Why they're not doing what you want
When your car doesn’t start, there are a few simple things to check.
Is the battery flat?
Have you run out of fuel?
Has a connection been broken?
Running through these issues helps you narrow the problem so you can solve it.
So it is with behaviour.
If you are failing to get traction, ask yourself, is it because:
They’re not interested?
They’re confused? Or
They’re worried about proceeding?
I have a free tool to guide you through these questions, which you...
Louder doesn't help
Ever find yourself turning up the volume when watching a foreign language film?
I do, and it’s strange.
Because hearing what’s being said isn’t the problem.
Comprehension is.
Our brains get confused as to why we can’t understand something so look for the simplest explanation. We can hear words being spoken, so assume it’s a sound issue.
It’s the same with behaviour.
We jump to a conclusion that people aren't doing something because they simply...
Behavioural black box
When trying to get people to respond to you, does it sometimes feel like this?
Things get lost in translation.
The email you write doesn’t get opened.
Your website doesn’t compel them to click.
Your pitch doesn’t convert.
Something strange happens between your message and their response.
The behavioural black box.
Imagine being given the keys to the box?
Imagine seeing what’s inside.
Imagine designing work that translates to the desired...
Don't format a web link like this
Are you making a simple formatting mistake that stops people clicking?
How you format a web link in your emails needs to change according to the relationship you have with the recipient.
If they know you, it’s fine to hyperlink.
If they don’t know you, don’t hyperlink.
For example, because you know me, I can hyperlink like this.
But when I am sending information to a new client, I instead provide the web URL address like this: www.briwillia
How you...
Two types of hows
What is your customer really asking for?
Customers often use “how” questions to find you, like “how to increase sales” or “How to improve conversion?”
But not all “how” questions are alike.
In fact, there are two types of “hows”.
If you’re answering the wrong type of how, you won’t capture their attention.
The first type of “how” question is procedural.
Questions like “how...
What you can't hear
When I worked at White Pages, we'd encourage businesses to list their trading hours in the phone book so customers wouldn't have to call simply to ask "Are you open?"
Many opted not to.
They preferred being interrupted because it reassured them that people were interested.
What they couldn’t see was the time they wasted answering such calls.
What they couldn't hear were the customers who went elsewhere because they didn’t want to call.
In your role, are you...
How to cross-sell using completion bias
What does a jigsaw puzzle have to do with selling?
Researchers successfully used visual representations of a jigsaw to sell more wine and more banking products.
We can encourage customers to buy more products across our range by changing the way we visually represent them.
In this video I explain:
- How to visually represent your product suite
- What completion bias is and why it's so powerful
- How an online retailer and bank used these techniques to drive sales
...
Later
We’re happy to do the hard thing…later.
Back in 1999, researchers had people choose some DVDs to watch.
They were either choosing something to watch now or something to watch in a few days time.
When people chose something to watch in the future, they tended to choose earnest, highbrow movies. Schindler's List, for example.
When they were choosing something to watch that day, they opted for something more like an Adam Sandler movie.
If ever you’ve tried to change...
Cooking shows are a lie
Cooking shows are seductive.
But they’re also a lie.
They don’t show you the preparation.
They don’t show you the cleanup.
Behavioural science can seem seductive, too.
You read a book or watch a clip and it seems so simple. Fast results! Easy fixes!
But try to do it yourself and suddenly reality dawns.
To really impact behaviour you can’t just throw some ingredients in a blender.
You need to go to cooking school.
Image by Mohamed Hassan from...
The buyer you never meet
To proceed with a purchase, we need to help our customers do two things.
- Justify it to themselves, and
- Justify it to others.
We usually just think about the first one. Helping our buyer convince themselves.
We forget that they usually have to tell someone else about their decision.
That could be a spouse or their boss.
So when you are talking about reasons to buy, try to give them soundbites to use with others.
For consumers, that could be letting them know they got a great deal....
