Customer Reviews

Subliminal Persuasion: Influence & Marketing Secrets They Don't Want You To Know

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is far from a must read. Lakhani strings together some information from various books and interviews and cobbles together just enough for a book. It reads more like a C+ term paper. He thinly covers a few of the basics: figure out a person's pre-exisitng beliefs and play to that frame; seek emotional engagement with those who you want to persuade; understand the power of questions in teasing out how people feel. He has an interesting section on coaxing out an endorsement of you and how you do it in order to gin up social proof. There are lots of much better books.

"The essence of subliminal persuasion is the message: the message your audience hears, receives and experience as being true."

....and then Lakhani goes on to explain the subliminal persuasion (SP) is a message that enters the mind without conscious evaluation.

In Chapter 1, Dave wastes no time and gives you the formula for creating an urban legend. (This is very cool, one of those "worth the price of admission" sections.)

He also shows a very, very nice strategy that beautifully illustrates what I might refer to as Covert Hypnosis but Dave is defining as subliminal persuasion and it is excellent. In a nutshell Dave walks you through EXACTLY how to construct covert communication. This is done elegantly and it works.

Chapter Two- Leverage Applied Propaganda

A sweeping discussion of propaganda which ends with five lessons to be learned from arguably the greatest propagandist in history. The formula Lakhani uses for propaganda is spot on.

Chapter Three: Position and Package your Legend

Here Dave talks about three crucial factors every person that uses intentional persuasion needs to know. What to do with story telling, how to create complementary models and finally how to create a persona.

Chapter Four: Control the Emotion and The Content

Dave cuts to the chase. The emotions that persuaders need to concern themselves with. He not only itemizes them for the reader but details them. Very nice.

Next up is a complete chapter about getting endorsements. This is something few people do as well as Lakhani and is another one of those "worth the price of admission" sections in the book.

Thorough discussions of "True Believers" and plenty on media use make for tantalizing reading that keeps you turning the pages and taking notes.

Maybe the hottest chapter is Creating a Cultic Following, followed immediately, interestingly enough by a chapter on Seduction.

This is far and away Lakhani's finest and most important work to date.

Unlike other books in the genre this book tells you not only WHAT to do but HOW to do it. That's a lot of bang for twenty five bucks.

Five stars?

No question. This is a book I want everyone in my Inner Circle to read.

Kevin Hogan
Author of The Psychology of Perusasion

Dave Lakhani's Subliminal Persuasion is the type of book I wish I had written. It does an outstanding job of outlining and explaining the different persuasion techniques that are being used by politicians, businesses, schools and the government to influence how you think about the various issues and events of the day. Make no mistake, they are messing with your mind.

This book gives you the awareness you need to counteract these subliminally persuasive efforts so you can have more control over your own thoughts. On the flip side, this book will give you a strong set of tools you can use to persuade others to your way of thinking.

Chapter 3 - "Position and Package your Legend", was wonderful. An excellent primer on crafting a story supportive of how you want to be perceived

Definitely a "must read"

I've always relied on Amazon customer reviews before I bought books from Amazon. But numerous 5 star ratings of this book were actually submitted by friends of the author promoting the book. I'm disappointed and I won't rely on Amazon's customer reviews anymore.

A month ago I rated the same author's "Power of an hour" a three star with a review title "Relatively compleat, but can be deeper and better". So I gave this a try but had been very disappointed. Apparently the author had packed and summarized all that he read into individual topics. The result is a disorganised and shallow collection of diverse ideas that a reader can hardly recall or practice. If it were not for the CDROM and the reference reading in the end of each chapter (I read some of those books and so I can tell, ironically, they are good recommendations) I would have given it only one star. In short, please give this a pass.

Because I teach ethical negotiation and persuasion skills and help people achieve greater joy on the job by knowing how to gain the compensation they deserve, I was eager to read Dave Lakhani's latest book. Dave delivers a factual yet entertaining, step-by-step approach that can enrich your understanding and help you reach your goals, regardless of whether you have already explored this subject or not. His examples are thought-provoking and relevant so I guarantee he will introduce new concepts, even if you think you have become jaded about this subject.

Knowing how others can potentially manipulate you and how you can ethically persuade other people to "do the right thing" is of immense benefit to anyone who wants to be happy at work and in their personal lives -- and, of course, also to people who want to gain volunteers for worthwhile social causes.

Therefore, I'm posting a 5 star review for this valuable reference and encourage readers to also review the additional references at the end of every chapter.

There are only a few people who could make such a bold promise -influence and marketing secrets they don't want you to know - and then authentically deliver on that promise. Dave Lakhani's latest book, "SUBLIMINAL PERSUASION: INFLUENCE AND MARKETING SECRETS THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW", does that and more.

The information is delivered in an organized, logical and persuasive manner. Each chapter takes an important topic with step by step instructions for putting the information into practice.


Most chapters end with the mantra, Implementation is everything - Money follows action , with specific actions for creating your desired results. Essential further study for each chapter gives recent books, viral videos and websites, and movies that when read, seen and heard will solidify and enhance learning. The lists of books alone will likely keep my Amazon account humming with activity for the near future.


I found the book instructive because of the topics, the structure, content and the focus on implementation and action. Most importantly, this book was interesting! It's the kind of book you don't want to stop reading and underlining until you digest every morsel. My suggestion - just let yourself read and enjoy. Then invest the time to go step by step through the processes. Any one of the many secrets in the book can have a profound effect on your life and your business.

Mr. Lakhani has added some fresh material to the persuasion/influence field with this book. And it follows his mantra "Implementation is everything-money follows action!" throughout with well designed exercises and provocative questions.

If you are the type of person who is capable of picking up a pen and legal pad and then doing even one of the many step-by-step exercises in this book to create some action in your life or business, then the book is well worth a multiple of the cover price. If not, it will provide some additional insulation for your house until the time that you decide to take action. I recommend the action course right off the bat!

In the section on improving your product or personal "legend", he steps the reader through a step-by-step action plan using excellent questions to focus your story.

And I found three actionable things in the section on generating great testimonials that I hadn't previously considered. I have already taken action on two of the three.

Great read, and very accessible. I only wish it had been longer, but it is well worth the price.

Before I begin this review you should know that Dave and I are friends and this is a biased review. Now, I'm the type of guy that calls it like I see it and this is the best book of invisible tools I have yet read.

Invisible tools are what make persuasion work. The words you use impact other people's receptivity of you. We all know that. These invisible tools extend beyond words. You are either being very intentional about which invisible tools you use and adopt or other people are choosing for you.

You are either persuading yourself and others or letting yourself be persuaded. We live in a time of immersive communications and there is no middle ground. You either persuade or get swept along into somebody elses persuasion game.

Dave Lakhani bravely reveals the truth about how to control your prospects attention from first glimpse all the way into your never ending continuity program. This is your source for the most ruthlessly effective technology.

Advertising that looks like advertising is second-rate advertising. Dave Lakhani demonstrates how to pre-frame a prospect to step into your greased chute. Dave explains why and how you NEED to lead your prospect by the hand into your sales-system... which can't look like a sales system.

Nobody likes to be sold and yet everybody loves to go shopping. How do you as a business owner get folks to shop shopping and start buying? You gotta get them out of the "shopping" mind set and into your subliminal sales system, into the warm words of your actual offer.

Follow Dave step-by-step as he dissects how he does this through story and narrative. This isn't storytelling, what Dave does is storyselling.

You will read this book with a note pen in hand and you will be scribbling on every page. Every page of this book has an impactful tactic and tip.

This is the story of impactful stories. Yes, I know "impactful" isn't a word I can play in scrabble. The previous type of sentence is what Dave Lakhani calls a pattern-interrupt. Then, he explains their function in persuasion. You should know these things. Everybody else is doing it. It's as simple as that. You should click the buy button now.

Lakhani has written this very useful book for marketers, advertisers, brand managers and just about anyone else who tries to influence and persuade others.

One of the best insights is his prescription to fully define who you are trying to influence, gain an understanding of their world view, beliefs and motivations and only then start to craft your communications based on full awareness of their frame of reference. Some might call this market research, others might call it propaganda (like Saul Alinsky--'use language within the experience of your audience') but I call it very insightful. I believe too many communications professionals focus on what they want to say about themselves or their product rather than narrowly defining their ideal market, understanding what is likely to motivate their target market and which portion of that target market is actually most receptive to various types of appeals.

This book does a great job discussing how to craft a message that will that will be believed, that will cause action to take place and for people to spread that message for you. It gets to the nuts and bolts of building a brand through positioning and communications.

I highly recommend it.

~~Review by the author of the e-book, "How to Build and Manage Your Brand (in sickness and in health)."