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Early in my consulting career a prospective client gave me some feedback that would change my life.

You see, they’d seen me give a talk on behavioural economics and were interested in how I could help them gain customers for their new bedding range.

No problem.

I outlined the behavioural techniques we would use to frame pricing, create a sense of urgency and overcome customer concerns about buying what was an unfamiliar brand. 

The proposal, well I thought it was a slam...

The Rule of 100 will change how you discount forever.

Here’s how it works.

For discounts on products that are less than $100, promote your discount as a percentage off.

• For example, if your product is $20, promote 25% off rather than $5 off.

For discounts on products above $100, use the dollar amount rather than the percentage.

• So, if your product is $1000, it’s better to say they get $250 off rather than 25%.

The rule of 100 works thanks to how we perceive numbers.

At...

We make a mistake when we think data will do the heavy lifting.

That facts will convince someone to do something.

It’s better to think of data as currency. It’s not the data points themselves that matter, it’s the meaning ascribed.

So when a stakeholder asks you for data, what they’re most likely seeking is justification.

That's what you need to help them do.

What’s the most fundamental life skill that doesn't get formally taught?

Behaviour.

Would you like to change that?

In a few hours I'm taking to the stage at IntuitMailchimp's From Here: To There sold-out conference, sharing ideas with 400 marketers in how to solve the Click Conundrum. 

Last week I spoke to around 60 web and user experience designers in an ASX 50 insurance company.

A few weeks before that I spoke with a sales and marketing leadership team from one of...

Humans like knowing 2 things:

• What will happen. 
• Why it happened.

Both stem from control. We want to make sense of our world so it doesn’t seem chaotic.

In your business you will wonder:

• What will happen when we send this email out? Release this product? Raise my prices?

And later:

• Why didn’t people open our emails? Buy our products? Pay our prices?

Meanwhile, your customers will be thinking:

• What will happen when I click that button? Take that product...

The hidden secrets to TED talks that their founder, Chris Anderson, doesn't share.

That's what I want to share with you.

If you ever present, either from stage or to colleagues and customers, I think you'll find this helpful.

Chris gave a great TED talk on how to give a TED talk a few years ago. It's now been viewed almost 3 million times.

He seems so effortless in his delivery that I wanted to pull back the curtain and identify exactly what he was doing.

That's what I reveal in this...

Magnitude Representation is a grand name for one of my favourite bits of numbers psychology.

When it is represented with more characters, we process a number as larger.

I don't only mean only 3,000,000 vs. 3,000. These are different values.

I mean when the same value is represented differently, like 3,000.00 vs. 3k

You can see the difference in this bank's ad campaign.

On the left, how they displayed the cashback offer in year one.

On the right, the same promo in year two, but see how...

When someone says "I'll be honest" or “I don’t want to be mean…” before criticising a product, they're actually increasing others’ desire to buy it.

By using dispreferred markers like these, the reviewer is softening what they are about to say, and increasing how likeable they seem as a result.

It’s a social risk to be negative, so proclaiming their willingness to say it anyway enhances their credibility.

But what does it do to the product...

Years ago I switched to a left-handed mouse. 

It occurred to me that using my right hand was inefficient: I'd have to stop writing or typing, move my hand to the mouse, click what I needed, and then return to the keyboard or pen. Meanwhile, my left hand sat idle.

We often do things because they seem natural or conventional. But in doing so, we miss other resources, opportunities, and answers.

This principle applies to understanding customer behaviour too. 

The prevailing...

Painted walls can be cleaned pretty easily. A few squirts of “Spray and Wipe” and unsightly marks can be erased.

Walls with exposed brick are a different matter. Blemishes seep into the brickwork’s pores and crevices, making them impossible to expunge.

When it comes to communications, a painted wall approach is often the default.

Our presentations, websites and emails look uniform. Our writing is professional.

But as safe as this approach feels, it’s also...