Why Podcasting is the ideal channel for a revenue-focused company

In Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Dr. Robert B. Cialdini explains the psychology of why people say “yes” and how to apply these principles ethically in business and everyday situations. If you’ve never read it, you need to.

The book discusses six universal principles of influence, and how to use them to become a skilled persuader. Here’s a summary of the six principles:

• Reciprocation: The internal pull to repay what another person has provided us.

• Commitment and Consistency: Once we make a choice or take a stand, we work to behave consistently with that commitment in order to justify our decisions.

• Social Proof: When we are unsure, we look to similar others to provide us with the correct actions to take. The more people undertaking that action the more we consider that action correct.

• Liking: The propensity to agree with people we like and, just as important, the propensity for others to agree with us, if we like them.

• Authority: We are more likely to say “yes” to others who are authorities, who carry greater knowledge, experience or expertise.

• Scarcity: We want more of what is less available or dwindling in availability.

In this article we’re going to show you how launching your own Revenue-focused B2B podcast with Content Allies checks the box on ALL SIX of these triggers, giving you a vastly higher probability of doing business with your ideal customer prospects.

We'll address the triggers one at a time with specific details related to podcast strategy.

Thanks Shopify for the summary of each principle that we quote.

Reciprocity

By inviting your ideal customer prospects to be a guest on your show, you are providing them value before you ask them to provide value to you. 

The principle of reciprocity in sales psychology means that when someone gives us something, we feel compelled to give something back in return.

You’ll reasonably be able to ask them for another meeting at some point, particularly if you work hard to develop rapport, and you build their brand with social media posts and other content produced after the interview.

Commitment and Consistency

The right interview questions and flow will help the interviewee (your prospect) feel comfortable discussing their goals, challenges, and desires. 

As it relates to the psychology of selling, the principle of commitment and consistency says that people will go to great lengths to appear consistent in their words and actions, even to the extent of doing things that are basically irrational.

Once having expressed their desired future state to you, and because you’ve already started developing a trusted relationship, you’ll be in an ideal position to ask more questions in the future.

Rather than having to have the awkward “what are your pain points” and “what are your objectives for next quarter” sales call, you’ll already have that information, and you’ll know it came from an honest place in an unstressed context. Your prospect will be committed and consistent to their statements.

Liking

John Brandon in Time wrote, “I’ve noticed people who ask questions are often well-liked. It’s human nature to be helpful and we all have a great desire to share what we know. When someone appears to need our help, we tend to like them more because we like being the one who provides the answers.”

The principle of liking as it pertains to the psychology of buying says we're more likely to say yes to a request if we feel a connection to the person making it.

Interviewing someone is literally asking them questions about them. Asking people questions, as opposed to talking about yourself, is a key way to get them to like you.

Authority

When you host an industry expert (whether or not they are your ideal prospect), you will inherit their expertise to your brand (personal and/or company) simply by having established the link between your brand and theirs.

When your brand evokes something familiar, such as a[n]... industry expert or ...people will believe that your brand possesses similar qualities to said familiar entity. They’ve established expertise in the space, and you can reap the benefits by associating your brand with authoritative figures, thus inheriting your own sense of authority.

Once your podcast has been established (more quickly than you think) you will host periodic thought leadership episodes created specifically for influential industry guests. You’ll be shocked to see how easy it is to get high caliber guests.

Social Proof

In the case of podcasting, social proof is achieved by leveraging name dropping from the Authority trigger, such as making sure you periodically interview guests/experts from well-known brands your target guests will want to align themselves with.

Social proof is [also] connected to the principle of liking: Because we’re social creatures, we tend to bias toward things other people already like, whether we know them or not. Anything that shows the popularity of your site and your products can be a psychological trigger.

People want to be associated with brands and personalities they aspire to be. Because you have hosted individuals from large, important, and aspirational brands, your target guests will want to be on the show as well. 

Scarcity

How often do you think your target prospects are asked to be interviewed? Not often! That means they’ll be motivated not to miss out on this opportunity for free PR. That’s why the conversion rate is so high when you (we) ask to interview them.

The principle of scarcity, which states that people are motivated by the thought that they might miss out on an opportunity,  [is like] the Eternal Teenager Principle: If someone tells you that you can’t have it, you may want it even more.

Our strategy converts “I’m not interested [in a sales call]” to “Yes! I’d love to talk to you.” Everyone is asking for their time to sell them something. You are asking for their time to give them value. That makes you rare, special, and worth listening to.

Revenue-focused podcasting checks off ALL SIX of the most important psychological triggers for ethical selling.

With Content Allies, you can have all of the benefits of revenue-focused conversations with the right people without having to do any of the work.