I just finished reading “Influence” by Robert Cialdini. Really, a very interesting book. It explores the way others are able to influence our decision-making to their point of view.

I’ve heard it said that sales is easy, you just have to convince someone that what you are selling is worth more to them than that big stack of money they are holding. Simple, right? One way you do that is through exerting influence. According to Cialdini’s research (as well as a number of other cited studies), there are six basic types of influence:

1. Reciprocity
2. Consistency
3. Social Proof
4. Liking
5. Authority
6. Scarcity

The influence you exert on someone else is entirely based on some combination of these factors. The recent lead nurturing campaign I designed is a good example. We use what’s called a squeeze page on our website’s (ExpressAuto.com) inventory page. We ask for some contact information before allowing people to see our online inventory. This results in a significant number of “Inventory Leads” as we call them. 400-500 per month.

These are, for the most part, browsers not buyers. Recognizing that, we need to structure our approach to these leads differently than we would someone who submitted a credit app on the website. The credit app leads are “prospects”, people who are ready to make a buying decision, the inventory leads are much earlier in the process. Weeks or even months away from making a buying decision.

So inventory leads need nurturing and influencing that lead toward making a buying decision. We must use one or more of the rules above to influence them to making a decision in our favor.

We start by recognizing that the goal of our lead nurturing campaign is not to sell a car, but to set an appointment. We aren’t going to sell a car via email; we’re not going to sell a car over the internet. At some point we have to bring them to the door, and that is the purpose of lead nurturing.  Set the appointment.

We start the process by employing Reciprocity. By giving them something now, they are more likely to respond positively when we ask for something in return at a later date. We have created a checklist of Federal Trade Commission guidelines for choosing a reputable dealership. This checklist basically gives simple, common-sense tips for what to look for before choosing to do business with a dealership. As a reputable dealer, we meet all these criteria. So in our first contact, we send them a link to download the checklist, as well as a link to bypass the squeeze page on future visits. Reciprocity; we give them something (access and authoritative advice), without a sales pitch.

The second contact invites them to bring in their current vehicle for a free trade-in evaluation during a specific week when our buyers will be on hand. Here we are creating scarcity. The buyers are on-hand for a limited time, so it they want the best evaluation they should call and make an appointment.

In both the above cases, we are also using the Authority influencer. In the first the authority is the federal government’s consumer watchdog agency. In the second, it is our own expert buyers who have the years of experience necessary to properly evaluate the trade-in value.

On the third contact (several weeks out), we do include our first sales pitch. Again, using scarcity as an influencer, we tell them that our $49 down delivers programming is continuing, but we’re not sure for how much longer. Hopefully creating the sense of urgency necessary to get them to call… or at least be receptive to our calls. Also, by the time of the third contact, the salesperson should have had enough interaction with that person to have brought to bear still another influencer; Liking. Through helpful emails and follow-up phone calls the salesperson should have established a relationship with that person and gotten themselves “liked”.

We are also able to use another influencer as part of the campaign. Simply by including a link in our email signatures to our reviews and testimonials site in the salesperson’s email signature, we can show that others who have dealt with us in the past have had good experiences and would recommend us to their friends and family. This is the Social Proof influencer. So in this single lead nurturing campaign we have made use of five of the six primary influencers.