One of my all-time favorite things to do is to go into Baskin-Robbins and try a few different flavors with those little pink spoons.

Who doesn’t love those little pink spoons!

(Between you and me, 90% of the time I just end up getting  Rocky Road…but I always enjoy tasting a few other flavors before ordering my cone.)

So, what does ice cream have to do with influencing?

It’s all about giving people a free sample – and getting them to take a taste – of whatever it is you have to offer.

Baskin-Robbins hopes that you will buy a cup or a cone (or a pint or a gallon), so they give away millions of little pink spoonfuls of free samples in order to make many millions of dollars more in return.

Back in the 1970’s there was a groundbreaking tv commercial (featuring Ben Vereen) for the Broadway musical, “Pippin,” that went: “Here’s a free minute from Pippin, Broadway’s musical comedy sensation directed by Bob Fosse (pause)…[clip from the show]…(pause)…You can see the other 119 minutes of Pippin, live, at the Imperial Theater…without commercial interruption.” After the commercial aired and people got to experience that one free minute, they flooded the theater to catch the rest.

There’s a classic marketing acronym, “AIDA,” that stands for: Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action.

Effective influencing generally models these four steps: 

(1) Awareness - capturing people's attention;

(2) Interest - informing them on an intellectual level;

(3) Desire - getting them to "want" on an emotional level;  

(4) Action - and then, ultimately, motivating them to take some action.

So whether you are trying to sell a product, a service, an idea, or yourself, keep AIDA in mind…and think about how you might give people a free taste of whatever it is you have to offer. One that will get them happily coming back for more.