Posts in Self development

5 Easy tips to simplify your writing

Consumer Behavior Copywriting Self development September 13, 2019

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.

4 Consumer behavior reasons to hold off an important decision until you feel “better”

Consumer Behavior Self development September 10, 2019

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…

A crucial ingredient for building trust with your customers

Consumer Behavior Sales skills Self development September 7, 2019

A crucial ingredient to building trust with your customers

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.

3 Reasons simplicity will boost your business

Consumer Behavior Self development September 4, 2019 1 Comment

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

Easy! 5 Steps to handle customer service agents

Consumer Behavior Customer experience Self development August 24, 2019 1 Comment

Let’s talk a little bit about customer service.

While it’s a very well-known trend to companies and service providers that now is the era on which they compete on customer experience, some of them still go out of their way to disappoint us, customers.

I wouldn’t say that this is the company’s strategy per se, but it’s more about the customer service agent that you end up dealing with.
I don’t know about you, but I personally like to avoid interactions with customer service as much as I can… and if I absolutely have to do it, I opt for the e-mail, online chat, etc. I don’t want to do the phone conversation. Maybe it’s because I am a millennial. Maybe not. It’ doesn’t matter. What matters is that the mere thought of having to repeat my story more than once turns me off. I had times on which I had to repeat the same complaint, like 5–10 times to different people, just to get my issue resolved.

That kind of interaction gets to you. It definitely gets to me. In fact, I resort to my mom in some situations because she has more patience than me when it comes to those customer service conversations. God bless her. Most of the time though I have to do it myself.

If I am lucky, I would be dealing with a professional who understands how to handle disappointed customers. For the most part, you call customer service either because 1. you have a complaint or 2. you are asking about some information.

… And here comes the challenge, if I end up with someone from customer service who practically doesn’t give a damn, then, I am screwed. I bet most of you could relate to that.

So, then comes a question.

How can you ensure the customer service agent would be cooperative and help you without driving you insane?

I recently learned a trick. Thanks to consumer behavior studies… and I am going to share it with you.

Learn how consulting changed my life

Self development August 17, 2019 5 Comments

Stories. Aren’t they incredible?

A story - you live in it, empathize with it and sometimes relate if it rings a bell.

Today, I am not going to talk about fictional stories, but rather stories told in a business context - or for that matter, one of my very own stories.

About five years ago I made a career shift from what we, consultants, call “industry” into management consulting. Consulting was my dream job and when I had an opportunity to jump in it, I took it and dived right into it. Consulting was my dream job for one simple reason:

You will constantly surprise yourself with what you are capable of.

Insane psychology “run” test that will forever change the way you think

Self development August 13, 2019

A few weeks ago I attended a training for leading successful engagements - and during that training, I learned about the psychology “run” test. A very eye-opening test and I am here to share it with you.

You see, self-development is an on-going process and I always think of myself as a WIP (work in progress). While learning about consumer behavior, I learned tricks that can help in self-development. At the end of the day, what motivates us as consumers, might motivate us as people.

In fact, one of the key concepts that are utterly used in marketing is scarcity. Do you know where else that works best? Dating. I am not only talking about self-development here, but relationship talk… and well, God knows, I am not by any means eligible to talk about this topic. However, it is a well-known theory, that when you are not that “available”, your partner finds you more attractive. Be it a woman or a man - the same theory applies.

So here I am, doing it the other way around. I learned something about self-development and I pretty much see how it impacts how you as a business owner could think of your customers.

What is it?

It’s called the run test.

3 Reasons smiling is not bad for you

Consumer Behavior Self development August 2, 2019 1 Comment

Do you think smiling could make you look less professional?

I have encountered people who think smiling may impact the way others will perceive you, and not in a good way - in a professional setting, as in a work environment. You might not seem serious, they think.

To tell you the truth, when I heard this, I was astonished to learn that some people may consider smiling could hurt your professionalism.

So here I am.

In the classic, “How to win friends and influence people” by Dale Carnegie, Carnegie had a whole chapter dedicated to “Smile”.

A smile is definitely a good thing, but here is the thing. When done properly, it would maximize its impact - in that professional setting.

12 Questions to ask yourself before making an impulse buying

Consumer Behavior Self development Spending money July 22, 2019

Impulse buying can be triggered by many things, but one of the most prominent reasons is to feel good, as in retail therapy. On the flip side though, when you don’t have the money and still make the purchase let’s say on credit, you end up feeling worse, you feel the “buyer’s remorse”, regretting what you just bought - later when you go home.

Impulse buying has left so many people in debt, making them buy things they don’t need, and sometimes not use it altogether. With today’s buying on credit availability, if you are not careful, impulse buying could lead to serious repercussions of not only debt but also your psychological well-being.

The power of stating the obvious

Consumer Behavior Copywriting Self development July 21, 2019 3 Comments

THow many times have you sarcastically said, “Thank you very much for stating the obvious?”

I know I did, numerous times, perhaps even every single day.

In case you don’t know, I live on sarcasm. Maybe, I will figure out the psych-analysis reason later on, but that’s not what I am here to talk about. It’s good though to learn a little about me, myself, and I? ?

Moving on.

It seems like we are more likely to be cooperative and in a sales setting receptive to suggestions and converting to a buying customer when someone states the obvious to us. We can buy an idea, it doesn’t even have to be a product.

I have no idea why though, but if it works, why not try it?