sales person and entrepreneur read and apply.It is clearly a must addition to your library!

Very interesting book. Gives some good information on how to persuade people to see your point of view and even agree to it. It goes over the 9 basic rules that a person thinks about before he makes his final decision on anything. And it also gives you different ways to persuade people and examples of how it is used.This is the first persuasion book that I've purchased and reading it gave me some very good insight on not just persuasion but on life itself.It also made me want to know more about persuasion and influence.People that should pick up this book:Anyone that wants to get more out of life.

This book has so much valuable information to help you influence others to get more of the results you want. And it gives you this info in bite-sized chunks you can use and build on.The book builds on the terrific work that Cialdini has done and reported in his books, which any student of influence will also buy and study. Hogan expands Cialdini's number of persuasion principles ("laws") from six to nine and fills the book with examples to teach you how to use them and scores of influence methods and techniques.When we do choose to persuade someone, we want certain results. Anyone who consistently uses this book's simple model of outcome-based thinking will reap dollar benefits at least hundreds of times greater than the price of this book. And Hogan teaches you this in just ten pages.Each chapter ends with a short summary in outline form. This helped me grasp the information the first time I read the book and has made it easy for me to quickly review the material when I've gone back to it.I highly recommend that you buy and study this book, and then review the short chapter summaries from time to time.

As a sales professional, this has long been one of my favorite books on how to persuade effectively.Kevin Hogan offers ten specific topics for detailed discussion, and then he offers concrete real-world examples for each one of them.When I read in the Wall Street Journal yesterday that this was one of the few allowed books in the common area library at Goldman Sachs, I was reminded to pick it back up and read through it again.Now I have another page and a half of ideas to implement that will help me be a more effective sales pro.