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A safety blanket that smothers us.

That’s how I think about email and channels like Slack and Teams.

We all complain about the volume of messages and meetings we have to wade through, but honestly, I think they are our safety blanket.

Because input is easier than output.

It’s easier to respond than create something new.

When I get frazzled, bored or overwhelmed, for example, you know what I do? 

I turn to social media. For more input.

Because input is easier than...

Think you know how to influence?

You’re right.

You do.

You know your way to influence.

And it obviously works…to an extent.

You wouldn’t have gotten to where you are without some level of influencing skills.

But I’m guessing that being where you are comes with lots of frustrating follow ups, blown timeframes and compromises. 

So, do you know the best way to influence?

Because they’re not necessarily the same.

Your way relies on subjective experience...

“Answer your phone in a brusque manner” was advice I got years ago.

By sounding abrupt, the theory was you could dismiss those you didn’t want to talk to, but delight those you did once they heard the contrasting warmth you reserved specially for them.

Well, new research reveals how you can increase customer satisfaction by varying the degree of warmth you and your team use in conversation. 

Hot Vs. Cold

Let’s say you are closing a customer service...

Brad the Breather is a real person. 

I met him at a health retreat a number of years ago where he taught us how to breathe correctly.

Big, life changing belly breaths.

Did I know I wasn’t breathing correctly? 

No. It had never occurred to me that I was doing it wrong.

“Most people don’t have any clue about the process of breathing”, says Brad Thompson, “it’s just something they automatically do”.

Just something we automatically do.

...

Rock Climbers hang on by their fingertips.

Not only does this make their fingers stronger than average, rock climbers rely on them to ‘feel the rock’ so they know where to move next.

This is how I’ve come to think of small business owners. 

Most of us hang on by our fingertips as we’re scaling the heights.

We don’t have a large margin of error.

There’s rarely a safety net.

Yet we do it because it’s our pursuit.

Which is why I put so much...

Never show the shark.

When creating Jaws, director Steven Spielberg faced massive problems with the robotic shark.

It looked stupid. It kept breaking down.

So what did he do?

He changed the film’s point of view.

Instead of seeing the shark, the audience sees what the shark sees: the next unsuspecting victim.

This made the movie all the more menacing, and changed the way horror films are shot.

Hence, “never show the shark”.

In your work, it’s the opposite.

...

A TikToker recently posted her displeasure at price ticketing in a grocery store. The deal was “any 2 for $11”, but thanks to the format of the price ticketing, at a glance it looked like $11 was the price per item.

While I wholeheartedly agree, that’s not the only mistake the retailer made, because according to new research, they could have sold more had the price been $12 rather than $11. Here’s why.

Price divisibility

Bundle offers are a common...

We think having the idea is the difficult part.

No.

Getting buy-in is what’s difficult.

Think about all the time and effort you expend creating emails, proposals, business cases or presentations in the hope others will support your plan.

Now reduce that time by half.

Just imagine the great things you can do with 50% of your time back.

That’s what knowing how to influence action can give you.

That seems expensive.

Have you ever thought that? Have your customers?

Here’s an example.

YouTubers Trent and Allie are self-building their home in the Utah mountains. After receiving a quote for drywall (plastering), this was some of their reaction:

“It came back super high…”

“They’re trying to charge us double…”

“It doesn’t make sense…”

“So we’re in the market for some other quotes…”

...

"I have noticed that even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road." 

Stephen Hawking

Businesses who don’t know any better focus on customer beliefs.

Business who do, focus on customers looking before they cross.