Have you ever wished that you could get people to say ‘yes’ more often? If so, then The Little Book of Yes: How to Win Friends, Boost your Confidence and Persuade Others might be the perfect book for you.

The Little Book of Yes: How to Win Friends, Boost your Confidence and Persuade Others by Noah Goldstein, Steve Martin and Robert Cialdini is a described as a “travel-sized handbook” and contains 21 different persuasion techniques. Most techniques are written up in just 6 pages so you can quickly dip in and out of the book as necessary.

Some of the techniques in the book commonly discussed techniques such as ‘GIVING’.  As the book says “Those who have received help and assistance are, by and large, more inclined to help in return if that giver ever needs assistance in the future.’ This is a very commonly taught persuasion technique that people use personally and professionally.

Another persuasion technique that I see mentioned all the time to entrepreneurs and business owners is about telling stories over facts and in ‘HUMANISING’ the message is “Stories trump facts and humanity beats statistics”. (For the sake of rhyming that probably should have written – stories trump facts and humanity beats stats).

This book is created so that anyone can find nuggets in it whether you are trying to persuade people professionally (as an entrepreneur or employee) or on a personal level. One of the lessons that stuck with me from the book came from ‘COMPARING’.

“Make no mistake, the order in which options are presented
has a huge influence on how people make comparisons and on what they subsequently choose”.

In chapter goes on to show how what number candidate you are in a job interview matters but that lesson can also apply to how you order possible holidays so your travel companion chooses the one you really want or how an entrepreneur presents their offerings so the most profitable one is chosen.

One of the final chapters is called ‘LOSING’ and it says that ‘Losses loom much larger in our minds than do gains’. Therefore, in order to persuade people, you need to “Honestly point out what people have to lose by not following your advice or recommendation”. Whilst this was mentioned to help people to persuade others I personally found the idea of losses loom much larger in our minds to be so powerful and it has already helped inform some choices of mine in recent weeks.

FINAL THOUGHTS 

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I think being able to persuade people is such an important skill and have previously read books like How to Win Friends and Influence People.

This book is short, sweet and to the point. As with any book that is made up of numerous small chapters it can feel a bit bitty, however, I felt there was a good attempt to make a number of the techniques to build or follow on from one another.

So if you would like to brush up on your persuasion skills and in bite-size chunks then check out The Little Book of Yes: How to Win Friends, Boost your Confidence and Persuade Others

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