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Three weird and wonderful little quirks
of human nature that can make you
richer than Midas in 2009 …
Dear Web Business-Builder,
Marketing smart is about leverage … amplifying the power of your sales message by orders of magnitude. One of the best ways to do that is by harnessing the forces of human nature.
Allow me to explain …
All of us have built-in biases that make us behave in predictable ways that are almost automatic. The most powerful of these biases are part of our survival program. They are like perceptual filters through which your sales message must pass.
Some of them are basic, instinctual, built right into our DNA. Others are more complex, the result of social conditioning. Most of them are counter-intuitive.
By tuning your sales message to a pitch that’s in harmony with these perceptual filters you can take the path of least resistance toward the sale. Your promises of a proven path towards increased pleasure and decreased pain for your prospect can be amplified. And you can easily create a greater sense of belief in your product claims and heightened desire for your product.
Here are three weird and wonderful little quirks of human nature for you to consider …
Substance over abstraction: Tell a Canadian three vivid stories about Chinese people eating cats and chances are he will believe that most Chinese people eat cats. Show him facts and figures to the contrary and he will still believe it. Why?
Because he can’t see those facts and figures as anything real in his mind’s eye. But he can see those people eating those cats.
Emotional impact trumps statistical evidence every time. We are hard-wired to pay attention to things we can experience through our senses. That’s how our ancestors sensed danger and opportunity, and stayed alive. Our powerful imaginations then allowed us to recreate those experiences in our memories for future reference.
If you want to convince somebody of something, make them experience the reality of that something in their imagination first. Backing it up with raw facts and figures is important, but secondary.
Have you ever heard a smoker defend their behavior by saying their grandfather smoked a pack a day … lived to the ripe old age of ninety … and was never sick a day in his life? Same pretzel logic isn’t it?
Despite mountains of evidence that smoking kills hundreds of thousands of people each year, the fact that one single solitary person known by this individual to have survived until age 90 says smoking is harmless.
Use vivid mental imagery to get people to imagine something in their mind’s eye, and they’re much more likely to believe it.
Show them a vivid parade of horrifying alternatives and they will go out of their way to buy your product to protect themselves from those outcomes … regardless of how statistically unlikely.
Show them vibrant new worlds of pleasure as a result of owning your product and they will believe in that vision … no matter how fanciful.
Monkey see, monkey do: Human beings are natural born imitators. Our ability to emulate others is one of our greatest strengths.
Not only did mimicry facilitate learning and progress in primeval times, it allowed an individual to increase his or her odds of self-preservation in a crisis.
When fleeing a predator, all members of the tribe instinctively moved to the center of the group, thereby increasing their chances of survival. Conformity of behavior perpetuated the species.
It was also necessary for the evolution of society and more complex hierarchies of authority. Remember, democracy, equality, and freedom of thought, are very new ideas in human history.
A great many of our cultural institutions were originally designed from the ground up to impose conformity and grease the wheels of authoritarian rule. As a small child you learned to line up in single file, to dress in a certain way, to sing the same songs and say the same prayers as everybody else … and basically “go along to get along” — or suffer the consequences.
All of this conditioning creates enormous pressure to follow the crowd without critically examining where the crowd might be headed. And so beliefs tend to spread like viruses among people. The probability of an idea spreading actually increases in direct proportion to the number of people infected.
Think for a moment about one of your beliefs. Maybe you believe air travel is safer than driving a car. Chances are you’ve come to believe it simply because you’ve heard it repeatedly from different sources. How much critical thought have you invested in your belief?
Interestingly, we often don’t realize how powerfully we’re swayed by this “follow the leader” syndrome. I’m willing to bet that before you undertook that little exercise you considered yourself above it.
That’s why characterizing your prospect as a ruggedly independent thinker — immune to “herd think” — is a very powerful selling technique indeed.
If you can position your prospect as a renegade, and your product as a symbol of that individualism, it can form a powerful buying motive.
Just be sure and let your prospect know there are other people who feel the same way.
No absolutes: The human mind operates in relative terms. Without comparison and contrast, there is no meaning.
In the dark and dangerous rain forests and caves of pre-history our forefathers were on constant watch for the tiniest little contrast in their surroundings that signaled potential danger. Everything was suspect until it could be compared with something known to be harmless.
All human cognition and decision making begins with an implicit point of reference.
That point of reference acts like an anchor against which all other thoughts required to form an opinion or make a new decision are compared and contrasted.
To be rich has far more meaning to someone who’s been poor. We don’t really appreciate our health until we get sick. And we don’t know how much we love someone until they’re gone.
Think about this for a minute: What if I were to ask you: “Do you believe the average Canadian earns more or less than $25,000 a year?” And then, after receiving your answer – yes or no – I were to ask you, “Well how much do you think the average Canadian actually earns in a year?”
If you don’t already know the answer to either of these questions, you’ll probably consider what you know of life in Canada, compare that to the standard of living in your own country, and perhaps make a quick currency adjustment to come up with your answers.
Now, what if I were to rephrase the first question slightly? What if I were to ask you whether you believed the average Canadian earned more or less than $50,000 a year? Would it alter your opinion of what the actual average Canadian income might be? It probably would. In all likelihood, your estimate would be higher.
Why?
By giving your mind a different anchor to latch onto, I am in effect leading you to a different conclusion.
Do you see the enormous application this has to persuasion?
You can influence a person’s beliefs indirectly and imperceptibly, simply by switching their point of reference. You have a great deal of control over the things that person compares and contrasts against when considering your sales proposition.
You can increase your prospects appreciation of your solution by magnifying the problem.
You can increase their perception of value by comparing your price with trivial items and contrasting it with those that are significant.
And you can lead them to associate positive, desirable emotions with the purchase of your product or service.
Human beings are defenseless against this.
For proof … check out this amazing optical illusion that will have you scratching your head in disbelief. It’s an image of a chess board with an object casting a shadow over some of the squares.
Watch how your natural compulsion to compare and contrast plays tricks with your perception of reality. Go ahead, take a look. It will blow your mind.
Until next time, Good Selling!
Daniel Levis
Editor, The Web Marketing Advisor
THE TOTAL PACKAGE
Daniel Levis is a top marketing consultant & direct response copywriter based in Toronto, Canada and publisher of the world famous copywriting anthology Masters of Copywriting featuring the selling wisdom of 44 of the “Top Money” marketing minds of all time, including Clayton Makepeace, Dan Kennedy, Joe Sugarman, John Carlton, Joe Vitale, Michel Fortin, Richard Armstrong and dozens more! For a FREE excerpt visit http://www.SellingtoHumanNature.com.
He is also one of the leading Web conversion experts operating online today, and originator of the 5R System (TM), a strategic process for engineering enhanced Internet profits. For a free overview of Daniel’s system, click here.
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15 Comments »
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Let us know what you think. Or ask us anything. Or offer your own sage advice.
The only rule: RESPECT THIS HOUSE! Postings that contain abusive language and/or personal attacks will be cheerfully VAPORIZED. One cross word and – POOF! – your well-thought-out post will be gone in a puff of smoke.
– Clayton
Comment by Caleb Osborne — January 14, 2009 @ 11:11 am
I loved this part Daniel:
Because it’s a little funny that you’re convincing them of their indviduality, their renegade’ness… and then you’re telling them “it’s ok to feel that way because other people are too!
Haha.
Great post!
Caleb
Comment by Katie Langston - Small Business Marketing Wizard — January 14, 2009 @ 11:47 am
Holy crap! That optical illusion blows my mind.
Really love this post–as I do most of your posts, Daniel.
The truth is, cold, hard facts are the LEAST likely to persuade. Emotional and psychological appeals are far more effective. Reserve logic for AFTER they’ve already made up their mind they want what you’re selling–to reinforce that they’ve made the right decision and cut down on buyer’s remorse.
Comment by Sarah clachar — January 14, 2009 @ 1:44 pm
Wow, Daniel.
Great post. We like to think we’ve evolved so much - when we still operate like our ancestors did.
Much to think about - much to put to good use.
Sarah Clachar
health copywriter
http://www.healthwriterclachar.com
Comment by Doug Firebaugh — January 14, 2009 @ 3:25 pm
Daniel- great post. I read just about everything you write as it is so amazing. Thanks for pouring into us all. Lots of wisdom here-especially with the “monkey see-monkey do.” amen! Look forward to your next gem.
Comment by Susan — January 14, 2009 @ 3:29 pm
Well, after viweing the first image, I went on to view another and I’m pretty much brained up on both sides apparently! lol
Great post Daniel. Found it especially relevant as I just watched Derren Brown on TV last night. Now there’s a guy who takes the art of ’suggestion’ to a whole new level, and even though you know what he’s doing, you’re still sucked in to believing it.
Susan
Comment by james abugah — January 14, 2009 @ 11:05 pm
Hi Daniel.
This is great stuff.
I have just discovered one more way to write a more powerful copy by influencing belief.
Thanks.
James Abugah
Nairobi
Kenya
Comment by Valerie — January 14, 2009 @ 11:16 pm
Great writeup on our human quirks. I had to use the IE Developer Toolbar Color Picker to confirm that the colors were the same. I still am having a hard time believing it!
Comment by Dean Kennedy — January 15, 2009 @ 7:48 am
Terrific insights, thanks for sharing. The chess board really had me perplexed … I had to view it in Photoshop to really believe what I was seeing!
I particularly love the “renegade” positioning that you mention in this article too — thanks!
Comment by Dan — January 15, 2009 @ 9:28 am
Daniel,
Sweet post.
I really liked the first part because yesterday I was reading… or in my case listening to “Made to Stick.”
If you have not read that book… read it multiple times.
They were talking about concreteness. Which is the same thing as making your idea tangible to the prospect.
That is so important and something I know I always mess up on. Just because I can see my idea in my head doesn’t mean the prospect can.
That also leads to comparing because you can compare to make things incredibly concrete.
Great post!
Comment by shanda — January 15, 2009 @ 5:10 pm
I agree with Caleb. The part about positioning your prospect as a renegade is absolute brilliance! Thanks Daniel… you rock!!
~Shanda
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Comment by Natalja Millsap — January 18, 2009 @ 4:50 pm
Awesome article.As a new business owner I have a lot to learn.
Natalja
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Comment by Nicholas — January 22, 2009 @ 8:35 am
Great stuff Daniel!
Split testing should now become extremely interesting to me!
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