Meet Our “Influencer of the Week,” Brian Ahearn!

Brian Ahearn, Chief Influence Officer at Influence PEOPLE

Nominated by: Melina Palmer

Brian Ahearn is the Chief Influence Officer at Influence PEOPLE. He specializes in applying the science of influence in everyday situations. He’s one of only a dozen individuals in the world who holds the Cialdini Method Certified Trainer designation.

Brian’s first book, Influence PEOPLE, was named one of the Top 100 Influence Books of All Time by BookAuthority. His second book, Persuasive Selling, was an Amazon new release bestseller. His new book, The Influencer: Secrets to Success and Happiness, is a business parable.

Brian’s LinkedIn courses have been viewed by more than 500,000 people around the world.

Connect with Brian on LinkedIn, follow him on Twitter, and subscribe to his Youtube channel. You can also visit his website to learn more about what he does.

Brian’s Insights

Much of your professional success and personal happiness depends on getting others to say “Yes” to you. Do you believe that? I’ve certainly found that to be the case in life. My business career started in the insurance industry immediately after college, and I quickly learned my value to my employer was contingent on my ability to make good business decisions. But, no matter how good I thought my decisions were, I always had to convince someone else that what I was proposing was the right course of action — a customer, my manager, the field associates I trained, someone in “the home office,” and more! The bottom line, I needed to influence people that my ideas would help grow the business profitably.

After getting married and starting a family, I quickly learned persuasion was helpful on a personal level because I saw how it could lead to more peace and happiness in our home. Wouldn’t it be nice to know how to communicate with your kids, spouse, and others with less friction while dramatically increasing the odds of hearing “Yes”? Avoiding the pushback that so often comes with making requests of family members can make a more peaceful, happy home become a reality.

If you agree getting to “Yes” will help your professional success and personal happiness, then understanding how to ethically influence people is key. This is especially important in the information and marketing-overloaded society we find ourselves in, as people are bombarded by more than 5,000 marketing messages each day!

When it comes to persuasion, Aristotle defined it as “the art of getting someone to do something they wouldn’t ordinarily do if you didn’t ask.” In other words, it’s not just what you say or do but how you say or do certain things that can make all the difference between hearing “Yes” or “No.”

Here’s some great news: You don’t have to stumble through life with a hit-or-miss approach when it comes to your ability to influence people. The principles of influence are research-based approaches from social psychology that are scientifically proven to help you hear “Yes” more often.

Here are the principles:

Liking – we prefer to say yes to people we know and like. Unity – we say “Yes” to those we share identity with.
Reciprocity – we feel obligated to give back to those who give to us first. Social Proof – we look to others to see how to behave in certain situations.
Authority – we defer to experts when making decisions.
Consistency – we feel pressure to live up to our word.
Scarcity – we value things more when we believe they are rare.

Understanding when and how to apply these principles in different situations will make hearing “Yes” happen sooner and more often. The result will be increased success at work and happiness at home.