Lisa Pfister Product Launch Consultant

Archive for the ‘Marketing Skills & Techniques’ Category

The trouble with people is that we are, well, Humans. We do not always behave rationally, we take short cuts in our decision-making, we don’t always do what is best for us even when we know it (smoking or over-eating for example), and we are subconsciously influenced by what is going on around us (such as “following the crowd”). We wear ties because others do and eat more when we’re with others than when we’re alone.

We are homo sapiens but we would like to think of ourselves as homo economicus, economic man, or Econs — people who think and choose unfailingly well. Econs are really no more than a theoretical concept, a model of how perfectly rational people — like Star Trek’s Mr Spock — might behave.

The reason we are Humans rather than Econs is explained by the way our brains work. We have two systems — one that is intuitive and automatic and another that is reflective. We use the automatic system when we duck without thinking if something is thrown at us (think George W Bush at his infamous Iraq press conference in late 2008) and the reflective system when we are asked, for example, to multiply 411 by 37, which route to take on a trip or which college to apply for.

The trouble is that, unlike Mr Spock, we do not use our reflective, reasoning powers to the full. We use other approaches:

• Rules of thumb. For example, we tend to assess the risk of certain things happening by how readily similar incidents come to mind. People are more likely to take out earthquake insurance after an earthquake, for instance, although the actual likelihood of one has not changed. And we see patterns in behaviors and incidents when they are not really there.
• Optimism and over-confidence. A survey of students’ performance expectations showed only 5% thought they would be below the median level, when, by definition, 50% would be. Similarly, more people over-estimate their immunity from harm, such as the likelihood of having cancer or getting divorced.
• Loss aversion. We hate losing roughly twice as much as we love winning, which leads to inertia, avoiding change even when it might be in our interest, for fear that something will go wrong.
• Status quo bias. We simply can’t be bothered. For example, we fail to cancel magazine subscriptions even though we never read them, or we stick with whatever TV channel we happen to be watching. Publishers and broadcasters know this and use it to their advantage.
• Framing. We allow ourselves to be influenced by the way information is presented. We are far less likely to opt for surgery if we are told “10 out of every 100 people who have this die”, than if the message is “the success rate is 90%.”

Not unnaturally, these behaviors can lead us astray. The picture that emerges is one of busy people trying to cope in a complex world, in which they cannot afford to think deeply about every choice they have to make. We need help. Instead, things are made worse by another human fallibility — temptation: the tendency to do things we know we shouldn’t.

It’s as if there are two parts of our brains at war with each other, and they are seen not only in temptation but in broader areas of self-control. These are labelled Planners (the part that knows how we should behave) and Doers (the part responsible for what we actually do). For example, our Planner may buy and set an alarm clock to get us up in time for work, but our Doer hits the “snooze” button and defeats it!

A further influence on our behaviors is the herd instinct. Econs, say Thaler and Sunstein, are not followers of fashion — they may communicate with and learn from others if it’s to their advantage but then they go their own way. Humans, by contrast, imitate others in general. We smile when others smile, we avoid visible differences, we support the majority view because it’s the majority, and we believe what others believe.

These and other many interesting aspects of homan decision-making behavoiors are discussed in Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein. Don’t make the mistake of assuming we’re rational beings when all evidence is to the contrary.

When buying, selling & marketing examine how understanding these behaviors can work for and against you – so you are no longer a victim of your tendencies but rather a victor by seeing, rising above and utilizing the powers they hold.

So what do you need to know? If you don’t know who your customer really is, start there.

Now many of you think you do know who they are. You’ve gone through exercises where you’ve described your customer to a tee.  But what’s that based on? What you think you know or what you know you  know?

If you’re just guessing you’re fooling yourself and you’re not optimizing your business or serving your customers – so really think about this before you move on.

If you really know who your customers are then find out how else you can serve them.  Don’t make a product you think they should like, and then try to sell them. Ask them what they would like and then provide it to them. (Gee that sounds easier doesn’t it?)

So what are the basic steps? Get a survey program. That’s simple. There are all kinds of online programs that are simple to set up and even have free basic services. Some people like surveymonkey.  I use surveygizmo. That’s because it was recommended to me by the survey king, Dr. Glenn Livingston. It’s always done the job for me.

Decide on what benefit you can offer your people for participating. We’re in the business book summary business so we offered free additional summaries. What online bonus could you give your people?

Next decide what questions to ask.  The fewer the better (no more than 7 or 8).  If you don’t have a real good idea of your customers start with requesting basic demographic and psychographic information. If you are doing a product launch and you’re looking for holes in your offer ask about the objections they’d have to the offering. If you’re using the survey to create an entirely new product from scratch use the question Jeff Walker loves: “What’s your biggest frustration?” It’s a great way to start the dialogue. The next question might be: “What’s important about that?”

Don’t survey your entire list at the same time. When you get answers to the first layer of questions ask the next segment of your list to answer different questions one level down. For example, if your first group of respondents told you their biggest frustrations was communication, you could ask the next segment of your list: “Who do you have the biggest problem communicating with?”and/ or “When do you get tripped up the most in a difficult conversation?” and/or “Do you have problems communicating up or down, in large groups or one-on-one?”

You can drill down as many levels as you like. (We’ve done as many as 5 levels down.) Boy do you ever get killer info!

Now for the really fun stuff! This is where you get your customers/prospects on the phone.  How do you do this? Do you call randomly? Do they get ticked off? Do they want to talk to you?

This is what we do and it works like a charm. The last question in the online survey asks them if they’d be willing to participate in a 20 – 30 minute telephone interview. They get a small additional gift for participating. If they wish to participate they give us their telephone number and 3 times during the following week they are available. We follow up in an email confirming the time and then call them.

Every single person either kept the appointment or contacted us to reschedule. They took this seriously. We went over their survey results on the phone and asked them questions to really get a flavor for what they wanted and how they wanted it, it their words, with their emotions. You know going in that certain issues are important to them. On the phone you can learn why they are important to an entirely new degree. By simply asking the question: “What’s important about that?” perhaps many times, you really start to uncover the base emotions at play. By asking for stories about their lives when they’ve been encountered with that problem, witnessed that problem or seen people solve that problem, your understanding of their situation skyrockets.

People are exceptionally candid in these interviews so be prepared. I have no formal coaching training and yet people opened up for me and they will for you if you come in willing to really listen and with an intent to help them move forward.

Getting to know and connect with my customers has been one of the single most beneficial and rewarding experiences of my business life.  I hope I have encouraged you to walk down this path and really have a customer driven company with all of the benefits it entails.

Finding the key to your customer’s heart is not some big illusive strategy. For that matter finding the key to unlocking anyone’s heart is really not a formidable task. It’s really quite simple.

There are two simple steps. Pay close attention here so you don’t miss them.

Step one: ask. Step two: listen.

Got that?

How do you know what your prospect wants if you’ve never asked them?

Think of it this way. You’ve been craving a big juicy burger and a cold beer all day. You put in more than a full day at the office, you worked out, you’ve been good all week – you deserve it! You finally get to the restaurant and without asking to take your order, the waitress brings you a big salad and a glass of sparkling water. She smiles proudly because she knows she’s giving you the best thing possible to ensure good health and long life. She’s happy in the knowledge that she served your best interests. She’s giving you what she feels is best for you without taking the time to consult with you.

Isn’t this EXACTLY what we do when we give our customers what we THINK they want? We assume they want “X” because we never took the time to ask. This is especially true in online businesses where we have fewer opportunities to have “face time” with our prospects and customers, but don’t fool yourself offliners – you’re often just as guilty. Maybe you’re spending time with people but how valuable is your interaction?

By surveying your prospects and customers you really get to uncover what it is they want, how they want to get it and how much they value it. So you get killer marketing information, but the beauty of it all is that you do so much more. You cement your relationship. When you take the time to speak directly with your prospects and customers, they feel you care about them , they feel important, they feel connected. Oh, there’s one more offshoot of this – this is such an invigorating feeling to you, the business owner. When people start to share how they feel about you, and about you taking the time with them it adds rocket fuel to your own excitement and commitment to them and all of your customers.

I recently had this feeling. My partner and I got on the phone and each interviewed about 60 of our customers. The market intelligence was fantastic. We got to learn what their biggest frustrations in their business lives were, we learned how they wanted us to solve their problems and we learned what they valued and why they valued it. They created a new product for us by defining their needs. They sold a new product for us by giving us the words to use to promote it. They did the heavy lifting.

Obviously this is all good, but it what’s the best part of it for me personally?  I got to talk to the people I had been serving for years in a truly meaningful way. We both blocked time off in our schedules and sometimes the conversations got pretty deep and very personal. They appreciated the fact that the owner, not some survey company, thought enough of them to spend time learning their wants and needs. I appreciated the fact that my customers, mostly high powered executives, chose to spend their few minutes of “spare time” telling me how I could serve them better. It was a real honor. Without exception I think we both felt that way at the end of our talks.

I hope I’ve made a compelling case to survey your customers. There’s nothing like it for market intelligence, sales copy, product creation and perhaps most importantly – bonding between you and your customers.

Now that you know that it’s important in the next blog post  I’ll share some strategies on how to conduct surveys so you too, can attain these results.

Hmmm. That’s a tough one. What do I think is the most important power of persuasion?

Obviously they’re all important.

Reciprocity is so easy to understand and relate to. The example people often point to when proving the power of this principle is the hari krishnas. They’d hand out flowers and the recipients couldn’t help but reach into their wallets to reciprocate – regardless of the value of the “gift” or the feelings the “donator” had about the religion. For those of you who are too young to remember these guys, think of the homeless people who hand out “free” newspapers or squeegee kids who “clean” your windshield. They’re all using this principle and all getting some kind of result because they make you feel indebted. (No, I’m not recommending any of these fields, but maybe in a pinch… J)

Commitment and Consistency clearly has its merits, especially with certain personality types that would rather commit hari-kari than change their minds or appear foolish.

Authority is awesome. Just think of the power of a simple white lab coat, a badge, a judge’s robe or a priest’s collar. We have strong associations with authority and their symbols. When we come from a place of authority people let their defenses down and can be led much more easily. (This is the place where I’m supposed to remind you to only use your powers for good.)

Liking just makes sense. We want to spend time with, and do business with, people we like. If they have similar goals, values and interest as us, it’s simple and pleasant. It’s not always easy to like and be liked by all (it’s also a ridiculous goal) but there’s certainly something to be said for creating a relationship and putting yourself out there and see who you attract.

Now we’re getting to my two very favorites and it’s neck and neck which one wins out.

Social proof or scarcity. Which is my ultimately favorite? They’ve both been sooooooo good to me.

Here’s the thing I love about social proof. It’s just so unbelievably effective. If you can demonstrate that that many others are taking a particular action to get the results you want, then it makes sense for us to take the same action. So when your mother asked you “If Johnny jumped off the bridge, would you?” maybe your answer would be “no.” But if Johnny and every other one of your friends we’re jumping off the bridge, tell me you wouldn’t be right up there with them. Now as seasoned marketers, we’re obviously not looking to get people jumping off bridges. What we’re looking to do is prove one set of input results in one set of output. This is where stats rock, before & afters shine and case studies and testimonials make decisions no-brainers. Try to think of an ad that doesn’t use some element of social proof. C’mon, I dare you!

Even after singing all the praises of social proof, my absolute favorite power of persuasion has to be scarcity. This is for one simple reason. Scarcity is the one trigger that MAKES you get off your backside and take ACTION. If your prospect doesn’t take action nothing else matters. Of course you need to do the other things right to prep your prospect so everything else matters, but the one thing that a successful product launch really rests on is that it pushes people to take action – knowing that if they don’t act now the doors will shut – and their dreams won’t come true. Avoiding that pain is key. If the prospect has all the time in the world to make a decision, their decision will ultimately be “That looks good, I’ll decide later.”

That’s just human nature.

That’s why my ultimate favorite power is scarcity.

I’d love to hear what you love and why you love it. If you have a story of when you rocked one of these principles please share it below.

According to Robert B. Cialdini, Ph. D there are the six psychological principles that direct human behavior and compliance:

— Reciprocation, Commitment and Consistency, Social Proof, Liking, Authority, and Scarcity —

The science, and power, behind these six principles of ethical persuasion lies in their ability to produce an automatic response from people. The principles, when applied correctly, influence the individual to respond affirmatively without first giving the situation any in-depth thought.

According to Cialdini, this automatic response is part social conditioning, part learned behavior, and part a timesaving defense. When faced with a decision we often rely on shortcuts — or cues — that clue us in on whether it would be more prudent to say yes or no. We rely on these cues in order to avoid the time, effort, and complex thought processing that are needed to accurately analyze the situation and make a truly informed decision. It is by understanding these shortcuts and the science of persuasion that you can use these cues to influence people to act according to your wishes.

The first principle – Reciprocation – revolves around the basic social rule: if someone does us a favor, we are obligated to do one for him in return.

The second principle – Commitment and Consistency – gets its power from our desire to stand behind any previous decisions we have made: if we tell a salesman that we like horror films, then we must purchase a ticket when asked to do so in order to stand behind our previous statement.

Principle three – Social Proof – preys on our belief that if others are doing it, “it” must be the correct thing to do: if we see others buying, we subconsciously feel the need to buy also.

In principle four – Liking – the power to receive a favorable answer lies in the relationship with the target. According to Cialdini’s research people are more likely to purchase something from someone they know and like.

Principle five – Authority – uses our automatic belief that people in authority know better and are actively looking out for our best interests.

Finally, principle six – Scarcity – preys on our fear of missing out or on losing our chance at something. A regular box of writing pens becomes very coveted if the purchaser is lead to believe that these pens are the last ones of their kind. The same is true if there are plenty of pens but they will only be this inexpensive for a very short period of time.

According to Cialdini, automatic thinking — the single most important aspect to every one of these principles — is almost a necessity to everyday life. In a world where people are bombarded by new information, improved products and solutions, changing business demands and the need to constantly be up-to-date, they rely more than ever on the ability to pick up on one or two cues in order to make a quick and hopefully correct decision. With an understanding of the science of persuasion and the correct tools of influence — Cialdini’s six principles — you can effectively transform your power to persuade.

Now if you don’t think you can actually use these principles to influence and persuade, listen to what Dr. Cialdini has to say about the SCIENCE of persuasion:

Next up … my favorite principle of persuasion …

The interesting thing is that no matter what your niche is – the answer is always the same.

The best advice you can ever get about your target market is not a marketing guru, high priced consultant or CEO of a company who has been successfully selling into the market for years. The best advice you can get comes from one source – your market.

While you may understand this intuitively, the problem is – how many of us REALLY know our target market and how many of us are just plain GUESSING and hoping for the best?

More on this in future posts but here’s a link that might give you some ideas on how to start the dialogue with your most valued asset and biggest expert.  http://budurl.com/fzuz