“What’s in it for me?”
If you can answer the “what’s in it for me?” question to your consumers, you are going to get their attention.
The study of consumer behavior breaks down our desires into eight basic needs and wants. Those eight needs get in touch with our biological triggers and if you use one of those needs or a combination of a few, you will be able to answer that question.
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One of the top needed skills for the job market in 2019 is negotiation skills, persuasion, and influence.
LinkedIn: The Most In-Demand Hard and Soft Skills of 2019
Forbes: The Skills You Need To Succeed In 2020
… and what a better way to tackle this, than making the best of my favorite subject of consumer behavior?
Consumer behavior is the study of how consumers search for, choose, buy, and use your products or services.
Consumers are people. Whether you influence them to buy your products or services or influence them to buy into your ideas, you can more or less follow the same concepts.
Persuasion and influence could be one of the hardest tasks anyone can be assigned to. Some people are skilled, while others are left dazzled, not sure what could be the next step they can take to improve in that area.
I know. I know because I bet you are a bit like me and face this situation every single day — at work or in social settings. After all, I am a nerd, and well, I did study software engineering. This is quite far from negotiation skills if you ask me.
Read: Learn how consulting changed my life
The good news is negotiation skills, persuasion and influence can be taught. Yes. Some people think that only the born talented are the ones who can exceed in that area, but I beg to differ.
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Before a consumer grabs her wallet to pull out her credit card, she needs to trust you. She thinks…
Are you credible? Will I regret this?
There are multiple ways to build trust, and showcase your credibility. Today, I will be discussing two techniques, powered by consumer behavior studies.
So, how can you build trust?
Demonstrate that you can fulfill her need.
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Use the ‘simplicity’ consumer behavior tip to influence others.
In one of my previous posts, I mentioned the power of simplicity, and how it can boost your business.
Read: 3 Reasons simplicity will boost your business
In fact, it can boost way more than your business. It can help you in every aspect of your life.
Simplicity, especially, when applied in your communication, whether it’s spoken or written, makes others understand you.
When consumers understand what you are trying to say, you are able to influence their thoughts, emotions and ultimately their behavior. If they don’t understand you, then just forget about it.
“Write to the chimpanzee brain. Simply. Directly.” - Eugene Schwartz
… And while it’s always great to know what influences consumer behavior, if you don’t know how to do it, you might as well be as good as those who don’t know anything about the subject.
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If you are like me, when it comes to making decisions, you would tend to overthink.
Should I choose this or that? Which one is better for me? Do it now or later? Is it the right thing to do? What does my gut feeling tell me? OK, let’s not be emotional here, what do the facts say? What is the probability of X happening? What happens if it didn’t work out? What happens if it did work out?
Too many questions… and not as many answers.
If you are not like me, then lucky you! I am a little jealous.
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Got an important decision to make?
There are two types of decisions.
1. Life-changing decisions
2. Non-life-changing decisions
So, here is the thing. When it comes to non-life-changing decisions, it’s fine if you slipped. I mean life will go on.
However, when it comes to a life-changing decision, the consequences of a bad decision would hit you hard. Recovery could cost you a lot of time, money and energy. You might want to take your time and hold it off if you are…
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Are you asking the right questions?
Whichever your job is, you are interacting with customers. You are interacting with customers unless you sit behind the screen all day and speak to no one -and I mean, speak to one via any means of communication.
Customers could be internal or external. In both cases, you work to gain their trust.
If you haven’t established and gained your customers’ trust, your day-to-day job wouldn’t be so much fun.
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Simple Language. Simple Name. Simple Font.
Simple Language.
When I joined consulting, one of the very first Directors I worked with used to say the word “pragmatic” a lot. “We need to be pragmatic”, he says. When I heard it, I was OK, interesting, and thought, “Are you just trying to say be practical?”
If you have ever been in a business meeting and heard people throwing in some complex words trying to sound smart or read a business report where they were also trying to seem clever, you might relate to the below.
“The following communication sent out by a manager to his team, as reported in the New York Post in October 2006: ‘We’re leveraging our assets and establishing strategic alliances to create a robust knowledge center - one with a customer-ruled business structure using market-leading technologies to maximize our human systems.'” - Yes! 50 Secrets from the Science of Persuasion by Noah Goldstein ,Robert B. Professor Cialdini, Steve J. Martin