The success of an organisation is measured by and large by the achievement of corporate goals and financial results. These results are achieved by engaging, connecting and delivering to an increasingly demanding and individual group of consumers and customers. In such an environment, many business leaders and managers recognise that the ability to persuade others will often be a key factor in influencing their organisation's successes.

Add to the mix a predicted economic downturn, and the ability to influence and persuade others could now be regarded as one of the most important business skills for leaders and organisations.

If the ability to influence and persuade others is such a critical business skill, what do we know about how the influence process works? Many people consider the ability to influence and persuade others as an art that a lucky few have been born with. But this is a mistake. There is a science to influence and persuasion that has been around for over half a century.

Yet it remains something of a secret science, often overlooked by business leaders and decision-makers. That failure to consider established psychological theories and practices when making their decisions means that many leaders are missing out on small changes that they could employ that could have a remarkable effect on their business results.
For example, many hotels attempt to persuade their guests to reuse their towels and linens during their stay via the use of a strategically placed card in the guest's bathroom. These cards typically point out the obvious benefits to the environment if guests reuse their towels. Aside from the environmental advantages, there are financial savings to be made for the hotel too.

An Influence at Work study found that 33 per cent more guests were persuaded to reuse their towels if the words on the sign were simply changed to inform guests that increasing numbers of hotel guests like them did reuse their towels.

The actions of similar consumers can be a powerful motivator of behaviour and can be largely free to employ. In another study, conducted for Bose, the consumer electronics company, we showed how they could increase the number of consumers who called the company's sales order line by changing a few words on a commonly employed piece of advertising. The words "new technology" jarred people's decision making, as the potential was for them to interpret the message as untested, so the words changed to "Hear what you've been missing".

Perhaps this year, it's time for directors to familiarize themselves and their businesses more with the increasingly relevant science of persuasion?

Steve Martin is director of Influence at Work and co-author of Yes! 50 Secrets to the Science of Persuasion (published by Profile Books).