Robert Cialdini
Organisations invest heavily in what they communicate – the argument, the offer, the framing – and almost nothing in the conditions that determine whether it lands. The decision is often made before the message arrives. Most commercial and leadership teams have no systematic approach to the moments that precede persuasion, which means even well-constructed communication is routinely working against itself.
Robert Cialdini – social psychologist and author of Influence and Pre-Suasion – gives commercial and leadership teams the scientific framework to understand, and ethically apply, the forces that determine why people say yes.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Robert Cialdini
- His Seven Principles of Influence – Reciprocity, Commitment and Consistency, Social Proof, Authority, Liking, Scarcity, and Unity – are the most widely referenced persuasion framework in business, grounded in peer-reviewed experimental research rather than practitioner observation. No comparable model carries equivalent scientific credibility.
- Pre-Suasion introduced a counterintuitive and commercially actionable argument: the moment before a message is delivered determines whether it will be received. That gives leaders, negotiators, and commercial teams a lever – the deliberate management of attention and context – that most organisations have never systematically deployed.
- His research has been applied across contexts from US presidential campaign strategy to national energy conservation policy, demonstrating that the principles are not industry-specific – they describe universal mechanisms of human decision-making.
- Influence is listed in Fortune’s “75 Smartest Business Books” and CEO Read’s “100 Best Business Books of All Time”; Pre-Suasion was a Financial Times Best Business Book of 2016. The durability of both titles means organisations are reinforcing, not introducing, a framework that their people already partially know – which accelerates adoption.
- The Society for Personality and Social Psychology has named a prize in his honour – a signal of the field’s verdict on the quality and societal relevance of his research, not merely its commercial reach.
Biography highlights
- Regents’ Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing, Arizona State University; visiting scholar at Stanford Graduate School of Business, Ohio State, and the Annenberg School of Communications
- Author of Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (1984) and Pre-Suasion (2016) – combined sales of over seven million copies in more than 44 languages
- Pre-Suasion was a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller; named a Financial Times Best Business Book of 2016
- Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2018) and the National Academy of Sciences (2019)
- Described by Harvard Business Review as “the foremost expert on effective persuasion”; Influence listed in Fortune’s “75 Smartest Business Books” and CEO Read’s “100 Best Business Books of All Time”
- President and CEO of INFLUENCE AT WORK; holds honorary doctorates from Georgetown University, the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (Wroclaw), and the University of Basel
Biography
Robert Cialdini’s foundational research did not begin in a laboratory. He spent three years working undercover inside the professions of compliance – car dealerships, fundraising organisations, telemarketing firms – observing how influence actually operates in real commercial settings. That methodology produced Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, published in 1984. The Six Principles it identified – Reciprocity, Commitment and Consistency, Social Proof, Authority, Liking, and Scarcity – became the most applied persuasion framework in business, referenced from sales training programmes to business school curricula to the annual letters of Berkshire Hathaway.
More than thirty years later, Cialdini returned with a second argument. Pre-Suasion proposed that the persuasive moment does not begin when a message is delivered – it begins before. The conditions set in the moments prior to communication determine whether an audience is receptive. Changing minds, he argued, requires changing states of mind first. Pre-Suasion became a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, and a Financial Times Best Business Book of 2016. It also introduced the seventh principle – Unity – based on the finding that shared identity is among the most powerful drivers of influence.
The commercial applications are direct and cross-functional. Sales and marketing teams use the principles to structure offers and sequence communications. Leaders apply them to change management and stakeholder alignment. Negotiators use the Pre-Suasion concept to set the conditions before a position is stated. Harvard Business Review has described Cialdini as “the foremost expert on effective persuasion.” Richard Thaler, co-author of Nudge, has said no psychologist’s research has been applied more often or more successfully.
Cialdini is Regents’ Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University and has held visiting scholar appointments at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and the Annenberg School of Communications. He has been elected to both the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The Society for Personality and Social Psychology has named a prize in his honour – awarded for research that demonstrates societal relevance through field methods, which is precisely the standard his own work set.
Key speaking topics
- The Seven Principles of Influence
- Pre-Suasion and the psychology of attention
- Ethical persuasion in leadership and negotiation
- Behavioural science in sales and marketing
- Social proof and organisational decision-making
- The Unity principle and collaborative alignment
- Science-based communication strategy
Ideal for
- CMOs, sales directors, and commercial leadership teams seeking evidence-based frameworks for customer and stakeholder communication
- C-suite and board-level audiences navigating change, alignment, or strategic persuasion challenges
- Heads of marketing, brand, and communications responsible for message design and audience receptivity
- Negotiation, procurement, and business development professionals
Audience outcomes
- A working understanding of the Seven Principles of Influence – including Unity – and how each applies in commercial, leadership, and negotiation contexts
- A clear grasp of the Pre-Suasion concept: how to shape audience receptivity before a message is delivered, and why this is distinct from refining the message itself
- A framework for distinguishing ethical influence from manipulation – and a practical understanding of why the distinction matters commercially as well as reputationally
- Specific, research-grounded adjustments to the sequencing, framing, and context of communication that improve persuasive effectiveness
- Confidence to apply the principles immediately across sales, leadership, and change management settings without requiring institutional change first
Talks
Translates the scientific research behind persuasion into practical business applications through the Seven Principles of Influence.
Key takeaways:
- Understanding the seven universal principles of persuasion and the mechanisms behind each
- Practical approaches to establishing authority, trust, and reciprocity in commercial and leadership contexts
- How to apply evidence-based persuasion ethically to encourage action and build durable relationships
Explains how influence begins before a message is delivered, and how managing attention in the moments prior to communication determines whether an audience will say yes.
Key takeaways:
- Why the privileged moment before communication matters more than the communication itself
- Ethical techniques for redirecting audience attention to improve receptivity
- How to recognise and defend against unwanted pre-suasion from others
Examines how the principles of influence operate when uncertainty shapes decision-making, and which principles are most effective under conditions of volatility.
Key takeaways:
- How uncertainty changes the way people respond to influence attempts
- Which of the seven principles carry the most weight when decisions feel risky
- Practical strategies for maintaining ethical influence when trust is most needed
Explores the seventh principle of influence – shared identity – and what the science reveals about the relationships that enable genuine cooperation and aligned action.
Key takeaways:
- Why shared identity is among the most powerful and underused drivers of influence
- How to develop the conditions that allow rivals or disconnected groups to align around common goals
- Practical approaches for using the Unity principle to support collaboration and constructive organisational change
Examines how leaders use the influence process to guide decisions, generate commitment, and move organisations toward positive outcomes.
Key takeaways:
- How the seven principles of influence map onto the specific challenges of leadership communication
- Why ethical influence is more effective – not just more principled – than coercive or manipulative approaches
- How to apply persuasion science to build lasting partnerships and drive sustainable organisational change