How Not Using Psychological Triggers With Your Clients Is Costing You Big Bucks
Posted 3rd March 2013 at 11:18 AM by vtotheyouknow
If you're NOT using psychological triggers in your interactions with clients and potential clients, you're leaving a lot of money on the table, period. And on top of that, you're almost certainly closing fewer clients than you could be...
Psychological triggers are also known in the online marketing world as "buying triggers" or "emotional triggers". Here's how they work (don't worry, it's really simple).
Say you visit an offer page for a WSO. After reading through the sales copy, you decide you'd really like to buy it. But the price of the product is a little high, so you sit on the fence. "Maybe I'll just buy it later", you think.
Now imagine you visit that same sales page again, but now it has a countdown timer telling you that this offer is only available for the next few hours at the current price, and once the timer expires, the price will double! …crap!
At this point, your 'emotional brain' takes over your 'logical brain' and tells you that a resource which may be helpful to your survival is about to disappear. Thus you must act with great urgency! Otherwise, you'll miss out entirely (or you'll have to fork over twice as much dough later on) and the folks who *DID* act will have a leg up on you!
Now why do I use the word "survival"? How the heck is owning (yet another) WSO helpful to your survival?
Well you see, even though we live in the 21st century, our emotional hardwiring is essentially the same as it was hundreds of thousands of years ago. We may be sophisticated apes, but we're apes all the same...
And indeed, to your emotional brain, this fleeting WSO represents survival or death. It's just like your caveman ancestor finding a great hunting grounds where the game is plentiful (but limited). Or figuring out a method for catching fish using half the effort and in half the time. I can just see the headlines now…
In this example, the emotional trigger at work is scarcity. When a resource is only available for a limited time (like wild buffalo that migrate seasonally), or in limited quantities (like fruits on a tree), your emotional brain impels you to act immediately before the resource disappears. Because when every day is a fight for survival, missing an opportunity to eat or mate can mean death to you and to your species. (Heavy, isn't it?)
Back then, this emotional response was very appropriate and useful. These days it's a bit outdated, but it's still there…so learn to harness it!
There are many psychological triggers. If you want to learn them all, I suggest you just read Robert Cialdini's book "Influence". It's basically the persuasion bible. Folks who swear by it include:
2 more triggers you MUST grasp and systematically implement in your consultations are social proof and authority.
Since you just read an eyeful about scarcity, I'll only touch on these briefly (I may address them in full in another post, let me know if you'd like me to do that in the comments section).
Social Proof
Why does every sales page have testimonials in it? And why does every sales page that doesn't have testimonials in it barely convert? Because if enough other people agree that a thing is 'good', your emotional brain tells you that thing must indeed be good! (otherwise, why would so many people dig it?)
Yes, it's a little group-thinky, but it's an evolutionary shortcut that dates back from a time when your ancestors lived in small tribes of 100 or so people.
For instance, if your fellow tribe members found that chewing a certain root helped them stay sharper and calmer while hunting, you'd probably want to start chewing the root too. You DO want to survive to the ripe old age of 27, don't you…???
So it's incredibly important to show to clients that OTHER people like your work and recommend it. Hence the utility of portfolios, testimonials and reviews.
Authority
Humans are hierarchical animals. So our natural tendency is to listen to and follow the leader. He's the authority.
So in dealing with your clients, you want to show both YOUR authority in your field, and demonstrate that other authorities in your field do business with you, like you and recommend you and your work.
This flips the "authority" trigger and emotionally incentivizes clients to do business with you. Cool, eh?
So to wrap up, let's look at a few practical examples of how to implement these psychological triggers ethically in your communications with clients and prospective clients.
Try to guess which emotional trigger each technique is designed to flip (scarcity - social proof - authority)...
1. Your reasons need to be real
2. You must be authentic
Just remember, using a bunch of weird pickup techniques won't get you anywhere with women and likewise, using a bunch of weird sales techniques won't get you anywhere with clients.
You've got to be genuine and honest. But once you've understood these principles, and more importantly - put them into practice, you're going to see a dramatic rise in your business. That's just how it goes.
I now make a good living by offering services right here on the Warrior Forum and I wish somebody had told me this stuff when I started my IM journey (like I would have listened!)
If it helps you, post these psychological triggers on little post-it notes above your computer screen so you remember to utilize them as often as possible (within reason and good taste). Otherwise, you'll be doing a huge disservice to your clients, your potential clients and yourself.
Psychological triggers are also known in the online marketing world as "buying triggers" or "emotional triggers". Here's how they work (don't worry, it's really simple).
Say you visit an offer page for a WSO. After reading through the sales copy, you decide you'd really like to buy it. But the price of the product is a little high, so you sit on the fence. "Maybe I'll just buy it later", you think.
Now imagine you visit that same sales page again, but now it has a countdown timer telling you that this offer is only available for the next few hours at the current price, and once the timer expires, the price will double! …crap!
At this point, your 'emotional brain' takes over your 'logical brain' and tells you that a resource which may be helpful to your survival is about to disappear. Thus you must act with great urgency! Otherwise, you'll miss out entirely (or you'll have to fork over twice as much dough later on) and the folks who *DID* act will have a leg up on you!
Now why do I use the word "survival"? How the heck is owning (yet another) WSO helpful to your survival?
Well you see, even though we live in the 21st century, our emotional hardwiring is essentially the same as it was hundreds of thousands of years ago. We may be sophisticated apes, but we're apes all the same...
And indeed, to your emotional brain, this fleeting WSO represents survival or death. It's just like your caveman ancestor finding a great hunting grounds where the game is plentiful (but limited). Or figuring out a method for catching fish using half the effort and in half the time. I can just see the headlines now…
"Revealed! Grok Finds Breakthrough Fishing Method…Wife Quits Berry-Gathering Forever!
In this example, the emotional trigger at work is scarcity. When a resource is only available for a limited time (like wild buffalo that migrate seasonally), or in limited quantities (like fruits on a tree), your emotional brain impels you to act immediately before the resource disappears. Because when every day is a fight for survival, missing an opportunity to eat or mate can mean death to you and to your species. (Heavy, isn't it?)
Back then, this emotional response was very appropriate and useful. These days it's a bit outdated, but it's still there…so learn to harness it!
There are many psychological triggers. If you want to learn them all, I suggest you just read Robert Cialdini's book "Influence". It's basically the persuasion bible. Folks who swear by it include:
- marketers
- sales people
- pick up artists
- executives
- negotiators
- …and others
2 more triggers you MUST grasp and systematically implement in your consultations are social proof and authority.
Since you just read an eyeful about scarcity, I'll only touch on these briefly (I may address them in full in another post, let me know if you'd like me to do that in the comments section).
Social Proof
Why does every sales page have testimonials in it? And why does every sales page that doesn't have testimonials in it barely convert? Because if enough other people agree that a thing is 'good', your emotional brain tells you that thing must indeed be good! (otherwise, why would so many people dig it?)
Yes, it's a little group-thinky, but it's an evolutionary shortcut that dates back from a time when your ancestors lived in small tribes of 100 or so people.
For instance, if your fellow tribe members found that chewing a certain root helped them stay sharper and calmer while hunting, you'd probably want to start chewing the root too. You DO want to survive to the ripe old age of 27, don't you…???
So it's incredibly important to show to clients that OTHER people like your work and recommend it. Hence the utility of portfolios, testimonials and reviews.
Authority
Humans are hierarchical animals. So our natural tendency is to listen to and follow the leader. He's the authority.
So in dealing with your clients, you want to show both YOUR authority in your field, and demonstrate that other authorities in your field do business with you, like you and recommend you and your work.
This flips the "authority" trigger and emotionally incentivizes clients to do business with you. Cool, eh?
So to wrap up, let's look at a few practical examples of how to implement these psychological triggers ethically in your communications with clients and prospective clients.
Try to guess which emotional trigger each technique is designed to flip (scarcity - social proof - authority)...
- Inform your prospective client that another client is vying for your business at the moment, and willing to pay handsomely for it.
- Let your client know that you typically charge $597 for this service but for various reasons (they have to be real!), you can reduce your fee to $497 if they book you now.
- Casually link to your work with a previous client, who is an authority in their niche.
- Link to your Warrior Forum thread, which is full of reviews, testimonials and endorsements (hopefully).
- Send your clients your affiliate link for a product they need and explain how you've used it to make other clients money and how they loved it
1. Your reasons need to be real
2. You must be authentic
Just remember, using a bunch of weird pickup techniques won't get you anywhere with women and likewise, using a bunch of weird sales techniques won't get you anywhere with clients.
You've got to be genuine and honest. But once you've understood these principles, and more importantly - put them into practice, you're going to see a dramatic rise in your business. That's just how it goes.
I now make a good living by offering services right here on the Warrior Forum and I wish somebody had told me this stuff when I started my IM journey (like I would have listened!)
If it helps you, post these psychological triggers on little post-it notes above your computer screen so you remember to utilize them as often as possible (within reason and good taste). Otherwise, you'll be doing a huge disservice to your clients, your potential clients and yourself.
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